Smart Homes or Smart Occupants? Reframing Computational Design Models for the Green Home

A sustainable home is more than a green building: it is also a living experience that encourages occupants to use fewer resources more effectively. Research has shown that small changes in behaviour in how we use our homes can result in substantial energy and water savings. The design dialogue in the development of efficient buildings has largely focused on energy use simulations, smart automation of the building systems and components for optimal performance rather than on effectively supporting how people use them. In this paper we propose that the challenge to computationally supporting sustainable home design lies in integrating more informative models of occupant behaviour and suggest three foci for developing these models drawn from case studies in sustainable home systems design.

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