As a hurricane barrels up the East Coast, people wonder how they’re going to build or retrofit houses, apartments, and communities to keep up with the more intense rainstorms, flooding, and higher winds brought about by climate change.
As extreme heat comes to the Pacific Northwest, a community struggles with opening cooling shelters amid wildfires and a viral pandemic. How will they circulate air so people don’t get sick there?
As people and communities come to terms and begin adapting to extreme weather and climate change, researchers are working to better understand and enhance the relationship between humans and buildings in the context of climate change and the energy transition.
Julia Day, associate professor in the School of Design and Construction, is co-leading an international research network that is studying building design, operation, and energy use to ensure that buildings are resilient, energy efficient, and comfortable as climate change intensifies.
“The energy transition isn’t just about technology — it’s about people,” she said. “It calls for placing people at the core of building solutions.”
The five-year research network that Day is leading is through the International Energy Agency (IEA), an autonomous intergovernmental organization that provides policy recommendations and analysis on a wide variety of energy issues. The agency, which began in response to the 1973 oil crisis, includes 31 member countries worldwide and 13 associated countries. The research group headed by Day recently held their first meeting in Spain in November.
As buildings become more efficient, the behavior and actions of occupants play an increasingly important role in building energy performance and comfort, but this relationship is changing with the climate change.
“There is still a lot of fundamental research that is needed in looking at individual behaviors and how people interact with their buildings as well as in how communities behave and interact with their built environments,” said Day, who directs WSU’s Integrated Design and Construction Laboratory. “It gets even more complicated if you throw in things like hurricanes or something like the crazy dust storm that we recently had on the Palouse.”
Continued research on policies around building codes and the energy transition is important because future housing and energy policies need to consider the many complexities in how policies might affect different types of people living in vastly different circumstances.
“I believe more research needs to be done in order to understand what’s actually happening before we build policies that can lead to unintended consequences,” said Day. “There needs to be more qualitative and quantitative research, as well as more perspectives from different types of people across different types of disciplines.”
There needs to be more qualitative and quantitative research, as well as more perspectives from different types of people across different types of disciplines.Julia Day, associate professor
WSU School of Design and Construction
The IEA research network aims to study solutions in climate change adaptation, developing buildings that can adapt to future climate while also providing comfort and energy efficiency. The network will also focus on human-centered design, exploring how people interact with buildings and developing design strategies that enhance human wellbeing in both normal and extreme conditions. In addition, the researchers will investigate how people adopt and adapt to new energy technologies and behaviors in their buildings. They also will study how occupants’ behaviors impact energy use and indoor comfort, particularly in response to climate-induced extreme events.
The research group prepares reports and submits proposals every six months to an executive committee of the IEA that includes representation from all the member countries. The committee then votes on the proposals. The work produced can range from research papers and best practices guides to educational YouTube webinars.
“There is a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of how we’re designing and operating buildings under both normal conditions and under extreme conditions — because people’s behavior changes under different conditions and different contexts,” said Day. “I think it’s really critical to do this kind of work, so that we can best prepare ourselves for the extreme events that are going to happen.”
The international group’s spring meet is planned for WSU Spokane, with the aim of incorporating discussion of health aspects of the built environment. More information and how to get involved can be found online.