Advancing Human-Centric Building Design: ICE Lab at CISBAT 2025
© 2025 Photo by Fariza Sabit
This past September 3-5, two researchers from the Laboratory of Integrated Comfort Engineering (ICE) presented their work at the CISBAT 2025 conference in Lausanne, pushing the boundaries of human-centric building design. Their research offers key insights into the dynamic relationship between our bodies, our brains, and the environments we inhabit.
Beyond the Thermometer: A New View on Thermal Sensation
Jaafar presented his research, "Beyond skin temperature: Body heat generation and dissipation as predictors for local thermal sensation," challenging the conventional approach to measuring thermal comfort. Rather than relying on skin temperature, an output of thermoregulation, his work explores heat flux and energy expenditure as more direct and fundamental predictors of how we perceive temperature.
This approach revealed that these new physiological parameters are just as effective as skin temperature in predicting local thermal sensation across most of the studied 16 body regions. The key takeaway, however, lies in their advantages: potentially enhanced interpretability and higher consistency across individuals. This breakthrough is crucial for developing personalized thermal sensation models that can pave the way for smarter, more responsive, and more energy-efficient buildings.
The Thinking Body: How Cognitive Load Affects Metabolism
Fariza presented her study, "Metabolic variation without movement: The role of cognitive load," which dives into the fascinating connection between mental effort and energy expenditure. The brain, our most energy-hungry organ, demands a significant amount of our body's energy. Her work investigates how this cognitive load can cause measurable metabolic fluctuations even when we're sitting still.
The research demonstrated that a state of high alertness can act as a real-time proxy for metabolic activity, a finding with profound implications for indoor environmental models. This innovative perspective lays the groundwork for cognitive load-adjusted energy expenditure models. These models will enable engineers to design environments that not only account for physical comfort but also dynamically respond to our mental state, leading to improved cognitive function and a new level of building efficiency.
The enthusiastic reception from the civil engineering community at CISBAT underscores a powerful message: the future of sustainable architecture is deeply intertwined with a more nuanced understanding of human biology.
