ETHOS Lab hosts International Energy Agency expert meeting

Our lab had the pleasure of hosting 90 in-person participants and 100 online participants in a hybrid meeting as part of the International Energy Agency's Human-Centric Buildings Network, also known as the Energy in Buildings and Communities Annex 95 and Users Task Human-Centric Buildings for a Changing Climate. The international working group aims to develop new knowledge, tools, and technologies to address the evolving role of humans in buildings (occupants, building operators, and other stakeholders) in the energy transition to address climate change. As building envelopes and mechanical and electrical equipment become more efficient, the influence of people on building energy consumption becomes increasingly significant — from everyday behaviors and purchasing decisions to how they act within buildings, interact with each other, cope, and survive during extreme events. The energy transition is not solely about the building inhabitants; it will also impact every stakeholder involved in the building's life cycle, from designers to operators.

Within the HCB Network, the ETHOS Lab is contributing to activities on:

• Defining and identifying community-scale sufficiency and equity factors in the built environment
• Establishing principles for human-centric design and retrofit in the context of a changing climate
• Effective space management in building operation

The HCB experts' meeting was co-located with the CISBAT Conference, which was held September 3-5 in at EPFL.