FW-HTF-P: WORK WELL: Understanding the interrelationships between humans and technology to improve the quality of work life in smart buildings

人类建造建筑物主要是为了保护自己不受环境压力的影响。许多人每周工作5天，每天有三分之一的时间在建筑物内工作，这些建筑物在提供优化和可控的室内环境方面变得越来越复杂和技术先进。虽然这些“智能建筑”可能是节能的，但人们对这些建筑对在高度自动化和技术控制的环境中工作的个人的身体、心理、情感和精神健康的影响知之甚少。该项目汇集了一个多学科的研究团队，将不同的研究集中在一个单一的综合战略中，以将在多个变量(如能效、维护、噪音水平、照明类型和水平、空气质量、温度、湿度和空气流动)下测量的建筑性能与这些建筑中个人的健康、幸福感和工作场所满意度相关联。该项目的结果将是一条新的、全面的调查路线，全面探索这些不同方面之间的相互作用，以改善建筑的设计和功能，为居住者的健康和福祉服务。研究将集中在高性能建筑中的工作场所，这些建筑具有“紧密”的建筑围护结构，以及高度自动化的供暖、空调和照明系统。这些办公室和整个建筑物的可量化性能将从建筑物的能源计量中获得，以确定能源使用强度(EUI)，以便在不同结构之间进行比较。对建筑围护结构的详细分析将产生一种通用方法，以比较研究中每个办公室的建筑效率。为了获得更详细和具体的当地数据，将在每个主题建筑的办公室和不同位置放置传感器，以系统地捕获噪音、空气质量、温度、湿度、光线、空气速度和空气中的化合物。环境数据将通过访问安装在每栋建筑外的区域天气记录和传感器来获取。将通过可穿戴式生物传感器获得建筑物个别居住者的可直接测量的身体健康数据，而工作场所满意度的定性信息将通过一系列入驻后评估获得。系统地收集和分析多个因素的数据将揭示建筑性能和居住者福祉之间不可预见的相互作用或意外后果，并将导致新的发现和建议的干预措施，以提高建筑性能和在这些高性能环境中工作的人的满意度。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Humans construct buildings primarily to protect themselves from environmental forces. Many people spend 1/3 of the day for 5 days a week at work in buildings and these buildings have become increasingly more sophisticated and technologically advanced in providing optimized and controlled indoor environments. While these “Smart Buildings” may be energy efficient, little is known about the impact such buildings have on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health of the individuals who work in highly automated and technically-controlled environments. This project assembles a multidisciplinary team of researchers that converges disparate research in a single, comprehensive strategy to correlate building performance measured across multiple variables, such as energy efficiency, maintenance, noise levels, lighting types and levels, air quality, temperature, humidity and air movement against the health, well-being, and workplace satisfaction of the individuals in those buildings. The outcome of the project will be new, comprehensive lines of inquiry that holistically explore the interactions between these various aspects in order to improve the design and functionality of buildings in service to the health and wellbeing of the people who occupy them.The research will focus on workplaces in high-performing buildings that have “tight” building enclosures and highly automated heating, air conditioning, and lighting systems. The quantifiable performance of these offices and of the buildings as a whole, will be obtained from the energy metering of the buildings to determine the Energy Use Intensity (EUI) for comparison across structures. Detailed analysis of the building envelopes will yield a common method to compare the efficiency of building construction for each office under study. To obtain more detailed and specific local data, sensors will be placed within offices and various locations in each of the subject buildings to systematically capture noise, air quality, temperature, humidity, light, air velocity and airborne compounds. Environmental data will be captured by accessing regional weather records and sensors installed outside each of the buildings. Directly measurable physical health data from individual occupants of the buildings will be obtained through wearable biosensors, while qualitative information about workplace satisfaction will be obtained through a series of post-occupancy-evaluations. The systematic collection and analysis of data across multiple factors will reveal unforeseen interactions or unintended consequences between building performance and occupant well-being and will lead to new findings and proposed interventions to improve both the performance of buildings and the satisfaction of the people working in these high-performing environments.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.