Introduction

Now, more than ever, buildings represent the predominant habitat for the majority of humans, with many sources indicating that we spend 90% of our time in them. Ultimately, buildings provide shelter from the outdoor environment, security, and a wide variety of services. Moreover, buildings have been scientifically proven to have a profound impact on occupant health, well-being, and productivity. It would therefore be reasonable to assume that occupants are central to the design process and the design meetings between the numerous parties involved in carrying through a building from conception to operation. Surprisingly, this is generally not the case and occupants tend to be discussed in indirect and implicit ways—particularly in performance-based design. This chapter introduces the major challenges of the field and structures the book. The book starts with fundamentals of indoor environmental quality, design processes, and incorporation of occupant data into the design process. Next, occupant modeling and simulation to support the design process are discussed. Two related topics—building interfaces and building controls—and their importance as part of design are discussed and demonstrated. Finally, the book transitions into applications, with a focus on detailed case studies to illustrate the application of theory to practice in occupant-centric design.