Human-Building Interaction

This unique book advances the emerging field of human-building interaction (HBI), which examines how people experience, influence, and co-evolve with the buildings they inhabit. Moving beyond conventional notions of building performance and environmental control, the volume highlights HBI as a human-centred, interdisciplinary framework for designing responsive, equitable, and sustainable built environments. It positions HBI as a vital transdisciplinary field for addressing twenty-first-century challenges related to climate resilience, human wellbeing, and technological change.

Organised into three parts, the book first explores “Built Environments for Health and Wellbeing,” investigating how spatial, material, and digital conditions affect comfort, inclusivity, and everyday experiences. The second part, “Built Environments for Climate Action,” examines adaptive and resilient infrastructures that respond to climate imperatives—from thermally comfortable public spaces to climate-positive mega-events and AI-mediated community engagement. The final part, “Built Environments for Desirable Futures,” looks ahead to emergent design paradigms, workplace transformations, and intelligent environments that integrate ecological, social, and technological dimensions. Across twelve chapters, contributors present original empirical research, conceptual frameworks, and design experiments that demonstrate how HBI can shape future-ready built environments. Case studies span diverse contexts—from Nordic Superblocks and Olympic stadia to post-occupancy workplaces and extended-reality archives—showcasing the breadth of HBI’s applications and its relevance to both research and practice.

An invaluable collection, the book brings together contributions from international scholars and practitioners working at the intersection of architecture, building science, and interaction design. It offers valuable insights for architects, designers, engineers, urban planners, and human-computer interaction researchers seeking to understand and design for the complex relationships between people, technology, and the built world.