Occupant-in-the-loop: VR as pre-occupancy evaluation tools for climate adaptive design practices

Overview

Ongoing global warming, compounded by local overheating in cities and buildings, poses growing risks to occupant health, comfort, and well-being. Conventional design approaches rely heavily on predictive simulation, where occupant preferences and adaptive responses are typically simplified through assumptions based on average populations. This overlooks substantial individual differences in perception and behaviour, contributing to persistent gaps between predicted and actual building performance beyond simply energy performance. Although virtual reality (VR) is increasingly recognised as a promising tool for pre-occupancy evaluation of design scenarios, the integration of multisensory VR, particularly thermal stimuli, with building performance simulation and practical design workflows remains underdeveloped.

This PhD project aims to develop and validate an occupant-in-the-loop multisensory VR framework for pre-occupancy evaluation in climate-adaptive design practice. The project will investigate how immersive simulation can capture occupants’ perceptual and behavioural responses to alternative design scenarios before implementation, and how such evidence can support the design of buildings that better enable occupant adaptation and resilience under rising overheating conditions.

Research activities

As part of this project, you will:

• lead the development of a position paper on occupant-in-the-loop VR for pre-occupancy evaluation in climate-adaptive design practice within the IEA Annex 95 Human-Centric Buildings network
• design, develop, and validate a multisensory VR platform for capturing future occupants’ perceptual and behavioural responses to alternative design scenarios
• establish an occupant-in-the-loop framework and workflow for integrating VR-based pre-occupancy evaluation into climate-adaptive design practice.

Outcomes

The project will generate:

• new knowledge on occupant perceptual and behavioural adaptation to overheating across simulated design conditions
• a validated multisensory VR-based pre-occupancy evaluation method for climate-adaptive design
• an occupant-in-the-loop design framework linking immersive evaluation with performance-based workflows
• evidence-based design principles for supporting occupant adaptation, thermal resilience, and well-being in a warming climate.

Skills and experience

Applicants should have a strong background in climate-responsive architectural design, building science, environmental design, architectural science, or a related field.

Relevant experience or aptitude in the following areas is desirable:

thermal comfort, occupant behaviour, building performance, or environmental quality research
• programming, VR development, computational design, or data processing;
  hands-on prototyping, environmental sensing, electronics, or laboratory instrumentation
• statistical, experimental, or data-driven research methods
• human-subject research involving surveys, experiments, behavioural observation, or comfort assessment.

The project involves both field and laboratory work, including the collection and analysis of human-related, environmental and behavioural data. Strong communication skills and the ability to work independently and collaboratively are expected.

Scholarships

You may be eligible to apply for a research scholarship.

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Keywords

• Thermal comfort
• Occupant behaviour
• Climate resilience
• Virtual reality
• Building performance simulation

Contact

Contact the supervisor for more information