Human comfort in buildings: international e-conferences by EPF

Organised by EPF, a general engineering school, this conference is the first edition of a series of international scientific conferences devoted to the field of well-being and comfort in urban environments and housing.

This conference will act as an ideal platform for interdisciplinary exchange between scientists and professionals alike. It will include the presentation of research and experiments with the aim of forming transversal collaborations around new and innovative approaches and uses.

This first conference will focus on the overall comfort of a building’s occupants, encompassing the thermal, mechanical, acoustic, sanitary and visual dimensions. A significant amount of research has focused on one single dimension of comfort, but far fewer studies have addressed several or all of these aspects to gain a better understanding of the well-being of a building’s – or a city’s - users.

Housing is currently being remodelled to face the challenges of the energy transition, and home automation is becoming more widespread. It is therefore important to start thinking globally about the multidimensional approaches individual well-being in the home, in order to better integrate these approaches, starting from the design of the building.

Finally, weather conditions are changing because of climate change. This aspect must be taken into account as the new constraints are having an impact on the comfort and safety of users.

These major challenges will be tackled in order to bring them into discussions surrounding the overall comfort of people.

Keynote speakers:

• Monika Rychtarikova (Professor at the Faculty of Architecture of KU Leuven, graduate of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of Bratislava, winner of the Best Slovak Scientist of 2015, comfort and acoustic environment.)
• Laudati Patrizia, (Assistant Director at the De Visu laboratory, CA team, specialist in information and communication sciences and urban engineering, information and communication sciences);
• Vischal Garg (Professor at the Center for IT in Building Science, International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad, India, thermal and visual comfort);
• Stéphanie Lisy-Destrez (Associate professor at ISAE Toulouse, specialist of confined spaces in space vessels).

Information about the Paper Call

A competition will reward the best research. The prizes will be set as follows: €1,500 (1st prize), €1,000 (2nd) and €500 (3rd) for all researchers, and 4 prizes of €500 specially for doctoral students in order to acknowledge the work of young researchers.

The best papers will also be selected and recommended for possible publication in the “International Journal of Energy, Environment and Economics”.

The call for papers will be open from 5 November to end of December. The best papers will be rewarded. A special prize will also be awarded to doctoral student projects.