Exploring the Potentials of ICT Tools for Human-Centric Regenerative Design

Abstract

Aiming for sustainable buildings and cities is critical to achieving a future that is socially just, ecologically regenerative, culturally rich, and economically viable. However, our current concepts of sustainability often exclude the essential domains of data, information, and the knowledge relating to the relationship between buildings and people that inhabit them. Thus, the research questions at the core of this paper have been as follows: Can technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) be used to create systems that enhance relationships between buildings and inhabitants? Can social networks and natural interactions support further research relating to human-centric design tools for the built environment? The Human Observation Meta-Environment (HOME) project was developed to address this question. The ICT architecture has been tested to observe and collect human behaviour data within a sentient room at the Politecnico di Torino (IT), where the inhabitants were strategically aware of their behaviours. Methods of analysis included technologies related to the domain of AI (such as Natural Language Analysis, Computer Vision, Machine Learning and Deep Learning) that have been used in social network analysis in connection with the word 'comfort', and definitions resonate strongly with the realm of regenerative design. Results were used to further research the role of users that could serve as leverages to design (both spaces and related smart systems) according to actual user needs. People from very different disciplinary backgrounds interacted with the prototype in a workshop and provided stimuli for further considerations regarding the possible technological, psychological, cognitive, cultural, social, political, and aesthetical impacts of the use of these technologies inside sentient buildings. The paper enriches the discourse on how ICT data can be organised and read in a human-centric regenerative design process perspective.

About the Triggering of UN Sustainable Development Goals and Regenerative Sustainability in Higher Education

“…Further sustainability definitions stated that sustainability should be intended as a dynamic equilibrium within humans and ecosystem [13,14]. The regenerative paradigm pushes forward the positive balance, aiming for restoring environments and communities, and to enable conditions for regenerative growth [15][16][17], and sustainability efficiency [18]. In this paradigm shift, Figure 1, not only technological solutions, but also humanistic and ecological values are embraced [19,20].…”

“…The path from EGO to ECO to SEVA begins by stepping up from our EGO dimension, realizing the connectedness of all ECO spheres, arriving to a SEVA position for a life on earth via a regenerative approach. The regenerative sustainability shift therefore requires a radical turn of our worldview, from a mechanistic to ecological one [15].…”

Sustainable Urban Agriculture as Functional Hybrid Unit—Issues of Urban Resilience

“…Analysis of the existing condition, forecasting, and optimization, as well as implementation of solutions constitute the multicriteria model for urban space and urban environment design, with the use of new information techniques and methods for shaping the urban ecosystem [55,60,61].…”

Towards data-driven sustainable design: decision support based on knowledge discovery in disparate building data

“…Furthermore, Kocaturk (2017) underlines the important role that technology plays in transforming the understanding of sustainability as a concept in the built environment, by enabling design innovation at product, process and operational levels. Sonetti et al (2018) further highlight the potential of artificial intelligence and ICT tools for human-centric regenerative design. Building performance, on the other hand, besides being a criterion itself, is an outcome of a multidisciplinary set of multiple-criteria design decisions (Jalaei, et al, 2015).…”