EOTD Living Lab: Research Studio 2022

Climate change requires buildings to be more adaptable, which creates a need of dynamic systems. Designing operable envelopes with reusable or compostable building materials can increase the adaptive capacity of the buildings. The EOTD living lab aims on improving the adaptive capacity of buildings while decreasing the carbon footprint and increasing human centric control.

The living lab is set within the original footprint of the building, with some changes in the organization and some additional programs. The first 2 floors are dedicated to the research lab, dining hall, seminar rooms and offices. While the upper floors are for the apartments. The apartment floors now, also contain lounges, study pods and terraces which were not present originally. These spaces, along with enhancing the student experience, also give an opportunity to test different type of spaces which will be beneficial for the living lab. The lounges, apart from being a leisure space, also act as the “material wardrobe” for the building.

This user interface is embedded in Penn Mobile application. Every occupant lives in EOTD living lab will have a control panel to help them make decisions on their envelopes based on their feelings. Suggestions contains how to operate the specific envelope, what materials are suggested to be changed, where to put those materials, as well as the availability of them. On the other hand, this control panel also collects feedbacks of user experience for researchers to analyze how the envelope works and if there is an overall improvement needed.