“Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.
– Wernher von Braun
About 40% of global energy demand and a similar fraction of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be contributed to the built environment. While over the past decade, the efficiency of individual building systems (HVAC) has increased, no significant reduction of GHG emissions has been observed. Reasons for this are
- Rebound: Efficiency gains are compensated by a change of the occupant’s behavior
- Performance Gap: It is impossible to predict and design building systems in advance due to the large number of unknowns
Therefore, IEL focuses on approaches that allow for resilience and adaptation in the operational phase of buildings. We integrate
- Architectural design,
- HVAC design,
- Renewable energy systems
- Wireless environmental monitoring
- Control systems and Robotics
- Data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence
- Comfort and impact of occupants
in our research and innovate at the intersection of these areas.
In essence, we are reinventing the built environment such that it adapts to the occupants and varying internal and external influences.
