Masters Conference by NCEUB



Home

Masters Conference

People & Buildings

Masters Conference 2025

Upcoming Event

MC2025

Masters Conference 2024

The Latest Event

MC2024

MC2025 Abstracts & Papers

Session 1: Various Themes on People and Buildings
Session 2: Urban microclimate; Building embodied energy; Building energy demand
Session 3: Assessing occupants wellbeing and comfort

Session 3: Assessing occupants wellbeing and comfort

Kintsugi: Repairing Gaps Within the Victorian Home, An Integration of Aesthetics and Performance

Ching-Tai Chang

This dissertation investigates how the philosophies of kintsugi and wabi-sabi can inform the retrofit of Victorian timber sash windows, proposing a repair ethos that integrates technical performance with aesthetic continuity. Six commercially available draughtproofing systems were evaluated using fan pressurisation (±50 Pa) and tracer gas decay to measure airtightness improvements, alongside participant-based aesthetic assessments. Air leakage reductions ranged from 6.2% to 42.8%, with E-profile seals achieving the highest improvement while maintaining high visual acceptability across diverse user sensibilities. A performance-aesthetic matrix was developed to assess the balance between efficiency and visual impact. The results demonstrate that interventions need not be concealed to be effective; when repairs are treated as visible, intentional acts of care, they can enrich rather than obscure architectural character. This study proposes a conservation model in which retrofit is not merely preservative but expressive—merging measurable energy performance with material storytelling to sustain the cultural and technical integrity of built heritage.

Keywords: Timber sash window, draughtproofing, aesthetics, heritage, repair.

– Theme: Assessing occupants wellbeing and comfort (post occupancy evaluation, indoor air quality, thermal, visual, acoustic, multimodal, mixed method) –

>> Read Full Paper Here <<

Post Occupancy Evaluation and Role of Biophilic Design in Enhancing Workplace Environments: A Comparative Study of Office Building in the UK and Indonesia

Muhammad Hero Umar Renaldi

Approximately 40% of employees’ waking hours are spent at work – majority of the time spent indoors – such as in UK. This underscores the critical role of physical workplace design in supporting wellbeing, comfort, work performance and productivity. While biophilic design has proven successful in improving psychological wellbeing and productivity by fostering a connection to nature within the built environment, no existing framework offers a specific method for evaluating biophilic features during the occupancy phase of an office building to validate user satisfaction or comfort. This paper addresses this gap by evaluating biophilic features and their relationship with perceived productivity in office settings, using Post Occupancy Evaluation as the assessment method. The study aims to assess the impact of biophilic elements on the perceived performance and productivity of office workers in Indonesia and the UK. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining quantitative and qualitative methods across six offices with biophilic design features located in city centers in the two countries. This research contributes new comparative case studies on biophilic design implementation and office workers experience in UK and Indonesian office environments which also identify potential design improvements in the case study buildings by evaluating office workers feedback on existing biophilic features.  

Keywords: Post Occupancy Evaluation, Biophilic Design, Perceived Productivity, Office Settings, Wellbeing. 

– Theme: Assessing occupants wellbeing and comfort (post occupancy evaluation, indoor air quality, thermal, visual, acoustic, multimodal, mixed method) –

>> Read Full Paper Here <<

Sentient Building

Hooi Foon Chung

This paper explores the extent to which a sentient building approach can address the energy and comfort challenges in office buildings. A sentient building enables interaction between humans and the built environment, helping to better understand and respond to comfort-related issues. The research was conducted in three parts; first a systematic literature review; followed by the development of a sentient building system; and the deployment of a pilot supported by IoT sensors collecting indoor environmental and occupants behaviour data. This prototype sentient building system was deployed across multiple online platforms and integrated into a single interface. Usability testing was then conducted to evaluate user–building interactions in an office setting. The key results of the study were the categorization of user interactions with a sentient building system and user acceptability of this system, building an initial system dynamic map. In conclusion, the development of a sentient building framework effectively contributes to addressing comfort challenges and enhancing user–building interaction.

Keywords: Sentient building, Indoor Comfort, IoT, System Dynamic.

– Theme: Assessing occupants wellbeing and comfort (post occupancy evaluation, indoor air quality, thermal, visual, acoustic, multimodal, mixed method) –

>> Read Full Paper Here <<

LSTM Forecasting of UCL Central House’s Office Temperature Using Real-Time BMS Data under Future Climate Conditions

Nakanya Nonthiworawong

This study aims to forecast future indoor thermal performance and evaluate the operational efficiency of the Building Management System (BMS) in UCL Central House (Bartlett Office). The research has two objectives: (1) to utilise real sensor data from the BMS to assess current performance and its practical use, and (2) to apply a multivariate Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) algorithm to forecast indoor thermal performance in 2030. Although the building was retrofitted in 2010, sensor data from 2023–2025 shows free-running indoor temperatures reaching up to 31°C—exceeding the 20–25°C range targeted during the retrofit, which remained consistent in 2017—suggesting overheating risk and retrofit performance gap. Frequent indoor 27°C peaks in summer 2025 also indicate the current setpoint policy may become ineffective. Due to incomplete architectural data, this study avoids physical energy modelling and instead uses LSTM trained on outdoor temperature, seasonality, and occupancy behaviour. As many UCL offices are in older buildings with poor thermal design, data-driven forecasting is essential. Predicting future thermal conditions enables proactive retrofit planning, helping reduce unexpected energy use and carbon emissions—supporting London’s Net Zero 2030 goal.

Keywords: Building Management System, Indoor Thermal Performance Forecasting, LSTM Deep Learning, Overheating Risk, Retrofit Performance Gap Assessment. 

– Theme: Assessing occupants wellbeing and comfort (post occupancy evaluation, indoor air quality, thermal, visual, acoustic, multimodal, mixed method) –

>> Read Full Paper Here <<
Back to top
Home
MC2025 Abstracts & Papers