PLEA2009 - The 26th Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Québec City, Canada, 22 - 24 June 2009 New Expectations in Delivering Sustainable Buildings From occupant to inhabitant ZOSIA BROWN 1 , RAYMOND J COLE 2 , MEG O’SHEA 1 , JOHN ROBINSON 1 1 Institutute or Resources, Environment & Sustainability, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada 2 School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada ABSTRACT: This paper examines a shift from viewing building ‘occupants’ as passive recipients of pre-determined comfort conditions to ‘inhabitants’ who may play an active role in the maintenance and performance of their buildings. These are examined using the three major principles that frame the design of the UBC Center for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) currently under construction - the desire to be Green, Humane and Smart. Moving beyond the proposed reframing of comfort and comfort provisioning, the paper explores the potential ways and extent that these guiding principles and goals have shaped the physical design of CIRS but also have substantially influenced the building process, the social and economic context of CIRS and UBC and moved all those involved in the CIRS process from being occupants of yet another building project to being inhabitants of a regenerative innovation for sustainability. INTRODUCTION Conventional approaches to comfort assume that ‘occupants’ are passive recipients of indoor conditions that are maintained within narrowly defined margins by automated, centralized systems. Building performance in conventional buildings is often invisible to the end-user who in turn is given little opportunity to control or provide feedback on their experience of the indoor environment. Sustainable buildings aspire to far superior environmental performance compared to their conventional counterparts, many relying on natural conditioning (e.g., thermal mass, passive solar heating, natural ventilation, daylighting) to meet comfort needs of users. Interior conditions are more closely linked to daily and seasonal variations in conditions outside, and building inhabitants are more directly involved with building systems and operation by opening and closing windows, blinds, switches and other accessible manual controls. The indoor environment can be considered a creative achievement shaped by the interaction of building inhabitants with control systems in response to changing external conditions and the changing needs of inhabitants. This process has been described as “interactive adaptivity” [1] and refers to the ongoing, bi- directional dialogue between building and users in which the outcome is not predetermined by building design parameters or performance metrics, but is rather an evolving practice that takes into account dynamic and participatory aspects of building occupancy. Here building inhabitants (as opposed to occupants) play an active role in the maintenance and performance of their buildings. The extent to which shifting from the notion of 'occupant' to 'inhabitant' shapes the design and delivery of sustainable building becomes a focal point for this paper, examined through the lens of the Center for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) project. From the outset, the design of CIRS—anticipated to be completed by late 2010—has been guided by the desire to be Green, Humane and Smart. These overarching notions have defined a set of specific performance goals. This paper will explore the potential ways and extent that these guiding principles and goals have shaped the design of CIRS and the subsequent direct and indirect consequences for the anticipated building inhabitants. Moreover, since CIRS aims to be highly replicable, the paper will identify the extent to which these approaches are different from conventional practice and transferable to other situations and building projects. Although the CIRS program extends beyond sustainable building technologies and practices, this paper focuses on the building design and implementation.