| Project Detail |
Ageing population and indoor comfort challenges
Europe faces challenges due to its ageing population, energy shortages, and climate change. As the indoor comfort needs of elderly people increase while their physical abilities decline, buildings consume more energy, which impacts the environment. Current indoor comfort standards primarily cater to younger, healthier individuals, overlooking the diverse needs of older adults in multiple aspects such as temperature, lighting, noise, and air quality. Supported by the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, the Age-Adapt project aims to improve well-being and reduce energy consumption for older adults by studying how they adapt to various indoor environments. Through living lab experiments and field studies, researchers will assess adaptive cycles, inform indoor design standards, and promote sustainable ageing and climate-friendly practices.
Europe faces significant challenges, such as an ageing population, shortage of energy, and climate change. As elderly peoples physical and adaptive abilities decline, their needs for health and comfort in the indoor environment rise. The gradually expanding elderly population may result in increased building energy consumption and a higher carbon footprint. However, indoor comfort standards are usually targeted at healthy young populations and address singular domain environment. Little knowledge is in the literature about how to balance well-being and energy consumption in multi-domain indoor environments (thermal, visual, acoustic and indoor air quality) for older adults. This knowledge gap has motivated Age-Adapt. We aim to improve well-being and minimize energy consumption by comprehending the adaptive cycles for elderly people in the multi-domain indoor environments , enabling us to propose adaptive strategies. A three-stage hierarchical research methodology combining living lab experiments with fixed and adjustable environmental conditions and field investigations will be created, allowing to: 1. Assess the effects of multi-domain indoor environments on the physiological, behavioural, and psychological adaptation of older adults. 2. Assess the role of physiological, psychological, and energy consumption benefits after behaviours have occurred. 3. Create models, evaluations, and strategies for adaptive comfort in indoor multi-domain environments for older adults at different health levels. The impact of Age-Adapt on the scientific community, industry and the general public will be significant and sustainable: it will offer input into the establishment of indoor environmental design standards and behavioral adaptation guidelines for elderly people, drive the development of products for indoor environmental comfort and health management, and contribute to the goals of healthy aging and climate neutrality. |
