Multi-sensory solutions for increasing human-building resilience in face of climate change

Climate change is leading to more frequent and severe extreme climate phenomena, affecting both vulnerable subpopulations like children, the elderly and the poor, and healthy and well-being people.

To increase human-building resilience against climate change, active building solutions are often sought and promoted, however, they require a substantial energy use and thereby generate further environmental impact and/or lead to adverse effects like increased noise or pollutions. Also, these solutions protect from exposures rather than actually increasing human resilience.

On the contrary, passive and hybrid solutions do not contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions but are often regarded as less robust and predictable and are affected by design challenges and potential rebound effects.

For example, increased use of solar shading may affect lighting requirements, and night-time ventilation may influence indoor noise levels.

With this multi-disciplinary multi-sectoral MSCA doctoral network, MuSIC will address these challenges within the context of the existing European building stock and will provide solutions from the human-centred viewpoint. 5 academic and 1 non-academic beneficiaries together with 2 academic and 3 non-academic associated partners will strive for educating the next generation of highly qualified young professionals able to provide future generations with more liveable and sustainable indoor and outdoor spaces in and management systems of cities by applying cutting-edge solutions, multi-sensory and multi-dimensional research and industrial development. 10 early-stage researchers will experience interdisciplinary and intersectoral training modules on science and technology as well as transferable skills and conduct individual R&D projects for improved understanding and predictability of human reactions and innovative human-centric building- and community-related solutions for increasing human-building resilience in the face of climate change.