Occupants

For the past twenty-five years, Henry Rollins has searched out the most desolate corners of the Earth--from Iraq to Afghanistan, Thailand to Mali, and beyond--articulating his observations through music and words, on radio and television, and in magazines and books. Though he's known for the raw power of his expression, Rollins has shown that the greatest statements can be made with the simplest of acts: to just bear witness, to be present. In Occupants, Rollins invites us to do the same. The book pairs Rollins's visceral full-color photographs--taken in Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Northern Ireland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and elsewhere over the last few years--with writings that not only provide context and magnify the impact of the images but also lift them to the level of political commentary. Simply put, this book is a visual testimony of anger, suffering, and resilience. Occupants will help us realize what is so easy to miss when tragedy and terror become numbing, constant forces--the quieter, stronger forces of healing, solidarity, faith, and even joy.

This book presents the state of the art of two areas: intelligent residential buildings and the behaviour of their occupants. These areas need to be treated together in order to develop new concepts for buildings, which are more efficient, more comfortable and more healthy. The concept of intelligent building is associated with the creation of a management system that takes into account the requirements of the occupants in terms of thermal comfort and their daily activities, maintaining good indoor air quality and minimizing energy consumption. In commercial or office buildings, these systems are already at an intermediate stage of implementation. However, in the residential sector they have yet to be significantly implemented. In mild climates, where the interactions of the occupants with the building mechanisms are the primary way to ensure adequate comfort and ventilation, the importance of occupant behaviour studies and their incorporation in the algorithms of the intelligent buildings becomes even more crucial. This book offers new concepts on how to bring these aspects together.

This book is the first to comprehensively cover research methods for building occupant behavior. As this is of growing importance for building design and for building performance optimization, the book aims to provide a sound scientific basis for experimental studies in this field. It introduces the reader to fundamental questions about the topic and unfolds the different fields related to occupant actions and comfort. This is followed by more general questions about developing an appropriate research method and experimental design. A comprehensive overview of sensors for monitoring environmental and also behavioral and action-related quantities helps to set up an experiment. In this context, different experimental environments and data collection methods (in-situ, laboratories, surveys) are introduced and discussed in terms of their suitability for the respective research question. Furthermore, data management and reporting is addressed. The book concludes with fundamental challenges in conducting occupant studies, with chapters on ground truth, ethics and privacy.

Occupant behaviour in buildings is a point of interest for building designers around the world. Functional buildings have a significant energy demand; therefore, improving the thermal and energy performance of such buildings requires knowledge about the variables that influence them. However, to increase the potential for improving thermal and energy performance of buildings, studies must also consider the occupant’s interactions with the built environment. The occupant behaviour influences the conditions of the internal environment through the occupation of indoor building spaces and through the interaction with building elements, such as air-conditioning, lighting, blinds and windows. Occupant Behaviour in Buildings: Advances and Challenges brings together reviews of these influential aspects, presenting updates on advances and questions that pose challenges in our current understanding of behavioural modeling and its application to building design. Special topics covered in the book include methods to survey occupant behavior, building design choices, occupant behaviour impact on a building's thermal and energy efficiency, and,finally, a simulation of occupants in a building. Key Features- Presents up-to-date information on occupant behaviour in buildings- Eight chapters, written by renowned researchers, provide readers with useful insights on the subject- Includes a case study of buildings in Brazil- Structured reader-friendly content- References for further reading This reference is an informative resource for students and professionals in architecture, civil engineering, building information design, and urban planning. Readers interested in social and behavioural sciences will also gain insights on research methods that are helpful in investigating human behavior in urban dwellings.

This ground-breaking book provides substantial new analysis and summary data about pregnant occupant biomechanics, and will serve as a critical asset to anyone in the field of automobile safety. The overall goal of this book is to provide the reader with a complete resource for issues relating to the pregnant occupant. This multi-authored book is thoroughly vetted and includes chapter contributions from highly qualified practitioners in the field. A total of 19 technical papers are featured and are broken into six chapters. Each chapter begins with a brief summary and analysis of the research for that topic, and is followed by a selection of references. The remainder of the chapter includes a selection of the very best full-length technical papers on the topic, which are intended to provide depth and compliment the new material.