Inhabitants’ Adaptive Strategies: A Case of Interactive Control in Residential Buildings

Building inhabitants act more complexly than architects, engineers and designers assume. Inhabitant actions vary depending on comfort preferences, body type, clothing preference, cultural habits, knowledge of building science, controls, awareness of sustainable practices and contingencies of life. These parameters are not definitive: there might be more of which we are not aware. The more people involved, the more complexity increases. This paper summarizes inhabitants' adaptive strategies in residential buildings through a qualitative study on 14 households in Vancouver. It elucidates inhabitants' comfort preferences, barriers to sustainable adaptation and the adaptive impact of a proposed system Light Weight Look Ahead Options (LWLA).