With workplace buildings becoming increasingly sensor-rich environments and amidst climate change and global pandemic pressures, there is novel opportunity for utilizing climatic data within buildings for awareness and wellbeing purposes. Interaction design research, including on large, shared-displays, rarely addresses building occupants’ experiences of air quality (AQ); and to-date there are no studies evaluating such interventions in the context of communicating climatic data in the workplace. Responding to these research gaps, three prototype-led studies were conducted with 21 occupants of a smart office building over June-August 2022, evaluating occupants’ experiences of a large shape- and color-changing display responding to AQ data. A thematic analysis resulted in design implications for improving shape- and color-changing displays for communicating AQ data; linking biomimicry to data interpretation. Contributing to Human-Building Interaction (HBI) research in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) field, we provide design directions for future shape-changing and responsive architectures for climate awareness in smart buildings.

Quantified smart buildings increasingly utilise data-rich technologies (such as embedded sensors and personal wearables). Research and development however, rarely addresses occupants’ experiences and expectations in such environments, which is critical for designing ethical and occupant-centred workspaces. To support the design of human-centred smart buildings, a series of 4 workshops was conducted with a total of 27 participants, over 2 months, with occupants of a smart office building. Workshops used discursive (focus group) and projective (design fiction) techniques to qualitatively explore occupants’ perceptions of and concerns around the collection, processing and use of data within the building. Workshop data was thematically analysed, resulting in design implications for improving occupant experience in current smart workplaces, while also contributing implications for increasing the perceivability, accessibility and usability of data in such buildings. Contributing to discourses around Human-Building Interaction the paper concludes with discussion of future research challenges for occupant-centred development of quantified buildings.