Hybrid Physical Digital Spaces for Enhanced Sustainability and Wellbeing

 

Project summary

This project is a collaboration that brings together researchers across multiple Stanford schools and other universities. Together our team, called the Hybrid Physical+Digital Spaces group has expertise in architecture, structural and materials engineering, human-computer interaction, psychology, environmental behavior, and security, privacy and law. We collaborate to generate new knowledge regarding aspects of the built environment that promote both environmental sustainability and occupant wellbeing. With our insights, we aim to develop a building information platform and digital and physical adaptations that can easily be employed in building design and management.

Our focus began with office environments. We have conducted numerous crowd-sourced online studies to explore what features of built environments have impacts on our wellbeing outcomes of interest, namely stress, creativity, sense of belonging, physical activity, and pro-environmental behavior. We conducted a large controlled in-person lab study (N=412), a related study in an immersive virtual environment (N=237), and a pilot field study (N=8). We are now extending the platform to explore novel AI-driven methods of supporting aging in place.

Project Objectives

  1. Understand how changes in the design of physical workspaces may impact an occupant's wellbeing metrics using virtual reality and immersive online environments

  2. Develop novel ways of emulating nature indoors using hybrid physical-digital interventions for promoting health equity and improving occupant wellbeing with a focus on attention restoration, stress, self-evaluated happiness, and life-satisfaction

  3. Measure occupant wellbeing metrics in the wild through a combination of experience sampling methods, passive inference through wearable devices, and environmental IoT sensors to inform adaptations in the built environment that can support occupant wellbeing over time

Major findings

  • Occupants exposed to natural materials and windows during a stress-inducing task had lower negative stress impacts across various metrics in an in-person lab study. Similar findings were observed in an immersive online study.

  • A meta analysis of five online studies identified that natural materials and natural light lead to higher self-reported feelings of belonging, self-efficacy, and environmental efficacy.

Publications

Physical workplaces and human well-being: A mixed-methods study to quantify the effects of materials, windows, and representation on biobehavioral outcomes
Douglas, I. P., Murnane, E. L., Bencharit, L., Altaf, B., Costa, J., Yang, J., Ackerson, M., Srivastava, C., Cooper, M., Douglas, K., King, J., Paredes, P. E., Camp, N. P., Mauriello, M., Ardoin, N. M., Markus, H., Landay, J. A., Billington, S. L. (2022), Building and Environment, 224, 109516 [Link]

Effects of architectural interventions on psychological, cognitive, social, and pro-environmental aspects of occupant well-being: Results from an immersive online study
Bianchi, E., Bencharit, L. Z., Murnane, E. L., Altaf, B., Douglas, I. P., Landay, J. A., & Billington, S. L. (2024), Building and Environment, 253, 111293 [Link]

Human wellbeing responses to real and simulated workplaces: A comparison of in-person, online, and virtual environments
Bianchi, E., Altaf, B., Tavakoli, A., Douglas, I. P., Landay, J. A., & Billington, S. L. (2022, November), Proceedings of the 9th ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Buildings, Cities, and Transportation, November, Abstract, pp. 299-300 [Link]

Leveraging Immersive Virtual Environments for Occupant Well-Being Analysis
Altaf, B., Tavakoli, A., Bianchi, E., Landay, J., & Billington, S. L., (2023), Computing in Civil Engineering 2023, June, pp. 85-92 [Link]

Project team

  • Dr. Jennifer King, HAI

  • Prof. Lucy Bencharit, CalPoly-SLO

  • Prof. Elizabeth Murnane, Dartmouth

  • Prof. Matthew Mauriello, University of Delaware

  • Isabella Douglas, PhD student, CEE

  • Basma Altaf, PhD student, CEE

  • Eva Bianchi, PhD student, CEE

  • Prof. Sarah Billington, CEE

  • Prof. James Landay, CS

Additional collaborators can be found on the HPDS website

 
 
Hybrid Spaces, OngoingSarah Billington