Human centric measures applied in optimizing performance of sustainable buildings: A Thematic Review

Sustainable buildings have shown notable successes in achieving energy efficiency, occupant health, and positive environmental impacts. Despite these significant advancements, some sustainable buildings still fall short of their performance targets partly due to a less human-centric approach to building design and planning which gives inadequate consideration of building user needs. This discrepancy has led to building user interactions that frustrate performance objectives of sustainable buildings. To address this gap, this paper conducts a review of the existing measures used for capturing and integrating building user needs into sustainable buildings and their associated sustainable building attributes and performance indicators. Through a thematic analysis, the review was based on 49 publications of 2018 to April 2023 sourced from Scopus and Web of Science. The findings reveal that the use of Advanced Technologies and Occupant Behaviour Analysis and Modelling are the leading human centric measures in sustainable building performance research. Building-user comfort & satisfaction and Energy Optimization & Efficiency emerged as primary performance indicators. This review enhances understanding of the human factor in sustainable buildings, offering valuable insights for stakeholders in the built environment to inform future sustainable building development and requisite policy.