Buildings as Living Systems

Buildings are becoming increasingly complex through the integration of renewable energy systems, digital technologies, automation, and growing demands for sustainability and resilience. At the same time, a persistent challenge remains: the gap between theoretical performance and the actual operation of buildings over time. Understanding how different components and systems interact under real operating conditions has therefore become increasingly important for the future development of the built environment.

This lecture presents a research roadmap that began with low-temperature heating and building retrofitting, and gradually expanded toward broader system-level questions related to renewable energy integration, intelligent building operation and control, semantic modeling, and circular and resilient building systems. Particular focus is placed on how buildings can be understood not only as collections of technical components, but as integrated and adaptive systems influenced by energy flows, operational strategies, environmental conditions, and human behavior. Drawing from experiences in both academia and industry, the lecture discusses how real-world challenges have shaped the development of research questions and future directions for intelligent and resilient built environments.