Held in January 2025, a workshop brought together building occupants to present the full scope of interventions underway at the two-storey office building, including new LED lighting systems with dimmers, IAQ sensors, and the integration of Yodiwo’s commercial gateway that permits the access to pilot measured data at real time. Participants were introduced to the project’s advanced control strategies and ongoing R&D contributions from BuildON, DigiBUILD, and EDF’s internal innovation programs.
Further engagement through interviews and focus groups generated detailed feedback on occupant needs, comfort expectations, and daily work habits. This information is now being analysed by service developers and ergonomics specialists. Their work will feed into two major BuildON service developments:
IEQ Optimisation for Comfort Improvement:
Insights from the focus groups will inform feasibility assessments and updates to the user interface. The participants requested a nonintrusive tool that leaves them the freedom to access and improve their IEQ status by recommendations through a userfriendly graphical interface. The goal is to ensure that comfort-related features and controls reflect real user behaviour, preferences, and the topics most relevant to building occupants. Therefore the following user interface was developed.
Digital Twins for Smart Building Operation:
Ergonomics experts are using interview data to enhance the EDF SMACH tool with a new human-activity model tailored to office environments. This model will simulate typical workplace patterns—individual tasks, meetings, breaks—and their impact on occupancy, energy use, and indoor air quality. The upgraded SMACH platform will also calculate pollutant emissions based on activities and integrate IAQ parameters, increasing the accuracy of predictions delivered by EDF’s digital twin of the building.
Together, these engagement activities ensure that the BuildON solutions deployed at the EDF pilot are aligned with real-world needs, improving comfort, energy performance, and operational intelligence across the building.