Principal speaker
Associate Professor Lyn Bartram
Reducing our ecological footprint requires not only new science, policy
and energy technologies but also new and more efficient resource
use. A key part of this involves the buildings we occupy. The
most untidy, unpredictable parts of our systems - humans - can and do
greatly affect how our built environment performs. Changing behaviour --
especially the ways we use energy and water -- is a necessary part of
any climate solution. Yet our urban systems often incompletely support,
ignore or even disable people in understanding and controlling them to
improve efficiency. Our research is concerned with how we can use
technology to enable people, individually and in groups, to make better
energy and resource use decisions, both through direct interventions,
and through better design models of human practice in how people use
their buildings. In this talk I will describe our experience in designing,
building and showcasing two "green" homes, and the the critical
importance of integrating multiple, often implicitly conflicting, perspectives
to the design discussions of implementing change.
Dr. Lyn Bartram is an associate professor at SFU's School of Interactive
Art+Technology. Her work explores the intersecting potential of
information technologies, ubiquitous computing, human-technology
interaction and sustainable building design in encouraging conservation
and reducing our ecological footprint.