Human–AI–Building Interaction
The building acts. The AI reasons. You decide.
Three parties, and none of them is in charge by default. We study the negotiation between them — what each one can sense, what each one may do, and who gets the last word when they disagree. Try disagreeing.
The shape of the problem
A triangle, not a control loop.
For most of architectural history there was one relationship: you and the building, directly. Putting an agent between them does not replace it — it creates two more alongside it, and there will be more than three before long.
Building → Human
The part that needs no AI at all — radiant heat, glare, draught, noise. You feel the building directly, and always did.
Human → Building
You open a window, move desks, tape over a diffuser. The most honest feedback in the building, and nobody logs it.
Human → AI
"It's stuffy." Language is cheap, high-bandwidth and ambiguous — and it carries intent that no sensor can infer.
AI → Human
Explanation you can interrogate, and a refusal you can overrule. An agent that only complies is a switch.
AI → Building
Commands under constraint — grid, cost, physics, and the other occupants who never asked for anything.
Building → AI
Telemetry and refusal. Dampers stick, sensors drift, physics says no. The AI's model of the building is always partly wrong.
Edges 02 and 03 are new. Edge 01 is as old as shelter.
What the new ones do to the old one is the research.
The portfolio
The same triangle, at five scales.
Human–AI–Building interaction is not a sixth research area beside the others — it is how we now approach all five, from a single body to a whole city.
Lab news
What's happening.
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07/2026
A new journal article, titled Large Language Model-Driven Context-Aware Eco-Feedback Generation and Evaluation, is accepted and published by Energy and Buildings!
publication -
07/2026
Prosper's third, first-authored journal article has been accepted by Building and Environment: Assessing Indoor Heat Strain through Occupant Language: A Framework for Building Thermal Resilience. Congrats!
publication -
06/2026
Dr. Jung participated in Buildsys26, presented four papers, and won a 3rd Best Paper from Socialsys26!
conference -
06/2026
The HUBS lab successfully led another Summer Engineering Academy activity to represent Architectural Engineering!
outreach -
06/2026
The HUBS lab visited the SRP headquarter to deliver its final presentation for the 2-year SEP research project!
milestone -
05/2026
Dr. Jung participated in IAQVEC 2026 and successfully delivered five presentations, Yay!
conference
Join us
We need people who can work on all three corners.
Agents and reasoning, sensing and actuation hardware, building physics, and the human-subject work that keeps all three honest. PhD, master's, and undergraduate positions in Civil & Architectural Engineering & Mechanics, The University of Arizona.