Building research — like building energy use — is diffuse, with impactful contributions siloed across academic and professional fields. But decarbonization policies, the impacts of buildings on occupant health and productivity, and an overdue focus on equity present an exciting point of inflection. Having eclipsed the boundaries of any single discipline or subdiscipline, building-energy research needs a compelling and durable venue to coalesce and realize its potential as a field of research and practice.
This workshop will bring together researchers from US national labs, including Sandia, LBNL, PNNL, and NREL, and colleagues in academic institutions with a shared interest in advancing SymBER, a regular symposium on building-energy research.
SymBER will drive forward building-energy research by establishing new connections between researchers in academia and national labs.
To identify and navigate effectively the disciplinary divides that often get in the way of collaborative efforts, participants will be introduced to a toolkit drawn from Legitimation Code Theory, or LCT. LCT is built on robust underpinnings and foundational ideas in social science, with powerful key principles that can be picked up and applied quickly.
What makes building-energy research legible and useful to different audiences, such as the public, policymakers, the Department of Energy, and academic fields such as architecture and engineering.
How to structure explanations of the necessarily complex ideas underpinning building-energy research, such as time-dependent carbon emissions, heat pump output curves, and grid interactivity, in ways that increase understanding for target groups and improve opportunities for interdisciplinary research.
How building-energy research compares to established academic and professional fields, such as engineering and energy conservation, and what it has to offer other fields of academic research, such as Sustainability Transitions and Macro-Energy Systems.
Arrive in Denver, make your way to Golden, and attend the happy hour and networking reception.
Meet others creating the field of building-energy research: a day of lighting presentations and structured networking followed by dinner.
Engage with tools from Legitimation Code Theory to identify alignments and chart a path to the future of building-energy research.
15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden CO 80401