About this event

Dr Ronita Bardhan is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Built Environment at the University of Cambridge, UK

As the climate heats up, built environment is significantly becoming a modifiable factor that implicate health and energy (in)equality. Yet the magnitude and pathways of how built environment design parameters structurally affects the disease burden or household energy consumption remains understudied. The impacts of a dysfunctional space design are most aggravated in poorer communities where the asymmetries are profound. This talk scientifically unfolds how various data streams : (i)quantitative data from environmental/energy sensors, (i)qualitative data on agency and use of space, and (iii) big data on performance metrics like energy consumption can enable understanding the effects of building design parameters quantifiable outcomes. It advances the innovative paradigm of data-driven design to decouple health and energy burdens from poverty. Using novel datasets Global South and Global North, the talk demonstrates how design can help understand health metrics like walkability in cities, outdoor heat stress due to climate change and indoor environmental quality in slum transitional housing. One of the challenges of working in resource constraint communities is the absence of data. This talk discusses how “deep” knowledge can systematically be used to generate new information and inform policy space for a sustainable and healthy future.