Empower Research Lab
Hybrid Physical-Digital Spaces (HPDS)
Innovating digital-physical infrastructure for wellness by studying indoor environments and their impact on human attitudes, behaviors, and health.
Description
People in countries like the U.S. now spend 87% of their time indoors, with research increasingly indicating that building features (e.g., lighting, materials) can substantially impact human attitudes, behaviors, and health. As part of a multi-institute collaboration that grew out of Stanford and now also spans Dartmouth, Cal Poly, and University of Delaware, this research has several thrusts to study built environments and develop technology that blends digital software with physical infrastructure to support various cognitive, physiological, psychological, and social dimensions of occupant wellness. More details, including the full set of current and past project members, are available here: [https://hpds.stanford.edu ](https://hpds.stanford.edu)
Publications
Time perception during the pandemic: A longitudinal study examining the role of indoor and outdoor nature exposure for remote workers
Altaf, B., Bloomfield, L. S., Karzai, D. N., Sawe, N. A., **Murnane, E. L.**, Bencharit, L. Z., Landay, J. A., Billington, S. L.
Building and Environment (243)
built environment
surveys
Use of Crowdsourced Online Surveys to Study the Impact of Architectural and Design Choices on Well-being
Basma Altaf, Eva LS Bianchi, Isabella P Douglas, Kyle Douglas, Brandon Byers, Pablo E Parades, Nicole M Ardoin, Hazel R Markus, **Elizabeth L Murnane**, Lucy Z Bencharit, James A Landay, Sarah L Billington
Frontiers in Sustainable Cities
built environment
surveys
Ten questions concerning human-building interaction research for improving the quality of life
Burçin Becerik-Gerber, Gale Lucas, Ashrant Aryal, Mohamad Awada, Mario Berges, Sarah L Billington, Olga Boric-Lubecke, Ali Ghahramani, Arsalan Heydarian, Farrokh Jazizadeh, Ruying Liu, Runhe Zhu, Frederick Marks, Shawn Roll, Mirmahdi Seyedrezaei, John E Taylor, Christoph Höelscher, Azam Khan, Jared Langevin, Matthew Louis Mauriello, **Elizabeth Murnane**, Haeyoung Noh, Marco Pritoni, Davide Schaumann, Jie Zhao
Building and Environment
built environment
A study of the role of indoor nature on solidarity and group identity during remote work
Eva Bianchi, Laura S.P. Bloomfield, Lucy Z. Bencharit, Basma Altaf, Nik A. Sawe , Elizabeth L. Murnane, James A. Landay, Sarah L. Billington
Building and Environment
remote work
built environment
surveys
The field of human building interaction for convergent research and innovation for intelligent built environments
Burcin Becerik-Gerber, Gale Lucas, Ashrant Aryal, Mohamad Awada, Mario Bergés, Sarah Billington, Olga Boric-Lubecke, Ali Ghahramani, Arsalan Heydarian, Christoph Höelscher, Farrokh Jazizadeh, Azam Khan, Jared Langevin, Ruying Liu, Frederick Marks, Matthew Louis Mauriello, **Elizabeth Murnane**, Haeyoung Noh, Marco Pritoni, Shawn Roll, Davide Schaumann, Mirmahdi Seyedrezaei, John E Taylor, Jie Zhao, Runhe Zhu
Scientific Reports
built environment
Physical workplaces and human well-being: A mixed-methods study to quantify the effects of materials, windows, and representation on biobehavioral outcomes
Isabella P Douglas, **Elizabeth L Murnane**, Lucy Zhang Bencharit, Basma Altaf, Jean Marcel dos Reis Costa, Jackie Yang, Meg Ackerson, Charu Srivastava, Michael Cooper, Kyle Douglas, Jennifer King, Pablo E Paredes, Nicholas P Camp, Matthew Louis Mauriello, Nicole M Ardoin, Hazel Rose Markus, James A Landay, Sarah L Billington
Building and Environment
built environment
lab study
Keywords
human health
environmental sustainability
built environment
lab experiment
field study
surveys
Murnane Research Group at Dartmouth College | Contact: empowerlab@dartmouth.edu | Last updated: March 2025
