Empower Research Lab

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

D-Pine
Murnane Research Group at Dartmouth College | Contact: empowerlab@dartmouth.edu | Last updated: March 2025
Thayer School of Engineering