New Taxonomy of Climate Adaptive Building Shell Office Buildings: Focus on User–Façade Interaction Scenarios

As one of the most critical considerations in the contemporary era, sustainability heightens the need to find more suitable solutions for architectural designs. Climate adaptive building shells (CABS) are among the most promising alternatives for achieving sustainability goals by reducing energy consumption. Regardless of technological developments, this type of system has a reputation for increasing the distraction of occupants and consequently decreasing their satisfaction level. This research has been developed to focus on the occupant-centric study rather than technological advancements of the system. This study introduces the user–façade interaction scenarios and applies this classification on CABS office buildings. The purpose of this study is to introduce a new multi-domain taxonomy for CABS office buildings and update the database of this system by adding a new variable focusing on occupants. The study was designed on the foundation found with PRISMA methodology which highlights the lack of occupant-centric research on CABS. The research carried on as a qualitative method with an inductive approach which with the literature review introduced the user–façade interaction scenarios and the latest update of the CABS database. Accordingly, the office cases were categorized within different climatic zones, and later as a correlational study, each case was studied based on user–façade interaction scenarios. Analysis of case databases according to user–façade interaction types clears the lack of development in the majority of scenarios. Lastly, the study concluded by introducing a novel multi-domain taxonomy of CABS office buildings by considering user–façade interaction scenarios. The further value of this study is to be a foundation for future studies on CABS office buildings by considering the occupants as a primary element of the research.