Dr Alejandro Moreno-Rangel is a Senior Lecturer in Building Performance Evaluation and Net-Zero Design at the University of Strathclyde. Alejandro’s research interests include natural material construction, building performance evaluation, building’s energy consumption, net-zero carbon buildings and their impact on health – particularly on asthma and other respiratory diseases –, the indoor environment – indoor air quality (IAQ) and thermal comfort. These research foci help him to understand the occupants’ health and behaviour to create healthy homes, particularly through the Passivhaus Standard. Alejandro is also interested in low-cost sensors and technologies for building performance evaluation and retrofit, with a particular focus on deep energy retrofit. Alejandro is also a certified Passivhaus Designer.

Alejandro’s main research interests are net zero buildings, particularly Passivhaus homes, and its connections to health, urban and human behaviours. Through this, Alejandro explores the architectural design, energy efficiency methods, passive techniques and their impact on the indoor environment – indoor air quality (IAQ) and thermal comfort–, particularly in homes and their relation to the urban environment to create healthy homes. Architecture has well responded to climate change mitigating the effects of the built environment. However, its impact on health is usually left aside. Alejandro’s approach to architectural design seeks to improve the quality of life for all citizens in an ageing society, delivering sustainable interventions that take a “whole house” approach. Alejandro’s research uses design research methods to explore the interactions between resident behaviours and the built environment to deliver healthier indoor environments, considering the impact of bio-psychological-social aspects of health, climate change impacts, and energy efficiency methods interactions. Alejandro’s research interests also extend to the use of low-cost sensors as research tools and the effect that they could have on residential behaviour, design and human health & well-being.