Zoltan Nagy’s presentation

Building simulation has traditionally focused on building-level design and optimization, but climate action demands understanding across scales—from individual occupant behavior to city-wide energy systems.

This keynote presents a journey beyond traditional building boundaries in both directions: downward to the occupant dimension through IEA EBC Annex 95’s work on rethinking human-building relationships in a changing climate, and upward to urban systems through CityLearn’s multi-agent coordination and IMPACT’s bottom-up city emission modeling.

We explore how occupant-centric approaches can improve energy performance while maintaining comfort, how coordinated building portfolios enable substantial demand response, and how bottom-up city-scale modeling can reveal critical climate policy trade-offs invisible at building level.