Towards Sustainable Living

Abstract

The availability of technologies in our living environment offers a new
approach to the study of the interaction between people and the built environment
in the context of living labs. The living lab scenario can be viewed as a concertino
of action as it unfolds, drawing on available material, cognitive, affective and
social resources. Five phases of the translation of cognition into ‘ecological rationality’ can be distinguished: control, adaptation, learning, improvement (evolution/ innovation), change with feedback. The overall challenge facing society today is to achieve and maintain a suitable quality of life, while reducing to a sustainable level the environmental burden to which our activities give rise.