Active House and sensors’ monitoring campaign towards the final user: VELUXlab, a smart building prototype

European buildings absorb 40% of final energy consumption. This statement is almost an acquired knowledge, a learned lesson for the current design standards and best practices, which are pushing on an efficient, integrated design of envelope and systems within the specific relation “building-context”. However, a considerable amount of the environmental impact of the construction sector is linked to the building’s operational phase: here, the occupants-building interaction plays a fundamental role, not properly considered during the design phase. The paper shows, at first, how the Active House Vision and its three integrated principles of Comfort, Energy and Environment are well-established examples of user-centred design strategies and practices, anticipating the main human actions’ drivers (Comfort), and contextualizing them into the environmental issues (Energy and Environment). Besides, the real experience of VELUXlab, a smart building prototype at Politecnico di Milano, allows gaining an additive perspective on the topic: the communication and education of occupants about the correct use of a high-efficient building system. Here, a wireless network of sensors integrates real-time data into the building’s augmented reality and communicates with the final user through a user-friendly dashboard (interactive visualizations of internal comfort, indoor air quality, energy consumptions, according to the occupants’ component). As within the automotive sector, sensors and related IoT systems have already driven users to a more efficient attitude, the paper proposes a concrete, suitable response to the AEC – Architecture, Engineering and Construction – sector need of communicative tools, able to diagnose the human behavior effects upon the building physic and easily feedback to the final user.