Kumar Biswajit Debnath

I am a Research Associate in Passive Building Design with the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape. I am an architect interested in bio-integrated (and bio-climatic) passive building design for climate change adaptation. I have extensive experience in biomimetic design, building physics modelling and simulation, and particularly interested in passive building design and architectural engineering. Also, I am highly interested and motivated in decarbonisation and climate change especially within the built environments in developing countries. My new research (for the Respire project) within the HBBE sits within the Responsible Interactions theme and aims to explore the use of natural moisture-responsiveness of (selected) organic materials ―such as Wood, hydrogel (made from seaweed), wool and flax fibres― in response to moisture to produce novel breathing building skins with minimal cost and environmental impact. I am researching the operational requirements for the variable porosity building skins and developing strategies for the integration of bio-based materials in low-energy buildings which involves prototyping and testing. I got my Bachelor in Architecture (BArch) and Masters in Architecture (MArch) from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 2012 and 2014, respectively, and the PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cardiff University in 2018. I have two years of experience working as a Lecturer (in Southeast University, Bangladesh), three years of experience as a teaching and research assistant (in Cardiff University), and three years of experience working as a Research Associate (with predominantly research, some teaching and supervision responsibilities) in Heriot-Watt University in 2018-2021. I have been working on multiple research projects as Principal Investigator, Researcher Co-Investigator, Research Associate and Research Assistant for the past 10 years.