Dr Pippa Soccio

Dr Pippa Soccio is a senior research scientist in building monitoring at CSIRO with the Energy Efficiency team (residential). She leads the Apartment Energy Behaviour Study: a large-scale monitoring project in 430 apartments across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The project is collecting two years of data about indoor environment quality (IEQ), energy usage, and occupant lifestyle to investigate how the assumptions in Australia’s Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) tool about occupant energy behaviour and comfort, apply to apartment buildings.

Pippa has a PhD in Architecture (Building Science) and advocates for architects to regard IEQ not as the engineer’s domain but a multi-sensory design problem! She is inspired by holistic solutions that leverage the synergies between IEQ, energy efficiency and biophilia. Her applied knowledge of these topics is showcased by the post-occupancy evaluation tool she developed in 2014 for use in schools (EduTool:IEQ); and her home renovation (Pavone House) which won the 2023 Living Future Institute of Australia (LFIA) National Biophilic Design Awards in the Interior and Renovation category. Pippa’s interest in issues of environmental sustainability stem from early investigations (2008) of regenerative practices. Her work tested the underlying principles of regenerative design: 1) shifting the frame of reference from minimal to positive impact: 2) questioning human/environment relations based on the Cartesian separation of subject and object; and 3) reconnecting environmentalism with a socio-political dimension. She has taught on this topic in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne.

Pippa is an LFIA Accredited Professional and member of the LFIA Biophilic Design Initiative Advisory Group. She was a member of the City of Casey Design Excellence Panel; and judge for the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) School Design Awards.