Profile
Prof Ronita BARDHAN
Principal Investigator
Prof Ronita Bardhan is Associate Professor of Sustainable Built Environment at the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on the data-driven design of built environments that reduce health and energy burdens. Dr Bardhan’s research combines architectural engineering, AI and machine learning with social sciences to develop built environment design solutions. She has developed novel methods to inform building and city design by combining physics-based building design optimisation with qualitative socio-economic, socio-cultural norms, occupant behaviour and community norms data.
She has expertise in data-driven design for developing context-specific solutions in the affordable housing sector. She currently works on humid heat health burdens and has conducted heat-health research projects in the diverse socio-economic settings of tropical countries like India, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. She is the Director of the MPhil in Architecture and Urban Studies (MAUS) and leads the Sustainable Design Group at the University of Cambridge. Her impactful work on developing design solutions for reducing the burdens of tuberculosis, heat health and poor indoor air quality in social housing has found immense traction with policymakers.
She advises government departments and agencies on energy efficiency and heat health in affordable housing, has recently been interviewed by the World Economic Forum about heat in built environments, and has written over 130 academic articles on the health and environmental design of the affordable residential built environment.
Cambridge
Researchers
HD4
Research Interest
Key Publications
Google Scholar Link
Debnath R, Bardhan R (2020) India nudges to contain COVID-19 pandemic: A reactive public policy analysis using machine-learning based topic modelling. PLoS ONE 15(9): e0238972. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238972
Sunikka-Blank, Minna, Ronita Bardhan, and Anika Nasra Haque. ‘Gender, Domestic Energy and Design of Inclusive Low-Income Habitats: A Case of Slum Rehabilitation Housing in Mumbai, India’. Energy Research & Social Science 49 (March 2019): 53–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.10.020.
Bardhan, Ronita, Kiyo Kurisu, and Keisuke Hanaki. ‘Does Compact Urban Forms Relate to Good Quality of Life in High Density Cities of India? Case of Kolkata’. Cities 48 (November 2015): 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2015.06.005.
Bardhan, Ronita, Sayantani Sarkar, Arnab Jana, and Nagendra R. Velaga. ‘Mumbai Slums since Independence: Evaluating the Policy Outcomes’. Habitat International 50 (December 2015): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2015.07.009.