Review maps climate-responsive interior design research through bibliometric and scoping analyses

A bibliometric and scoping review identified three recurring themes in climate-responsive and sustainable interior design: data-driven and AI-supported environmental design; sustainable design beyond energy efficiency; and adaptive, conservation, and reuse-responsive design. The reported findings are based on a literature review rather than a new building intervention or human-participant study, and the available evidence is limited to the article abstract.

The study used a dual-methodological approach. The authors systematically retrieved bibliographic data from Scopus and the Web of Science Core Collection and analyzed the records with VOSviewer software. The bibliometric dataset contained 101 publications and was used to identify prominent keywords, influential sources, and thematic clusters. A separate scoping review analysis, reported as involving 21 studies, was conducted in accordance with PRISMA 2020 guidelines and focused on interior design, climate-responsive design, and indoor environmental quality at the scale of interior spaces.

According to the abstract, the scoping phase provided qualitative insight into prevailing conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches. The three summary themes reflect the authors’ synthesis of this material. The first concerns data-driven and AI-supported environmental design. The second covers the visual, biophilic, and social dimensions of sustainable design alongside energy efficiency. The third concerns design that responds to adaptation, conservation, and reuse. These are descriptive categories reported by the review; the abstract does not quantify the prevalence of each theme or establish that any approach produces superior environmental or experiential outcomes.

The review also introduces the IMMID, or Integrative Mediator Model of Interior Design, framework. The authors use it to position the interior scale as an active mediating layer between environmental performance and experiential outcomes, connecting interior-design research with urban-sustainability objectives, particularly UN Sustainable Development Goal 11. This is an analytical framework proposed by the study, not evidence of a measured causal effect. The abstract does not report an empirical test of IMMID, a comparison with alternative frameworks, or formal quality-of-evidence ratings. The article was available as an early peer-reviewed, open-access version subject to further edits, so the supplied abstract does not support claims about the final Version of Record.

Subject of Research: Bibliometric and scoping review of climate-responsive interior design research

Article Title: Climate responsive interior design for sustainable development a bibliometric and scoping review

Article References: Taşdemir, E. (2026). Climate responsive interior design for sustainable development a bibliometric and scoping review. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04915-x

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-04915-x

Keywords: climate-responsive design, interior design, sustainable development, bibliometric analysis, scoping review, indoor environmental quality, artificial intelligence, adaptive design, biophilic design, urban sustainability, Climate, responsive