Embedding building performance evaluation in UK architectural practice and beyond

ABSTRACT

Despite repeated efforts to foreground post-occupancy evaluation (POE) in many countries, few have any policy or legislation in place to mandate this process. Large-scale voluntary efforts have also failed to provide successful templates through which to mainstream broader building performance evaluation (BPE) activity within which POE sits. This paper reviews various programmes and initiatives in the UK that have attempted to embed first POE, then BPE, over the last 20 years within a global context, using a practice-based approach based on the author’s experience of working in the field over this period. Key findings are: a failure of government to systemically follow through on BPE initiatives; stakeholders operating independently of each other; lack of institutional engagement in the education sector as a key driver for BPE; and the potential for interdisciplinary models to embrace all members of the design team as well as the client. The means by which BPE has been successfully embedded into practice directly is examined through deep organizational learning and knowledge-exchange activities. Recommendations for these models to be replicated through professional institutions, other learning organizations and regulatory frameworks in the UK are presented as a constructive way forward.

KEYWORDS:

• building evaluation
• building performance
• knowledge exchange
• learning
• post-occupancy evaluation (POE)
• practice

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the four anonymous reviewers and editors for their careful comments and support in improving this paper. The author acknowledges and thanks all the participants for the generous time given to these projects: Sigma Home AIMC4, TSB BPE Programme and ‘Designs on the Planet’.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The author gratefully acknowledges the funding received for the various projects mentioned in this paper: Sigma Home funded by the Stewart Milne Group, AIMC4 funded by Innovate UK, Crest Nicholson Plc, Barratt Developments Plc, Building Research Establishment Trust, H+H UK Ltd, the SCHOSA Conference 2015 funded by SCHOSA, the TSB BPE Programme funded by Innovate UK, ‘Designs on the Planet’ funded by Oxford Brookes University, the University of Nottingham and Cardiff University.