Evaluation and feedback are the cornerstones for the continuous improvement in building procurement. Good feedback is an intrinsic part of good briefing and design of buildings. To be most effective building performance evaluation must happen throughout the lifecycle of the building.
POE is the systematic evaluation of buildings in use, from the perspective of the people who use them (e.g. staff, managers and/or customers); it assesses how well buildings match users’ needs and identifies ways to improve performance. POE is a survey for building occupants regarding a building and its operations, ranging from thermal comfort, indoor air quality, lighting quality, cleanliness, work environment, furniture and more. POE could also be described as an umbrella term that includes a review of the process of delivering the project as well as a review of the technical and functional performance of the building during occupation.
POE is a way of providing feedback throughout a building’s lifecycle from initial concept through to occupation. The information from feedback can be used for informing future projects, whether it is on the process of delivery or technical performance of the building. It serves several purposes:
Benefits of POE
- Identification of and finding solutions to problems in buildings;
- Response to user needs;
- Improve space utilisation based on feedback from use;
- Understanding of implications on buildings of change whether it is budget cuts or working context;
- Informed decision making
- Built-in capacity for building adaptation to organisational change and growth;
- Finding new uses for buildings;
- Accountability for building performance by designers
- Longer term benefits of POE
- Long-term improvements in building performance;
- Improvement in design quality;
- Strategic review
POEs aim to understand employee or occupant opinions to improve a building’s functioning. The greatest benefits from POEs come when the information is made available to as wide an audience as possible. Information from POEs can provide not only insights into problem resolution but also provide useful benchmark data with which other projects can be compared.
POE Tools
- Observation evaluation sheet: For use with an observation/walkthrough, where one or two people are carrying out an evaluation of a building or an area of a building.
- Interviews: Interviews with individuals are a useful way of getting very specific, detailed information and developing a deeper understanding of particular problems. They are best facilitated by a professional who is able to be objective. Whilst there needs to be a focus to an interview they are often most useful when conducted with a loose agenda, allowing free discussion to pick up issues that may not be initially obvious. Interviewees must be carefully selected to provide a balance of perspectives.
- Workshops: A workshop is useful for defining and exploring problems rather than merely discussing what those problems are. In a Post Occupancy Evaluation workshops can be a useful way to explore possible solutions to problems by using group experience. A disadvantage is that they can be time consuming. A workshop should last at least half a day and have a broad agenda which identifies the focus of each session.
- Questionnaires: Questionnaires are a valuable way of collecting data from a large group of people. It is important to consider whether a standard or tailored questionnaire is required. Standard questionnaires offer the advantage of being able to gather consistent data across your facilities. The benefit of this is that you can benchmark buildings, or parts of buildings against each other. A standard questionnaire that is available from expert consultancies enables benchmarking a building project against others in the sector. Tailored questionnaires enable examination of issues specific to the building or institution. However, it is possible to combine the two approaches and use a standard questionnaire with a section that is specific to your circumstances.
- Benchmarking: Benchmarking is used to compare buildings or space performance against recognised leading edge examples. It can also be used to compare buildings within an institution’s own portfolio. Benchmarking is a continuous systematic process of measuring relative performance against relevant comparators. Benchmark data can be distorted by situations that are unique to a particular organisation. For example high levels of pollution in the atmosphere may mean windows have to be cleaned more often, or the organisation may have high occupancy.
