The role of feedback in building design 1980–2018 and onwards

This is a paper updating the paper I wrote on this topic for BSERT in issue 1 volume 1 in 1980. The original paper set out the causes of failure in building design as being due to various issues such as an inadequate brief, lack of data, poor communication, inadequate analysis or synthesis, quirks of human behaviour which could all contribute. Systematic appraisal – now referred to as post-occupancy evaluation – of buildings in use provides feedback which helps us to understand why theory and practice do not always agree and also gives evidence for improved building economics. It concluded that we have to involve users more in the design of buildings, and for the next generations, we need a much broader based education of building designers. This paper continues the theme by considering the latest methods of measurement and assessment which provide feedback data for sustainability but focusing more on health and wellbeing rating assessments

Work performance, productivity and indoor air

Temperature, relative humidity, and air quality all affect the sensory system via thermo receptors in the skin and the olfactory system. Air quality is mainly defined by the contaminants in the air. However, the most persistent memory of any space is often its odor. Strong, emotional, and past experiences are awakened by the olfactory sense. Odors can also influence cognitive processes that affect creative task performance, as well as personal memories and moods. Besides nitrogen and oxygen, the air contains particles and many chemicals that affect the efficiency of the oxygenation process in the blood, and ultimately the air breathed affects thinking and concentration. It is important to show clients the value of spending more capital on high-quality buildings that promote good ventilation. The process of achieving indoor-air quality is a continual one throughout the design, construction, commissioning, and facilities management processes. This paper reviews the evidence

A conceptual approach to determine optimal indoor air quality: A mixture experiment method

Achieving good air quality in large residential and commercial buildings continues to be a top priority for owners, designers, building managers and occupants. The challenge is even greater today. There are many new materials, furnishing, products and processes used in these buildings that are potential source of contaminations and pollutants. A common problem to the indoor and outdoor environments is that of exposure to mixtures of air pollutants. Researchers and practitioners tend to focus on single pollutants (e.g. CO2, PM2.5) ignoring the mixtures combined effect. Fashion dictates to study the pollutant most thoroughly talked about. Distinguishing the effects of such co-pollutants is difficult. The conclusions about which component of a mixture is actually producing a given effect are sometimes less soundly based than could be wished. It is especially important in considering the indoor mixture of air pollutants as this mixture may be entirely different from those found outside. Exposures to raised levels of air pollutants can damage health, for example carbon monoxide can cause death and significant lasting disability. Controlling levels of indoor air pollutants is therefore important, as good indoor air quality is essential to health. There are three strategies for achieving acceptable indoor air quality: ventilation, source control and cleaning/filtration. Depending on the building and the specific characteristics of the location, these strategies can be used singly or in combination. However, mixture experiment would throw more light and understanding into indoor air composition and interaction properties and the combine effects it has on human health. Mixture experiments have been used extensively in other industries, for example the pharmaceutical industry and the agrochemical industry, for the production of tablets and the control of plant diseases and pests. Developing a mixture model for the internal microclimate for a particular building type and/or location may help us in developing better indicators, standards and policy document in the near future, when the levels of pollutants concentration can be successfully predicted

Understanding the indoor environment through mining sensory data - a case study

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a group of sensors linked by wireless medium to perform distributed sensing tasks. WSNs have attracted a wide interest from academia and industry alike due to their diversity of applications, including home automation, smart environment, and emergency services, in various buildings. The primary goal of a WSN is to collect data sensed by sensors. These data are characteristic of being heavily noisy, exhibiting temporal and spatial correlation. In order to extract useful information from such data, as this paper will demonstrate, people need to utilise various techniques to analyse the data. Data mining is a process in which a wide spectrum of data analysis methods is used. It is applied in the paper to analyse data collected from WSNs monitoring an indoor environment in a building. A case study is given to demonstrate how data mining can be used to optimise the use of the office space in a building

Sustainable building solutions: a review of lessons from the natural world

The realisation that much of conventional. modern architecture is not sustainable over the long term is not new. Typical approaches are aimed at using energy and materials more efficiently. However, by clearly understanding the natural processes and their interactions with human needs in view, designers can create buildings that are delightful. functional productive and regenerative by design. The paper aims to review the biomimetics literature that is relevant to building materials and design. Biomimetics is the abstraction of good design from Nature, an enabling interdisciplinary science. particularly interested in emerging properties of materials and structures as a result of their hierarchical organisation. Biomimetics provides ideas relevant to: graded functionality of materials (nano-scale), adaptive response (nano-, micro-. and macro-scales): integrated intelligence (sensing and actuation at all scales), architecture and additional functionality. There are many examples in biology where emergent response of plants and animals to temperature, humidity and other changes in their physical environments is based on relatively simple physical principles. However, the implementation of design solutions which exploit these principles is where inspiration for man-made structures should be. We analyse specific examples of sustainability from Nature and the benefits or value that these solutions have brought to different creatures. By doing this, we appreciate how the natural world fits into the world of sustainable buildings and how as building engineers we can value its true application in delivering sustainable building

Exploring the role of design quality in the Building Schools for the Future programme

The Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme represents the biggest single UK government investment in school buildings for more than 50 years. A key goal for BSF is to ensure that pupils learn in 21st-century facilities that are designed or redesigned to allow for educational transformation. This represents a major challenge to those involved in the design of schools. The paper explores the conceptualizations of design quality within the BSF programme. It draws on content analysis of influential reports on design published between 2000 and 2007 and interviews with key actors in the provision of schools. The means by which design quality has become defined and given importance within the programme through official documents is described and compared with the multiple understandings of design quality among key stakeholders. The findings portray the many challenges that practitioners face when operationalizing design quality in practice. The paper concludes with reflections on the inconsistencies between how design quality has been appropriated in the BSF programme and how it is interpreted and adopted in practice

Cognitive appraisals affect both embodiment of thermal sensation and its mapping to thermal evaluation

The physical environment leads to a thermal sensation that is perceived and appraised by occupants. The present study focuses on the relationship between sensation and evaluation. We asked 166 people to recall a thermal event from their recent past. They were then asked how they evaluated this experience in terms of 10 different emotions (frustrated, resigned, dislike, indifferent, angry, anxious, liking, joyful, regretful, proud). We tested whether four psychological factors (appraisal dimensions) could be used to predict the ensuing emotions, as well as comfort, acceptability, and sensation. The four dimensions were: the Conduciveness of the event, who/what caused the event (Causality), who had control (Agency), and whether the event was expected (Expectations). These dimensions, except for Expectations, were good predictors of the reported emotions. Expectations, however, predicted the reported thermal sensation, its acceptability, and ensuing comfort. The more expected an event was, the more uncomfortable a person felt, and the less likely they reported a neutral thermal sensation. Together, these results support an embodied view of how subjective appraisals affect thermal experience. Overall, we show that appraisal dimensions mediate occupants' evaluation of their thermal sensation, which suggests an additional method for understanding psychological adaption

Decision-making on HVAC&R systems selection: a critical review

Buildings account for more than 40% of total energy consumption in most countries and more than 55% of this energy is used by heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC&R) systems. This significant energy demand, together with the global need to impose energy-efficiency measures, underlines the importance of selecting the most appropriate HVAC&R system in the early stages of a design process. However, this state-of-the-art study reveals that there is no review paper available in the open literature to critically analyse the existing methods for HVAC&R systems selection. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to critically review the body of knowledge on the adopted approach for HVAC&R systems selection. Based on the comprehensive literature review, the needs and gaps in this field are identified. It is revealed that the integration of probabilistic climate changes into the decision-making processes is one of the main areas that should be addressed in future studies. In addition, reliability and Life Cycle Cost of the systems, health and well-being, occupants’ satisfaction and indoor air quality are of paramount factors that should be taken into account in the decision-making process for HVAC&R systems selection

Move beyond green building: a focus on healthy, comfortable, sustainable and aesthetical architecture

The principal goal of this article is to make clear the multiple pathways through which the built environment is having a potential effect on the occupants’ physical and psychological health, well-being and performance. Reviewing the previous research literature on built environment and public health, high-quality environment design is an investment as occupants are healthier, staff retention rates are higher, productivity is higher and sustainability ideals are more likely to be met. Regarding the healthy effect of built environment, a conceptual model of healthy building and a framework to research the association between built environment and health is presented and discussed. In spite of a little progress in this area by now, some genuine challenges still lie ahead: (1) the necessity of dealing with the possible health consequence of built environment; (2) the need to extend the concept and perception of green buildings towards healthy buildings and develop a framework for assessing health, well-being and productivity of various scenarios in buildings; (3) the construction and design processes needed to have a primary aim directed towards making buildings healthy for working and living in. Holistic cognition about the problem, new research method and information on scientific validation, comparative testing or data collection and analysis is needed in the subsequent research

Influence of occupants’ behaviour on energy and carbon emission reduction in a higher education building in the UK

This article focuses on one of the case studies in the Carbon Brainprint research project funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Chatterton, J., D. Parsons, J. Nicholls, P. Longhurst, M. Bernon, A. Palmer, F. Brennan, et al. 2015. “Carbon Brainprint – An Estimate of the Intellectual Contribution of Research Institutions to Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” Process Safety and Environmental Protection 96: 74–81). The UK total CO2e emissions in 2010 amounted to 582MtCO2e. It is estimated that non-domestic buildings and domestic buildings were responsible for 18% (106MtCO2e) and 28% (165MtCO2e) of these emissions, respectively. A case study method was used to investigative the opportunity of using occupants’ awareness and behavioural interventions to reduce energy use and carbon emissions in a non-domestic building of a higher education institution. An action research approach, informed by the theory of planned behaviour, was argued for this case study. It has demonstrated 20% savings in lighting, office equipment and catering energy use, largely through user awareness and behaviour change. If this level of saving were to be reflected throughout the non-domestic building stock it would represent an annual reduction in the order of 7MtCO2e in the UK. These figures relate specifically to non-domestic buildings. However, some of the techniques involved are directly transferable to domestic buildings, with the potential for further emission reductions