POE + M Research Insights: Towards High-Performance Commercial Buildings and the End of Least Cost Decision-Making
Discover how post occupancy evaluations can drive high-performance building systems, improve occupant well-being, and inform smarter design and operational decisions.
About the live course
Post occupancy evaluations (POEs) that ensure records of building attributes, user satisfaction, and measurements are key to advancing high-performance building systems and operations and ending the cycle of least cost decision-making. This presentation will introduce a robust approach to post-occupancy evaluation that can quantify the benefits of improving spatial, thermal, visual, acoustic, and air quality in buildings, illustrated with new and retrofit commercial buildings. The presentation will summarize the findings of over 80 commercial building studies undertaken by faculty and students in the Carnegie Mellon Center for Building Performance & Diagnostics in collaboration with government and corporate property owners. Drawing upon extensive research, the discussion will highlight strategies for utilizing POE findings to iteratively improve building systems and operations, ultimately fostering greater occupant well-being and productivity. This session will also touch upon available measurement toolkits and affordable field assessment strategies.
- Assess the critical technical attributes of building systems that should be recorded to iteratively improve spatial, thermal, air, visual, and acoustic quality in commercial buildings.
- Critique the different methodologies for capturing short-term and long-term user satisfaction related to spatial, thermal, air, visual, and acoustic quality, as well as occupant perceptions of well-being, health, and productivity within commercial environments.
- Investigate available measurement toolkits and cost-effective strategies for conducting both short-term and long-term field assessments of thermal, air, light, and acoustic quality in commercial buildings.
- Explore various approaches for establishing correlations between design choices in building systems (such as façade, HVAC, lighting, and interior layouts) and both measured indoor environmental conditions and user satisfaction in commercial buildings.
Presented in partnership with the Building Performance Knowledge Community (BPKC).
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