We are experienced, post-occupancy evaluation consultants.  Much of that experience extends back over a decade to a time when most POE was  undertaken by university researchers who gathered data on user perceptions from our exemplar projects.

 

With this, we began to undertake the POEs ourselves. We learned a lot about our building designs, how they performed, where the problems with them tended to be. Most of all we learned of the structural issues that underline modern building procurement methods, which mean most clients' outcomes get compromised. 

 

The learning we collected has always proved useful for us in our future designs, but most especially to our clients, the owners and operators of the buildings. Learning that usually led to better operation, lower operating and owning costs for them.

 

More recently, POE procurement has gained more widespread acceptance, particularly with the UK government and some local authorities mandating evaluation and occupancy study reviews to prove lessons learned and the value of spending for public money. 

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And while there are exceptions, which include DfE Building Performance Evaluations, nowadays most POE processes we undertake are in response to clients seeking the credits under BREEAM Management 05 section. The BREEAM requirement is bespoke and one we understand well, allowing us to  provide a completed report that is in strict compliance with the requirement. That said we have never been in the business to just tick the boxes. We always work to go that extra mile to produce a study that is useful to our clients and one they can extract real value from for the relatively small investment made in them.

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In essence, BREEAM asks for an independent Post Occupancy Evaluation of buildings conducted at least one year after handover which should answer the following key questions;

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• Did the design process go as planned?

• Does the building operate as intended? 

• Is the building's energy target being met?

• Have the user’s expectations been met for an effective, comfortable building?

• What residual problems exist?

• How active were the building's procurement processes in meeting the client's business and people performance needs?

• What actions are needed to improve future building operations?

 

As building services engineers and sustainability consultants with a customer centrist Agile Methods outlook, our reports tend to be extensive in researching the performance of the building and its engineering systems, not only highlighting where lessons need to be learned and what is not operating correctly but why it is not operating correctly and what can be done to correct it.  All undertaken from a completely independent perspective, and with a wealth and depth of experience of POE and design review.

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The cost of POE is not expensive in comparison to the savings that are usually highlighted. It's no exaggeration to say that we have never failed to bring about simple changes, saved the energy cost, or highlighted latent construction defects that in combination have recovered many times the fee that went into the POE service. It is always a worthwhile exercise.

 

So start your road to a better building with improved understanding and performance by clicking on the button below.