Post occupancy evaluation of daylighting and the thermal environment in education building

The term Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) refers to studies that systematically assess the performance of buildings, once they have been occupied and used. One objective of conducting this type of study is to collect information and provide feedback that can be used for the benefit of similar future buildings. The School of Architecture at Portsmouth has moved into its new building in December 2013. The new building, designed by Penoyre and Prasad, has given its occupants access to daylight, spacious studios, shared offices and a wide range of learning spaces distributed over five floors. The building features a number of environmentally friendly design features, such as advanced natural ventilation, daylighting and a ground source heat pump. The relocation of the architecture programmes has encouraged the technology team at the School to conduct a POE study of their new home and provide data that can assist the students in understanding the role of human factor in controlling the internal conditions of their spaces.

Whereas Post Occupancy Evaluation studies have gained an increasing attention in recent years, there is a limited number of POE studies that focus on the evaluation of perceptions of comfort in learning and working environment of newly occupied higher education institutions. Working closely with the University Department of Estates, the project architect and an independent advisor this study examined the internal conditions and perception of comfort of the new Eldon West to assess how well the building performs for those occupy it. The evaluation includes conducting occupant satisfaction surveys and monitoring the internal environmental conditions of the building using temperature and light data loggers and hourly temperature rerecords obtained from the Building Management System (BMS). This paper reports the results of the first phase of the occupant satisfaction survey (both students and staff) assessing their perception of comfort and personal preferences against comfort codes and building regulations.