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This paper aims to highlight a broader definition of good building performance that goes beyond the traditional emphasis on technical aspects, only adopting the lens of the social construction of technology (SCOT) in the empirical space of the workplace sector. Several building performance evaluation (BPE) methods focus on technical aspects such as energy consumption, indoor environmental conditions and compliance with building regulations and standards. Technical aspects, albeit important goals, only embed a partial component of what buildings are expected to deliver. There is growing interest in considering the organisational and experiential expectations of building performance, particularly integrating various views of performance as expected by different user groups.

The paper adopts an archival research method to analyse the archive of the workplace consultants DEGW, particularly focusing on their work on London’s Broadgate development in the 1980s and the 1990s.

The findings reveal how voices from a pluralistic client organisation can be addressed to articulate a broad definition of building performance that integrates different viewpoints encompassing technical, organisational and experiential expectations. In DEGW’s work, the views on building performance of various stakeholders involved in the everyday use and management of buildings are identified without imposing predetermined agendas or research notions of performance. Particular emphasis is given to understanding clients as not a homogenous entity but consisting of different interest groups, which implies multiple conceptualisations of building performance and the building itself.

The performance expectations of a building vary between organisations and even within any organisation. Moreover, the needs of an organisation will change over time, and the BPE criteria need to be changed to ensure better alignment between organisations and the physical spaces they occupy. A critical reflection on the conceptualisation of “users” and “building” in BPE methods is required to create an integrated approach towards building performance.

The paper offers insights by adopting the theoretical lens of SCOT to explore an integrated approach to building performance that captures the varied needs of building users through the example of London’s Broadgate development.

This paper aims to investigate the thermal comfort practices in four non-domestic buildings and explores how the organisational context affects the actions and practices of occupants and facilities managers.

The study applied qualitative methods and post-occupancy evaluation methodologies to investigate the thermal practices in four case studies. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies was deployed, namely, semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, observation and monitoring studies of building performance.

The concept “distributed agency” was applied to analyse the thermal comfort practices in non-domestic buildings. This concept helped to illustrate everyday actions by occupants and facilities managers in relation to the organisational context. Occupants’ actions and building management practices could be affected by the organisation norms and context leading to problems and dissatisfaction with indoor thermal conditions.

This study is based on a small number of case studies and it is exploratory. Extensive monitoring data were not available. However, the research identified the thermal conditions and occupants’ satisfaction levels as background where actions to achieve thermal comfort and facilities manager’s practices took place.

The study suggests the need to examine in greater depth how the organisational goals and individual goals could be linked to support specific building performance targets.

The paper advocates for the application of multidisciplinary approaches to study the occupant dimension of building performance. It suggests the need to develop a nuanced understanding of how occupants pursue comfort as active agents who interact with the built environment.

The study has applied social practice theory to consider the influence of the organisation on thermal comfort practices in non-domestic buildings; considering the perspectives of building occupants and facilities managements within the organisational context.

The UK aims to reduce the carbon emissions in the building sector so as to achieve nearly zero-carbon new buildings by 2020. In 2010, a 25 per cent reduction of carbon emissions was mandated in England and Wales. The aim of this paper is to reveal how the design teams were coping with the energy regulation changes in 2010 in England and Wales.

An ethnographic methodology was selected to investigate in-depth the real-time design process in four architecture practices. The study was analysed in detail and compared the design process of six non-domestic buildings in England and Wales. The data collection methods included interviews, non-participant observation and document analysis and were conducted for a period of 12-21 months per case study.

The field findings suggest the disconnections between the project driver and the policy agenda and reveal what the design teams do to embed energy performance in routine project design.

Due to the in-depth nature of the data, no claims for generalisation or representativeness are made. However, the detailed analysis of the real-time design process reveals the designers’ enactment of the policy agenda, which is in essence a timeless phenomenon about policy intervention and performance-based regulations.

The designers’ enactment of and responses to the policy changes become an analytical tool to infer lessons that can be learned from the process and lead to the achievement of expected carbon reductions and the success of the policy intentions.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the usability of design reviews to inform designers about low carbon technologies and building performance. The design review of three domestic and two non-domestic case studies are evaluated.

Data collection and analysis methods include interviews and meetings with design teams and contractors, design tools audit and revision of drawings and project documentation. In addition, building's envelope and systems, and in-use performance evaluations are used to inform design teams about the actual performance of the buildings.

This study showed that targets and intentions defined in the design process are not always compatible or reality checked. These contradictions between targets within a project can undermine the performance of a building. The design review can identify unrealistic expectations to assess fairly the performance of buildings. The study showed that changes made during construction to the original design are related to lack of specifications or experience with low carbon technologies. Design reviews can help designers to identify the knowledge gaps within their practice. Furthermore, the results showed that building-related energy consumption was close to expectations, while user-related consumption was higher than expected due to occupancy assumptions made during the design. The design review showed that designers require more knowledge about buildings’ in-use performance in order to take informed-based design decisions.

This paper showed the main stages of a design review, and their usability to assess building performance and to inform designers. The results of this study suggest that designs can benefit from design reviews by learning about low carbon technologies installation and building's operation.