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The purpose of this paper is to summarise the main post occupancy evaluation (POE) techniques currently available and illustrate which method would be the most appropriate as a performance enhancement tool within higher education (HE) facilities.

The history of, and barriers to using POE as a performance enhancement tool are analysed through an extensive literature review.

Despite a historic resistance to POE by construction professionals, interest has emerged in recent years, particularly with government clients and public funded projects, with a focus on the outputs of a project as opposed to the inputs. While plenty of methods exist, only a few are specifically suited to evaluate the building performance of educational facilities to maximise student success and productivity.

Practitioners and academics who are interested in the various POE methods will find this review relevant in order to choose which method is most appropriate for the assessment needs of HE facilities.

Research on POE has been emerging in the field of facilities management for commercial and domestic buildings, but little attention has been drawn to HE buildings; although they are a great contributor to individual success and society. This paper provides an historic overview of POE while also assessing its scope, identifying drivers and barriers to it, and outlining the various methods by which it can be conducted.

To highlight the importance of effective post occupancy evaluation (POE) as part of a sustainable approach to workplaces and guide facilities professionals in their choice of POE tools.

A literature review provides an insight into sustainability and an introduction to POE options, with detailed discussion of key factors influencing the effectiveness of POE. A POE case study (at the Eden Project) provides an applied analysis of POE tools, focussing particularly on the usefulness of obtainable data.

POE is shown to be useful in addressing client satisfaction and user needs as part of sustainability assessments. Improvements to the assessment of occupants' experiences are suggested, in consideration of a more holistic approach to POE.

This paper is grounded in UK experience, but the international relevance of the issues could also be explored by readers/further research. Further exploration of novel and holistic methodologies is needed, in order to test the integrated value of the evaluation of environmental data and human perceptions.

This paper will help facilities professionals determine suitable POE approaches for workplaces, as part of an evaluation of available tools.

This paper evaluates a current topic in the property sector and demonstrates the value that facilities professionals can provide in implementing effective POE of workplaces.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the extent to which Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) is understood and applied within higher education institutions across the UK and identify users’ perceptions of its efficacy.

A mixed methodology was applied to this research. Part one consisted of an online survey intended to generate an overview of the extent of POE use across the sector. The second phase, intended to develop greater insight and understanding of users’ perceptions of POE, relied upon in-depth interviews with a smaller sample drawn those who had completed the survey in part one.

Differing models of POE are used within higher education institutions with varying degrees of complexity. Models exist that are based on standard structures and templates, whilst entirely bespoke options have been developed by some institutions. The work found that there is a clear preference for applying bespoke methods rather than standardised ones.

The research is based on a sample of Directors of Estates (DOEs) from UK Universities. The conclusions relate specifically to that sector and context. The extent for broader generalisation is limited by the research sample.

The work shows that POE is understood to have differing purpose and effectiveness in individual Universities. As a result there has been a proliferation in the number of models developed and applied. This leads to the conclusion that more coherent and consistent understanding should be promoted within the sector.

The work has implications for the effective management of university buildings to support user satisfaction.

This paper indicates that there is prevalence of applying POE processes in higher education institutions and that specific models have been developed for the sector. However, the extent to which the process is valued and understood is highly variable.

Client satisfaction is a key element of repeat business and for securing future work in the construction industry. There are areas still in need of improvement for contractors; these areas include the handover process to clients and the subsequent aftercare and organisational learning. Post‐occupancy evaluation (POE) offers an opportunity for a holistic perspective towards continual improvement in construction. While the challenges of POE have been well documented in the design phase, the role of the principal contractor in this area has been under‐researched. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of the contractor in the POE process and to identify good practice in improving the building environment for the end users.

The research comprised a comprehensive review of current literature with a focus on existing practices. The review highlighted a need for further research into contractor involvement in POE in the UK construction industry. An electronic questionnaire survey was produced and distributed to the United Kingdom Contractors Group. Subsequent semi‐structured interviews were conducted with willing participants from the survey, to further investigate the responses to the survey.

The key findings from the research highlighted the lack of contractor involvement in POE and insufficient knowledge on how or when to conduct POE on a project. Many of the barriers to POE identified by previous research are not applicable to contractor involvement in POE. The majority of construction professionals believe that POE is time intensive and that there is difficulty in interpreting the information collected from POE. Dissemination of information internally and externally has the potential to offer significant value to organisational and individual development of all stakeholders involved in the process.

The findings are likely to be of interest to designer's facilities management professionals and those involved in construction. Contractors should view POE as a business opportunity to improve the end output for the client and end‐users and not as another expensive problem.

This paper addresses the perceptions of POE within the major UK contractor group. It identifies relevant barriers to POE in the construction process and highlights the lack of POE penetration into the wider construction industry. The research has highlighted that POE has the potential to improve contractor performance and add value to end users of new projects. It has identified that previous research has focused on consultant‐led research as opposed to contractor‐led.

This study aims to present the design quality assessment of facilities on a university campus in Saudi Arabia.

Forty-nine standardized design quality indicators (DQIs) have been adopted for the study. These were classified into relevant categories including: “Indoor Environment, Safety and Maintenance,” “Furniture, Utilities and Spaces” and “Privacy, Appearance and Surrounding Areas.” A web-based survey was used to obtain responses from 207 respondents. The survey was designed based on a Likert scale of satisfaction and was analyzed to obtain the satisfaction indices (SI) as well as Design Quality Scores (DQS).

Occupants were dissatisfied the “level of noise generated from within the space,” “amount of natural light from daylighting systems” and “ease of control of air ventilation systems” among others. The DQS revealed that residential buildings had the highest design quality in terms of “Indoor Environment, Safety, and Maintenance” and “Privacy, Appearance and Surrounding Areas.” Administrative buildings had the best design quality in terms of “furniture, utilities and spaces.” Academic buildings had the lowest design quality in terms of “Indoor Environment, Safety and Maintenance” and “Privacy, Appearance and Surrounding Areas.”

Ultimately, the study demonstrated how the adoption of a standard set of DQIs could facilitate the standardization of design quality evaluation in the property sector as well as identify best practices through comparison and benchmarking.

This paper aims to identify user-centred facilities performance attributes of higher education buildings and how they can be used to evaluate individual learning spaces. These attributes are then consolidated for developing a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) framework in this context.

A systematic review of the literature on the POE of higher education buildings is conducted.

This study identifies 36 facility performance attributes in higher education buildings, which can be categorised into four dimensions: ambient; spatial; technology; and building support and services requirements. These facility performance attributes need to meet user requirements to achieve satisfactory feedback. It is also important to note that user requirements differ from one learning space to another; thus, it is essential to consider the characteristics of individual learning spaces.

The proposed evaluation framework is context-based and may not be suitable to evaluate other types of buildings. It may be further extended and enhanced to meet other facility management evaluation needs.

The POE framework developed in this research can be used to generate facilities management analytic to inform future design and improve existing higher education facilities.

This research has developed a holistic POE framework tool to meet user requirements in higher education buildings.

This paper seeks to adopt an investigative approach to post‐occupancy evaluation using major technical and functional criteria of performance on the facilities of a postgraduate hostel at the campus of the University of Lagos, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria.

Data collection was based on a survey through self‐administered questionnaires in which users of the building were asked to report on their perceptions and experience of the facility. The user satisfaction survey was developed based on the students' feedback on their experience with 29 identified performance criteria obtained from a review of the literature and an interview with a member of the university's hall management committee. Data at the organizational level were collected by personal interviews with the facilities manager and co‐ordinator of hostels of the university.

The user satisfaction survey identified areas of deficiency, particularly in maintenance, and facilitated the assessment of the overall performance of the building.

This study demonstrates how universities in Nigeria can assess the management of hostel facilities by hostel administrators and facilities managers. Apart from the results of the user satisfaction survey being useful as evidence to access funds for the improvement of student hostel facilities, the feedback will be helpful in the design and management of new hostel facilities.

The purpose of this paper is to present outcomes from a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of a sustainable university building development.

A POE was conducted for a sustainable university building in Melbourne, Australia. The method included interviews with key stakeholders involved in the design, construction and occupation of the building. The interviews were complemented by conducting a Builder User Satisfaction survey and analysis of two year’s worth of building performance data.

While technically the building saw a significant improvement in performance in comparison to existing buildings at the university, it ultimately did not meet its design performance goals as determined by the design rating. The interviews revealed limited formal documenting of lessons learnt and the challenges associated with using a sustainable and innovative building to drive cultural change. A major success was the realisation by the university of the benefits that the systematic POE provided. Lessons are now being applied to other new and refurbished buildings on campus, with POE now an integrated part of these processes.

While there are some studies of sustainable university operations and buildings, many focus on one or two parts of the process and fail to include evaluation of the full sustainability approach to check if stated goals have been met. This paper begins to address this gap. Learnings from the research are applicable to the wider building development industry and demonstrate the important role universities can play in shaping the sustainability of urban environments.

Design studio courses take place at the core of education disciplinary design such as architecture and interior architecture. Studios in which design studio courses are conducted can also be used for other practical courses as well. Another important feature of these studios is that they are extensively used by students for individual or group work other than during class hours. Since the students, either on their own or with the project coordinator, experience design process in these studios, their spatial characteristics are highly significant to conduct this process effectively. Within this scope, the aim of the research is to evaluate open and cell type studios commonly used in traditional architecture education through Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) approach, to discuss to what extent these studios meet the spatial requirements of today’s instructional methods and to develop a suggestion for design studio spatial use by taking the strengths and weaknesses of these studios. Accordingly, technical, physical and behavioral variables determining the performance of design studios within the context of spatial requirements have been identified through reviewing the related literature. In framework of a case study, a survey formed with the aforementioned variables was administered to architecture and interior architecture students studying in open and cell type design studios in order to measure their spatial performance. Followingly, in the final part of the study, referring to survey results and evaluation of spatial requirements of today’s instructional methods and tools, a combi design studio space organization has been suggested.

This study aims to present the post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of a smart building on a university campus.

Literature review was conducted to report on the smart building concept and POE. A total of 49 performance indicators, classified according to the technical, functional and behavioral elements, were investigated. A case study of a smart building in a university campus was selected to assess the users’ satisfaction through POE. A total of 90 users from the academic and administrative staff of the building were contacted through a Web-based questionnaire survey, while 35 usable responses were obtained.

The findings revealed that the occupants were satisfied with several aspects of the building performance indicators; however, issues related to ventilation, control of thermostats, amount of natural lighting through low-E windows and privacy were identified. Ultimately, the study reveals that, although the adoption of smart technologies has the potential to provide an excellent and comfortable work environment, the efficient selection and/or maintenance of the adopted technologies is crucial.

The concept of smart buildings is perceived to be the future of the industry. Despite this growing need for “smartization,” the performance of a building ultimately depends on how it satisfies the needs of those who use them. The value and implication of this study is inherent in its emphasis on the satisfaction of buildings users in futuristic designs of buildings. The study shows that POEs can be used to assess the satisfaction of users of smart buildings to understand what works, as well as what needs redesign or improvement.