Working with People

PERFORMANCE

Recorded by Sofie Pelsmakers, images by Essi Nisonen

KEY READINGS 

• Housing Fit For Purpose: Performance, Feedback and Learning, Stevenson, F. RIBA

• Energy, People Buildings: Making Sustainable Architecture Work, Kimpian, J., Hartman, H., Pelsmakers, S., RIBA Publishing

• Designing for the climate emergency, a Guide for Architecture Students, Pelsmakers, S., Donovan, E., Hoggard, A., Kozminska, U., RIBA

• Understanding your design: what others want and think about it? / Pelsmakers, S., Hilberth, T., The 6th International Conference on Architecture and Built Environment S.Arch : Conference Proceedings. 2019.

INSPIRATIONAL BUILT EXAMPLES

• Haworth Tomkins, Everyman theatre, UK

• Koivisto Suomi Architects, Alusta Pavilion, Helsinki, Finland

• Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, Mellor Primary School, Stockport, UK

WORKING WITH PEOPLE

Buildings are not static; they interact with changing environments, users, and evolving climate conditions. However, they often don't perform as expected, leading to higher energy consumption, user dissatisfaction, and increased carbon emissions. These underperformance issues often go unnoticed because we don't actively collect feedback from users and building systems, which can be done through Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) and Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) processes. To ensure that what you design work as intended, you need to work with people at different stages: i.e., you need to gather ’feedback’ from a range of stakeholders before, during and after the design to understand their needs and expectations and refine your project accordingly. This reduces the risk to the project’s performance once finished, which is fundamental to ensure that the climate emergency is tackled in reality and not just on paper. Remember: including a diversity of stakeholders enables us to understand and respond to different needs and expectations in our projects.