The construction industry and design professions focus their attention on the building process, but for building users the story starts when construction ends. The real success or otherwise of a building depends on how effectively it meets its users’ needs and aspirations.
Building owners often need to evaluate how well their buildings are performing, for example, to prioritise investment in improvements, to enhance occupant satisfaction or productivity, to decide whether to demolish or refurbish, and so on.
With its multi-disciplinary expertise, CAR offers a powerful array of techniques, including Post-occupancy Survey and Building Performance Review, for evaluating buildings in use, covering the following aspects of performance:
- condition and structural integrity
- user satisfaction
- operational efficiency and utilisation
- environmental conditions heat/ventilation, light, sound
- sustainability energy, emissions, pollution
CAR’s evaluation projects are configured to suit clients’ specific needs, in terms of the scale of the study, scope of topics covered, method of data collection, type of data analysis, and reporting of findings.