Facilities management of passively controlled buildings

Abstract

The trend in facilities management towards outsourcing is in conflict with the current trend towards holistic low energy building design. Designers are busily “designing out” building services, in favour of new passive/low energy technologies which are integrated into the building envelope. A lack of understanding of each other’s discipline allows designers to produce “passively” controlled buildings which are difficult for facilities managers to manage. Examines the nature of the conflict between holistic “passive” building design and facilities management. Includes a case study based on ten recently constructed passive/mixed‐mode buildings. The case study appraises each building with respect to facilities management, and identifies specific problem areas that could be improved and which are in need of further investigation.