Feedback from Occupants in ‘as Designed’ Low-carbon Apartments, a Case Study in Swansea, UK

Abstract

This paper discusses the findings from the first set of occupant surveys, as a part of an extensive building performance evaluation study, in Wales, UK. The case study building is an award winning, as designed low-carbon and affordable apartment building, developed by a housing association in Swansea, UK. It consists of 69 apartments (six one bedroom, 63 two bedroom) over six storeys; designed and built to level four of the code for sustainable homes (CfSH), a benchmarking system used in the UK for stipulating environmental performance. Residents started occupying the building from February and March 2012. Semi structured interviews with occupants have been undertaken by researchers from the Ecological Built Environment Research & Enterprise group at Cardiff Metropolitan University in the UK, as part of their research for work package six of the Low Carbon Built Environment project. The first set of interviews in May to September 2012 revealed different issues in the building performance affecting comfort conditions of occupants. High indoor air temperatures, inadequate ventilation, lack of daylight, lack of cold water and lack of a proper induction are among the key issues found through the occupant surveys. Findings documented in this paper will be further investigated with physical monitoring of the internal conditions in three apartments and the communal corridors and through a second set of occupant interviews, which were undertaken from December 2012 to find out if there are any issues in the building during winter. In addition, there will be interviews with the design and construction team. This paper will be useful to academics, designers, contractors, environmental engineers and building owners.