Post-Occupancy Evaluation: Research Paradigm or Diagnostic Tool

Abstract

POE (Post-Occupancy Evaluation) has existed, in some form, since people began occupying buildings. Its association with relatively systematic assessment of how well a building performs on explicit criteria is more recent, but has existed for at least 25 years. This chapter argues that the role of POE in improving building performance has been inadvertently undermined by trying to make POE an academically acceptable form of evaluation research. POE as a diagnostic tool (essentially a clinical technique) and environment-behavior research (intended to help develop a solid research tradition to guide architecture and interior design practice) are both useful. They share common concerns, but they are not synonymous. The development of facility management, a client-based professional discipline whose foremost concern is for buildings-in-use, has shifted attention from the architecture and design (as well as academic) communities as direct beneficiaries of POE results to the organization paying for and occupying the building. In doing so it has created a set of conditions that is beginning to make POE an acceptable management tool with potential for significantly improving building performance.