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Enhancing building performance

Article  in  Architectural Science Review · November 2013

DOI: 10.1080/00038628.2013.830591

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Robert Marans
University of Michigan
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Enhancing building performance

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Robert W. Marans
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University of Michigan, USA
Published online: 04 Sep 2013.

To cite this article: Architectural Science Review (2013): Enhancing building performance, Architectural Science Review

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 Architectural Science Review, 2013
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2013.830591
BOOK REVIEW
Systematic performance evaluation
4707
Enhancing building performance, edited by Shauna
Mallory-Hill, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Chris Watson,
Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, 360 pp., illust., index.,
US$115.00 (pbk), ISBN 978-0-470-65759-1
For more than a quarter century, thoughtful architects and
Downloaded by [University of Michigan] at 11:14 05 September 2013
architectural researchers have argued that systematic efforts
are needed to understand the outcomes, consequences, and
implications of what architects create. The focus of this
effort should be on building occupants or users and specifi-
cally their activities, satisfactions, performance, and health.
Moreover, this information together with an understand-
ing of building systems has been viewed as critical to the
programming and design of new buildings. The former
produced a number of seminal post-occupancy evaluations
(POEs) while the latter became an integral part of prac-
tice in several architectural firms in Great Britain and the
United States. This history along with the amalgamation of
POE and systematic programming is the subject of Enhanc-
ing Building Performance, an edited book evolving from
the collaboration of its editors and a large number of like-
minded academic and professional colleagues from around
the world. The role of the Environmental Design Research
Association in facilitating this collaboration through its
annual conferences is rightfully acknowledged. Enhanc-
ing Building Performance is about building performance
evaluation (BPE) defined as ‘a systematic and rigorous
approach encompassing a number of activities includ-
ing research, measurement, comparison, evaluation, and
feedback that take place through every phase of a build-
ing’s lifecycle including planning, briefing/programming,
design, construction, occupancy, and recycling’.
The book stems from the organizational efforts of one
of its editors, Wolfgang Preiser, whose pioneering work on
building performance dates back to the late 1960s and who
was instrumental in establishing the International Build-
ing Performance Evaluation Consortium for the purpose
of exchanging information aimed at advancing the the-
ory and practice of building performance. The book also
expands on an earlier Preiser co-edited book (with Jacque-
line Vischer) that presents another set of case studies cov-
ering the field (Assessing Building Performance, Elsevier,
2005). Co-editors are Shauna Mallory-Hill, a Canadian
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architectural educator and Chris Watson, a practitioner from
New Zealand with extensive international experience.
Despite the editors’ organization of the book’s 26
chapters into five parts, this reviewer believes that the cur-
rent publication consists of three key sections. The first
presents an overview of BPE, its origins, and evolution
(Chapter 1), and then describes a process model for organiz-
ing a BPE (Chapter 2). The second section discusses numer-
ous design processes emphasizing participatory techniques
(Chapters 3–6), while the third key section presents a series
of case studies illustrating BPE in action (Chapters 7–13),
the application of various approaches/methodologies to
BPE (Chapters 14–20), and its integration into architec-
tural curricula (Chapters 21–25). The editors’ part V con-
sists of an epilogue written by Francis Duffy, a long-time
and respected architectural practitioner and educator who
wisely comments on the application of BPE in the British
context (Chapter 26).
For aspiring architectural students, the book should
be required reading as it presents an important and often
neglected perspective on what architects do or should be
doing in their professional lives. For practitioners, educa-
tors, and researchers, it presents an up-to-date set of case
studies and insights covering emerging methodologies and
topics relatively new to the field (e.g. green buildings,
sustainability, simulations).
Notwithstanding, the book falls short in meeting this
reviewer’s expectations in several respects. First, there is no
attempt to synthesize what has been learned over the years
from conducting POEs and BPEs. That is, there is an accu-
mulation of knowledge from the work of Preiser and others
that needs to be skillfully summarized. And unlike Assess-
ing Building Performance, the editors offer few insights
into the future of POE and BPE for both practitioners and
researchers. Finally, there is no mention of the transferabil-
ity of this important set of activities to other environmental
design settings such as cities, neighbourhoods, and parks.
Hopefully, these topics can be addressed by the editors in
future contributions to this important but sadly underplayed
set of activities in the architectural world.
Robert W. Marans
University of Michigan, USA
marans@umich.edu
© 2013, Robert W. Marans