Sensorial Design—A Collaborative Approach for Architects and Engineers

STUDENT PAPER: Post occupancy evaluations (POEs), allow the design team to see how well the initial design objectives have succeeded when in use. Current POE procedures gather data relating to its sustainability. They were largely developed throughout the sixties and seventies by academics and engineers [1] resulting in a legacy for POE procedures to focus on the technical performance of the materials and components. In this paper we propose the engineer has the skills to contribute even more to the aesthetics of a building design. Architects are naturally keen to know how the fabric and components of their designs are performing technically. Quantifiable data is often sought through collaboration with the design engineer, often using electronic devices to record performance data. There is limited input from occupants. Feedback on a building’s ‘aesthetics’ remains scant, often focussing on the visual appearance of a building design and by reviewing an occupant’s visceral response; commonly known as the ‘wow factor’. The first author has significant experience in the design of schools in South Wales, receiving the Eisteddfod Gold Medal Award for Architecture for a new school in South Wales on behalf of his employers in 2017. He has had many informal consultations with occupants who will reveal their sense of architectural delight by referring to their five common senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Survival instincts have evolved these senses to respond to changes, resulting in the occupants’ innate ability to sense changes in the built environment irrespective of how small the changes are. Architects and engineers can design for these changes and evaluate them post completion. A mixed methodology is recommended for gathering data and knowledge from post occupancy evaluations, making the outcomes of more appealing to more readers, including the inhabitants.