The Barbican Centre: Can post-occupancy evaluation methods be used to design workable retrofit solutions for iconic and listed buildings Carrie Behar, PhD Researcher

Initiate a conversation about whether standardised post-occupancy evaluation methodologies (POE) have any application at an atypical case study site. Aim of Presentation Structure Introduce research context and case study site Research questions Methodology and research methods Headline results Effectiveness and limitations of chosen methodology

80% of the homes that UK citizens will inhabit in 2050 have already been built- need for mass retrofit 9,300 conservation areas and 374,081 listed buildings in England (1.5%= listed, 4.6% in conservation areas) What to do with those buildings that do not lend themselves to fabric interventions? (e.g. iconic and listed buildings) POE Housing and Retrofit Growing recognition of performance gap between predicted and actual energy use, as a result of people and behaviour- could POE be used to inform retrofit decisions?

Case Study Site: The Barbican Centre

1.How well do the residential areas of the Barbican Centre perform in terms of design, lighting, noise, thermal comfort and perceived personal control, and how do these results compare to benchmark data from other UK housing projects? 2.How can we improve the energy performance of the Barbican, given its status as a Listed Building and the age of its heating system? 3.How effective is POE as a diagnostic tool for characterising baseline user satisfaction, energy use and behaviour, as well as in identifying treatable problems and solutions at a case study site? Research Questions

POE Study of Barbican Occupant Survey BUSBehaviourBespoke Heating Energy Analysis Metered data Methods Case study investigating the issue ‘within some real life context’ (Yin 2009) qualitative and quantitative questions 19.2% response rate (395 surveys)

Results: BUS Barbican Control over heating Overall satisfaction high but: Dry air all year Variable temperatures Poor heating control Poor noise control

Results: Heating Controls

Standardised POE as Method?

Conclusions Critical question about heating and cooling control was added after review with residents and is site specific ‘One size fits all’ POE method might not be best solution for this kind of building, but is a useful departure point to get to the bottom of what is going on Bespoke investigation produces best results but there is a trade off in terms of time

Any Questions? Thank you!