The construction industry and design professions focus their attention on the building process, but for building users the story starts when construction ends. The real success or otherwise of a building depends on how effectively it meets its users’ needs and aspirations.

Building owners often need to evaluate how well their buildings are performing, for example, to prioritise investment in improvements, to enhance occupant satisfaction or productivity, to decide whether to demolish or refurbish, and so on.

The government and landowners may also wish to evaluate the overall impact on land use of changing patterns of energy use, generation and distribution.

With its multi-disciplinary expertise, CAR offers a powerful array of techniques, including Post-occupancy Surveys and Building Performance Reviews, for evaluating buildings in use, covering the following aspects of performance:

• user satisfaction
• operational efficiency and utilisation
• renewable energy and heating
• environmental conditions – heat/ventilation, light, sound
• sustainability – energy, emissions, pollution
• condition and structural integrity

CAR’s evaluation projects are configured to suit clients’ specific needs, in terms of the scale of the study, scope of topics covered, method of data collection, type of data analysis, and reporting of findings.