Post occupancy evaluation for sustainability assessment framework of retrofitting commercial office building

Abstract

The researchers in Facilities Management (FM) have emphasized the need to prioritise customer insight towards organisational success. Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) is widely used for different environments and facilities: for instance, to investigate the added value of FM, workplace management, performance management and sustainability. The commercial office building has been identified as having key potential in addressing occupants performance. Evidence from POE suggests that retrofitted buildings often fall short on the expectation of occupants. This suggests that there is clear gap between the benefits of retrofitted buildings and user expectations. The aim of this research is to develop sustainability assessment framework for retrofitting commercial office buildings. The objectives include: exploring experts‘ view of sustainability criteria and parameters for retrofitting commercial office buildings, determining the important sustainability criteria and parameters for improving occupants productivity, developing framework for retrofitting commercial office buildings that improves occupants‘ productivity and validating the indicators assessment. A sequential mixed method research approach consisting of in-depth interview and questionnaire survey was adopted. Data from the interview were analysed by thematic content analysis using Nvivo 8 software. Thirteen sustainability criteria and thirty-one parameters were identified which forms the basis for questionnaire survey. The structured questionnaires were distributed to occupants in four selected commercial office buildings within Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Descriptive statistics and important index analysis were used to identify the important criteria and parameters that influence the productivity of occupants, and the data was further subjected to testing for statistical significance using one-sample t-test analysis. The results led to the extraction of sustainability criteria and parameters that serve as the basis for developing the framework. Validation of the framework was carried out using commercial office building to test the indicators. The result shows an overall score of 75.06% for the case study building, indicating that the framework is suitable for sustainability assessment of retrofitting commercial office buildings for occupants‘ productivity. The findings of this research can greatly benefit the construction industry particularly facilities managers as guideline for sustainable upgrading of commercial office building. The framework can be use to assess the criteria of thermal and physical comfort, functionality, space planning, safety, security and accessibility. Assessment score of 50% and above for the criteria indicate that the building meets the sustainability requirement and below 50% indicates need for retrofitting.