Post-occupancy Evaluation for Liveability in Urban Districs

Abstract

Climate change and depletion of natural resources are global issues that demand a continuous transformation of the built environment. Urban sustainability practices and green building certifications lead the construction, renovations and operations in cities nowadays. These practices pursue optimization, emissions reduction on different systems or efficiency, for instance, the green energy transitions. However, these practices do not necessarily enhance social sustainability aspects such as quality of life, physical, social and cultural well-being. Furthermore, the attention to post-occupancy and operational aspects tend to be neglected in certifications and sustainability practices; as these relate mainly to the plan, design and construction phases. Therefore, it is needed to understand how the qualities that enhance liveability at the urban district’s scale can be defined for a local context, and how can these qualities be evaluated to understand liveability performance in urban districts. This research project aims to generate a post-occupancy evaluation tool (POE) to better understand the performance of urban districts interventions regarding a sustainably enhanced liveability. The POE development methodology is based on a comprehensive literature review regarding the concept of liveability and how this can be measured through indicators. The outcome is a holistic list of liveability principles to enhance the liveability performance and a POE framework for assessing the urban districts liveability during operations. Finally, a case study evaluation is conducted to determine the tool scalability.