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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 4

Publication Date: April 25, 2021

DOI:10.14738/assrj.84.10021.

Barone, R. P., Banning, J. H., & Clemons, S. A. (2021). Graduate Research Abstracts of Post-Occupancy Evaluations Used in Design

and Construction: A Bounded Qualitative Meta-Study. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(4). 136-149.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Graduate Research Abstracts of Post-Occupancy Evaluations Used

in Design and Construction: A Bounded Qualitative Meta-Study

Ryan P. Barone

School of Education, Colorado State University, United States

James H. Banning

School of Education, Colorado State University, United States

Stephanie A. Clemons

Department of Design and Merchandising, Colorado State University

United States

ABSTRACT

Since its formal introduction in 1967, the concept of post-occupancy evaluation

(POE) has been the focus of several substantial books as well as being addressed in

key professional journals. In addition, specific POE endeavors related to private and

government projects have issued reports of their work. Despite this attention,

college and university graduate research work on POEs has not been explored. The

purpose of this meta-study using document analysis is to explore the characteristics

and implications of college and university graduate POE research focusing on

design/construction by analyzing the abstracts of graduate master’s theses and

doctoral dissertations that substantially utilized the concept of POE. Results are

reported by addressing the characteristics of the research degrees (location/place,

type, year, institution, methods associated with the degree, and status of

publication) and the characteristics of the research (settings, and focus). The article

concludes by calling on the design/construction fields to explore ways to support a

greater focus on the communication/coordination and dissemination of

international graduate POE research.

Key Words: post-occupancy evaluation, meta analysis, qualitative research,

design and build

INTRODUCTION

The evaluation of building design and construction after completion has been an integral part

of improving human spaces since the earliest days of developing the built environment. Van de

Ryn and Silverstein’s (1967) groundbreaking research analyzed residence halls at the

University of California at Berkeley using an environmental analysis methodology indicating

that the typical, new dormitory design was woefully inadequate. With the publication of this

study the concept of POEs emerged to form a solid foundation in design/construction work.

Post-occupancy evaluations gather human-focused evidence such as occupants’ perceptions

and metrics to determine whether buildings are working as intended. The POE is viewed as the

“cornerstone” of building performance and analysis helping illuminate the impact of these

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 8, Issue 4, April-2021

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

thematic analyses of the dissertation topics utilized an inductive coding strategy. From each

research abstract, setting and focus codes were induced. From the listing of these codes, a

thematic structure regarding the topical nature of the research was induced using the constant

comparative method (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). To ensure trustworthiness of the inductive

coding process, the strategies of peer debriefing and triangulation of researchers are used

(Creswell, 2009).

Results

In Appendix A, each of the 108 research studies are presented and organized by the setting of

the POE activity. In addition, the following description of the results are organized by

summaries of the characteristics of the graduate POE degree including place and type of degree,

year of the degree, research methods associated with the degree, and publication status of the

degree. In addition, the results section provides a summary of the characteristics of the

research induced by the data analysis. The two inductive themes are settings of the research

activity (Table 1) and the focus of the POEs (Table 2).

CHARACTERISTICS OF GRADUATE POE DEGREES

Place and type of degree

Of the 108 graduate degree POE research studies 47 degrees were granted in the United States

(U.S.) and 61 degrees were earned at outside of this country. The United Kingdom (U.K.)

produced 33 studies followed by China with 15 and Canada with 11. One degree each was

awarded from the Netherlands and Qatar. Across these 6 countries, 65 different institutions

awarded the degrees. The University of Nottingham (U. K.) and the University of Minnesota (U.

S.) had the largest number of degrees awarded with five each. Fifty-seven percent of the

institutions awarded only one degree during the 40-year time period of the study. Fifty-seven

of the graduate degrees were at the doctoral level and 51 were master’s degrees. The graduate

degree POE studies are organized by setting (office setting, health facility,

education/entertainment, K-12, housing/residential, outdoor settings, education/higher

education, commercial and conceptual process) and are presented in Appendix A.

Year of the degree

The first reported degree focusing on the POE came in 1979. The most productive years were

from 2010 through 2016. During this six-year period nearly half of all the degrees were

awarded. In most years less than five degrees were granted, but for unknown reasons 2011 was

the most productive year with 12 graduate degrees.

Methods associated with research degree

Diversity was present in the methodology of the conducted research. Eighteen of the studies

used a quantitative methodology that included some type of statistical analysis. An exemplar is

Buckhart’s (2016) master’s POE thesis evaluating the daylighting in a new LEED platinum

laboratory building. Buckhart (2016) conducted an observation of interior shade positioning

and usage and then took measurements off illuminance, glare, and spectral power distribution

using a handheld illuminance meter. Findings include the effectiveness of the building’s

daylighting design is dependent on the use of shades or lack thereof, notably that occupants are

not optimally adjusting the indoor environment to maximize daylighting potential (Buckhart,

2016).