U s e r C e n t r e d P a s s i v e B u i l d i n g D e s i g n
421
USER CENTRED PASSIVE BUILDING DESIGN:
WHO IS THE END USER?
Ali Alzaed
1
& Dr Halim Boussabaine
2
1
School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
2
School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom,
Abstract
An end user, traditionally, is an individual who interacts with a building. A design solution
may directly affect the user behaviour. The concept of user centre passive building
design (UCPBD) helps us to understand the aspirations of the end user. Understanding
and differencing users and end-users is essential for capturing their desires. This
research presents the concepts of these terms and explains their importance in passive
building design. The research also presents the characteristics of the designed passive
buildings that enhance user predispositions, expectations, needs, motivation, etc,
through the consideration of design constructs. Finally, a new conceptual model
integrating users needs into passive design strategies. The implication of this work is
that it may lead to the design of highly performing buildings and increase the satisfaction
of the users and end-users.
Keywords:
The notion of End user, User Centred Design theories, Passive design, User
Centred Passive Building Design model, Passive Design Human Attributes.
Introduction
User Centred Design (UCD) theory is a tool which takes into consideration the needs of
an end-user and users. A passive building designer should always take into account the
end-user and user factors. Moreover, the end-user and user of a passive building should
be a paramount importance for the architect and one of the most important factors in the
design process. The interaction between an end-user and users and passive building is
not an easy task to model, however a designer must have ample prior knowledge of an
end-user and users needs when designing a passive building. Ågerfalk (2001)
categorised end-users into three Meta roles, which are performer, “i.e.,
someone
performing a communicative action by use of the system”
p.103, communicator is
described as
“who is responsible for a performed action”
p.103, and interpreter
characterized as
“someone who receives and interprets the information arising from the
action performed by the performer”
p.103. In addition, Preece et al (1994) as cited in
Ågerfalk (2001)
classified the user to several types such as trade union or management
people. However, the conventional words used to describe passive building end-user are
occupant, resident, user, etc. There is a lack of clear definition of the term user and end-
user in the building design literature. In addition, it not well documented how designers
take into consideration the needs of both end-user and users though out the design
processes
.
For this reason, we need to have an understanding of who an end-user and
a user are. We also need to differentiate between the two terms. In this paper, the
concept of the two terms are presented and explained. Also, the difference between the
two terms is discussed. The first part of this paper, will deal with the concept of the user
and end-user. The second part reviews the theory of user centred design. The third part
presents end-user and user design attributes. The last part will explain how the needs of
end-users and users might integrate into the passive building design process.
