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
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The assessment is based on the design constructs of functionality, performance,
usability, flexibility, reliability and maintainability. The feedback from the life cycle of the
design process is also included to capture essential knowledge for developing future
designs. The process of user centred design is an approach that ensures that all of four
layers of the model interact with each other in a way that delivers highly performing
building assets that satisfy all end-users aspirations.
Discussion
As we demonstrated in this paper the notion of users and end-users need is a significant
requirements that need to be developed further. Despite an increasing interest in
building performance assessment and sustainability evaluation. The majority tend to
concentrate on one or two aspects, such post occupancy evaluation, environmental
issues, etc. Various researches are interested in performance assessment. However,
considering users and end-users needs was not part of the various assessments tools.
There is also a lack of differentiating between users and end-users in the design of
building assets. As we demonstrated in this paper, various definitions and concepts are
attributed to users and end-users. From all these definitions, we extracted an inclusive
view that is the users and end-users in the building industry. This was necessary to help
us to map out accurately their the predispositions, expectations, needs, motivation, etc.
By using the end user-needs as benchmark for design assessment, the potential of
improving the indoor environment and user well being in buildings is enormous. We
have proposed User centred passive building design as a design paradigm that can help
the architects to meet the majority of end-users needs in terms of functionality,
performance, usability, flexibility, reliability and maintainability. The ISO 13407 and 9126
user centred design standards were used as guide to elicit the factors in the list. User
needs in the suggested list include various performance measures. The list considers
user aspirations from both physically and psychologically aspects. We hypothesize that
any design that includes the suggested factors will lead to a high level of end-users
satisfaction and high building performance.
Conclusion:
This work has considered the concepts of users and end users and their applications in
the design of passive buildings. We considered users aspirations from physically,
economic and psychologically aspects. The proposed conceptual model will be an
added knowledge to the existing methods for helping the designers to meet the end user
needs in the design of passive buildings. Hopefully, this will contribute to the satisfaction
of the end user and lead to designing highly performing building assets. This study may
go a long way to build up capacity and knowledge in this vital area of practice and
research. Hopefully, the knowledge gained form this research might be used to develop
design standards and appropriate tools for end-users needs assessment.
