Using Gamification to Enhance Understanding of Building Performance

The importance of Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) surveys is paramount in understanding building performance and evaluating building technologies. However, only a small percentage of completed buildings go through a POE. A reason is that clients and non-specialist designers often do not see the value POE can add, and consider it a specialist pursuit. This paper presents ways developed to address some of these issues. Firstly it presents a software application that was developed to visualise POE data in a 4D context. It continues by describing its utilisation in a game designed to introduce students to the basic concepts of building performance and facilities management. The setup and the rules of the game are detailed, including its optimisation during the process. A pilot study and two standard workshops are described, and their results presented using both quantitative and qualitative measures. The advantages and challenges of gamifi cation described in the literature are generally confi rmed by this experiment. The paper concludes by noting the potential of novel ways of presenting building data, including 4D visualisation, in enabling more stakeholders to engage with the issue of building performance thus promoting the sustainability agenda.