Multidisciplinary post-occupancy evaluation of a multifamily house: An example linking sociological, energy and LCA studies

Abstract The way humans interact within buildings strongly affect building energy consumptions and environmental impacts. In addition, the building and its environment influence the human way of life. Human-building interactions are thus of interest in both engineering domains and social sciences. However, building engineering and social sciences are rarely suited by each other. In this article, a multidisciplinary post-occupancy evaluation of a new fully inhabited rental multifamily house is undertaken. A key feature is the contribution of a sociologist and engineers on the performance assessment of one building. Each actor performed separately: i) an immersive and co-reflexive sociological study, based on in-situ discussions, with inhabitants; ii) a study of energy consumptions and indoor environment through onsite measurements; iii) a life cycle assessment. Then, for the first time a sociologist and engineers cross-analysed their results and identified five convergence points studied from different perspectives in each discipline. They are related to people, health, outdoor conditions, use of systems and norms. The disciplinary and combined results are useful to improve the design of future buildings and the conditions of existing buildings. This article offers a baseline for a broader interdisciplinary analysis of building performances by issuing recommendations for future studies.