If you build it, will they use it?
by Signo Uddenberg, Director of Innovation
On a recent trip to Guam, I started thinking about the term adaptive architecture. Not because I’m a philosopher, but because I was struck by how many architectural features that are designed to be adaptive don’t appear to be actually adapting.
The thought struck me during a walkthrough of a brand new naval barrack — LEED certified and built to the most modern standards. Every window in the building was closed, though all were operable. Every room fan was still, though all were fully functional and connected to a power supply.
Room to room, the scene was the same: shades drawn, windows shut, fans off, AC running full blast. Outside, it was pleasant under the shade of palm trees, cooled by an onshore tropical breeze.
This scenario illustrates a common shortfall in the green building trend — to construct a LEED building for sake of constructing a LEED building. Adaptive features (designed for energy efficiency) mean little if they fail to account for how well the building’s occupants actually utilize them.
As the example of the barrack shows, adaptive features left in a fixed state do nothing to minimize energy consumption. Arguably, their disuse amounts to wasted resources.
Conditioned To Air Condition
I started questioning the root of the problem. Do people just not want to use fans or windows? Or do they simply not know how or when to use them?
I think the answer is both. Cultural conditioning establishes our preferences for certain states of comfort (e.g. air conditioning vs. natural conditioning). Convenience influences how we choose to regulate the temperature of our surroundings. It is much easier to adjust the air conditioning dial to the desired setting than it is to fiddle with the fans and windows until the desired temperature is achieved.
So while the naval barrack was designed to be adaptive, its ability to adapt rests entirely in the hands of its users. Users who are still in the process of adapting to the island climate of Guam. Users who may not be so quick to adapt or adopt new habits themselves.
The occupants of the naval barrack developed their behaviors long before they ever set foot in Guam. Unlearning habits is no easy feat. Without proper training, how are they to know how to optimize the modern building’s climate control? Especially when optimization means conserving unseen energy resources rather than the immediate gratification of turning on the air conditioning in the heat.
Adapting Users
So what then? Give up on adaptive architecture?
No. The answer is to recognize that designing for adaptive architecture is only the beginning of the story. To actualize the adaptive features requires going beyond the physical design of the building to the design of the user experience. Experience design that duly acknowledges buildings as dynamic places where people come and go, make decisions according to their own personal agendas, and go about their day generally unaware of the environmental consequences of their choices.
Adaptive designs need to creatively engage users in their cultural context and rival the convenience of a traditional solution or present an alternative with a payoff that outweighs its apparent inconvenience. Or just bypass human operation altogether and adapt automatically.
So next time you see a building feature that requires human user activation or are designing a building with a particular intent, consider what measures are necessary to ensure the building operates as it was intended. The user isn’t there to operate the building. Added effort and patience are in short supply in our daily routines. So design for the user experience to get adaptive features utilized and not just built.
