Design for Manageability: pointers from a decade of research on occupied buildings

Conflicts between systems and uncertainty in their use are symptoms of unmanageable complexity, a feature of modern buildings which arises from the tendency, first, to require too much of the building and then too much of its management. Often buildings are not designed with management and use in mind, and so can exhibit pathological characteristics unnecessary over-use of fossil fuels, chronic illnesses of occupants like dry eyes, hot, dusty and noisy spaces, absenteeism, productivity losses, uncontrollable indoor environments and low user morale. Many of these are inter-related with the culture of the occupying organisation, and it is often difficult to attribute direct causes. Chronic features tend also to reinforce each other, so that once standards slip they become difficult and expensive to reverse. These observations come from research on occupied buildings carried out in the United Kingdom over the past decade. In this paper, we offer some pointers which may be incorporated into strategic thinking about building design and use, especially some of the principles which should be introduced at the briefing stage of a project.