Post-Occupancy Evaluation of Neighbourhoods: a review of the literature

Authors: Paola Boarin, Priscila Besen and Errol Haarhoff

Abstract

This literature review presents the state of the art of Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) of neighbourhoods. POE is a useful way of confirming the actual performance of the built environment, including quantitative and qualitative data. Although POEs are commonly used in the building scale, there are limited examples of POEs in large scale, including communities, cities and regions. Therefore, this report presents the main methodologies and examples internationally and in New Zealand. Within the existing methodologies, existing assessment and certification schemes for neighbourhoods are presented and compared. At the end of this report, a proposed framework for the Post-Occupancy Evaluation of the selected case study of Hobsonville Point is proposed, including a questionnaire for residents.
This report is designed to offer a frame of reference for subsequent research in to New Zealand’s neighbourhood context and to provide an overview of the application of PostOccupancy Evaluation at the neighbourhood scale, focusing on environmental performance and liveability. Relevant sections of literature have been kept as original quotes, in order to ensure that this review can be used as a tool for writing subsequent research reports and
articles.