Does the fact that we need an organisation dedicated to making buildings "usable" say everything about the problems our industry has with meeting client expectations? In the 1980s Bill Bordass did a lot of work on the technical and energy performance of buildings and found that behind many technical problems were difficulties on the human side - both in how buildings got procured and in how people - occupants and management - related to the technology. Similarly, good results were often as much a consequence of skill, insight and dedication, than of the technical solution itself. "I therefore worked more closely with human factor specialists to try to bring the "hard" and "soft" sides of building performance together," he recalls. In the early 1990s, Dr Bordass worked with Adrian Leaman of Building Use Studies on a number of projects, including a very fruitful one with BRE on how people use controls in buildings. This got them both interested in the usability and manageability of buildings, their services and their controls; and in using experience of buildings in use to influence briefing, design and management. Bordass and Leaman are now the directors of education and research at the Usable Buildings Trust (UBT).
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