ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the theoretical section of the book, setting out the role of longitudinal studies in improving design iteration, and the need to consider BPE through the complete life cycle of a building. People carry out home renovations for all sorts of personal reasons which are unanticipated by the designer, often prioritising aesthetics over energy efficiency measures - a factor frequently overlooked by BPE studies. Longitudinal BPE studies can also help to highlight how initial capital expenditure directly affects operational expenditure and maintenance costs. Longitudinal BPE enables inhabitants, housing developers and design teams to benchmark the performance of their homes and technology over time. BPE lessons identified during the briefing, design, implementation and initial inhabitation stages can be immediately fed forward into the housing project. Organisational learning using housing BPE can also help design practices to improve their processes and design products using a similar approach.
