Practice Perspectives on Digital Assessment Tools for Sustainable Building Design

Abstract

Digital tools for building sustainability assessment (BSA) can help architects manage social and environmental impact, but existing tools see little use in design practice. Where previous research has emphasised the usability of tool interfaces for the individual practitioner, this thesis instead explores how tool usefulness can be understood through the relational context of design practice. The thesis develops the theory and method of the practice perspective through three studies.First, through a literature meta-review of previous tool reviews, it was found that previously dominating perspectives are techno-centric, and at best user-centric, indicating that a relational view of practice is missing in existing research.Second, using the "interview to the double" technique with architectural practitioners in Nordic countries, and through ethnographic observations in an architectural practice in Sweden, it was found that previous activity-based models of the design process can guide tool development if extended by including the communicative purpose of design activities. It was also found that actors integrate sustainability in building design through a digitally mediated process of detecting and managing frictions. Digital tools both provide knowledge about the design situation (epistemic dimension), and structure how the design can be evaluated (normative dimension). The practice perspective highlights the normative dimension, by which the use of tools becomes relationally justified.Third, the practice perspective was applied during testing of the BSA tool prototype Heath in five Swedish architectural practices. The novel concept practitioner experience (PX) was formalised, initiating a heuristics formation process which expands the concept of user experience (UX) with attention to the relational context of digital interactions. It was found that conventional UX reflects usability, while PX emphasises usefulness.The thesis contributes a practice perspective showing how digital BSA tools become useful to practitioners. The thesis proposes a tool characterisation framework, ethnographic methods, practice theories, and potential PX heuristics, making the practice perspective actionable during software development. The thesis can inform future development of BSA tools which are not only usable to design practitioners, but also useful in the complex relational context of sustainable building design practice.