The Case for Comfort - A POE Whitepaper on ROAST

ROAST is a web-based Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) tool developed by the research and architecture firm KieranTimberlake. In today's post I want to share a whitepaper they developed which makes the case for surveying building occupants to better understand their overall comfort. This information can then be used to make adjustments which will improve comfort and thus promote better health and productivity.

Disclaimer: None needed... I was not asked nor paid to promote this product.

Keep reading to learn more...

ROAST - Commercial Release and Webinar Series

ROAST is a new web-based Post Occupancy Evaluation tool by KT Innovations (KieranTimberlake). I was involved in their beta program and we even used it internally at LHB. I wrote an overview on the tool back in May (2018): Roast by KieranTimberlake. A few things have improved since then, but that post still embodies the main concepts of the product, workflow and results.

My motto for this product: Have the courage to find out what the occupants think of your newly designed, or remodeled, space so it - and future projects - can be improved upon!

On a related note, here is a post I wrote on some Pre/Post Occupancy Evaluation work by LHB (but, before ROAST): Pre/post-occupancy Evaluations and Generative Design.

Additionally...

Pre/post-occupancy Evaluations and Generative Design

All the talk about deep learning, AI and generative design is very exciting; both Autodesk and NVIDIA are doing some amazing things in this space. But, just like energy modeling and lighting analysis, which I am familiar with, if the inputs are not accurate the old says holds true; garbage in, garbage out.

In energy modeling, if the thermal properties or orientation of a wall is not correct the resultant EUI will not be valid. In lighting analysis, if the photometry is wrong or a surface reflectance is not set properly the illuminance calculation will be false.