The ‘Mind the Gap’ project: Investigating the difference, in performance, between design and the building ‘in-use’

Abstract

We have the ability to design and construct high performance buildings; and the knowledge and skills to operate them in an effective and efficient manner — so why does it not happen? The underpinning reasons for this gap in performance are generally unknown; there is a lot of speculation and hypothesis but little investigation and hard evidence. The ‘Mind the Gap’ project aims to collect evidence from typical exemplars of office buildings investigate the reasons for their performance and determine the underpinning causes. The first phase of the project will produce a methodology based on the learnings from five trial buildings and then rolled out in a second phase over a larger number of buildings. This paper presents some initial data and findings.