Building Physics
The physical behaviour of buildings: heat, air, moisture, sound and light as they move through structures and spaces. It is the engineering science beneath every environmental quality claim — what a building actually does thermally, acoustically and atmospherically, as opposed to what its design intended.
Every environmental requirement the strategy specifies — acoustic class, thermal range, ventilation rate — is delivered or defeated by building physics. It also explains the performance gap: the systematic difference between designed and measured building behaviour, which is why commissioning measurement, not design calculation, is the evidence standard.
- Will this building deliver the specified environmental conditions in operation?
- Where do thermal, acoustic and air-movement problems physically originate?
- What does the design-versus-operation performance gap look like here?
- Which environmental requirements can this envelope and services architecture actually support?
- Building physics research and engineering standards
- Commissioning and measurement data
- Performance-gap literature
- Building simulation (validated against measurement, not substituting for it)
Environmental criteria specified with verification methods; commissioning measurement contractual, not optional; building appraisal including physics capability before concept commitment; retrofit strategies grounded in measured rather than assumed performance.
Architectural Guidance
The translation of the concept and kit into design-governing guidance: spatial, environmental, acoustic, lighting, thermal, biophilic, accessibility, technology and identity requirements the design team must satisfy.
Architectural Guide Notes
The complete briefing instrument for the design and delivery team: functional brief, spatial brief, design intent, kit, zoning, technology, environmental quality, accessibility, change and project implications — in the form architecture is actually procured and reviewed against.
Taxonomy Spatial Benchmarking
Taxonomy compares spatial supply against current and intended organisational demand — a structured inventory of what the portfolio provides versus what the organisation needs.
Post-Occupancy Evaluation
The structured test of whether the delivered workplace performs as the strategy claimed — measured against the baselines, criteria and accepted sacrifices recorded before it was built.
Simulation substituting for measurement: designed performance reported as delivered performance. The performance gap is well documented; claims about a building's environmental quality that rest on models rather than commissioning data should be treated as intentions.
Performance-gap causes and closure methods remain active research; in-use monitoring at scale is making the gap more visible and less excusable.