"The POE Literature Capture Project"

The following proposal, from Bob Bechtel and the University of Arizona College of Architecture, was submitted for discussion at the ARCC 1998 Annual Meeting. The proposal suggests that a small group to support the project be created. Anyone interested in the proposal or in joining the ARCC support group should contact: Gary Pivo, Associate Dean of the College of Architecture, The University of Arizona.

Dear ARCC Members:

The POE Literature Capture Project

Post occupancy evaluations (POE) are studies done to evaluate the effectiveness of the designs of buildings and other environments. They began in the late fifties and early sixties and were done by architecture professors at first and social science professors later. Eventually the POE became a genre of research on its own. Many disciplines joined in, including anthropology, architecture, geography, psychology, planning and sociology. A problem with the growing literature was that it did not fit neatly into any of these disciplines and, thus, did not get published. This meant that most of the volumes generated tended to accumulate in the offices of professors and practitioners. These were often discarded because of a lack of storage space and as professors and other professionals retired or died they tended to throw out the reports. This created the problem the project was created to address, saving the literature before it disappears.

The POEs are a virtual encyclopedia of what works and does not work in architecture and the allied professions. Several professional organizations support the literature capture project and were chiefly responsible for the generation of POEs. These include the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA), the Man Environment Research Association in Japan (MERA), the People and the Physical Environment Research (PAPER) in New Zealand and Australia, and the International Association to Study the Physical Environment (IAPS) in Europe. The more than two thousand researchers in these organization have generated most of this literature. The first task of the project is to locate a physical place where these volumes can be stored and accessed. At present the most likely location is the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in Washington. Other locations, like the Building Museum and The Library of Congress, did not work out. The key person at the AIA is Nancy Hunn, the new Director of Information Services. She needs to be convinced that this project will serve the AIA members.

If, at the meeting of ARCC on November 13, 1998, a small group could be formed composed of ARCC, IAR, EDRA and other groups to support Nancy Hunn, it would greatly facilitate getting AIA to accept the gathering of this literature. The group should act as a board of directors to the project, should shepherd the gathering of the literature and suggest the people who would best be able to review and summarize specialized parts of it like hotels, offices, zoos, museums, etc. It is estimated that at maximum there are 50,000 volumes to be collected. These would take up 2,600 linear feet of shelf space. As time goes on, provision must be made to continue collecting POEs as they are done.

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This page was last updated on 22 April 2008.
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