Workshop: Beyond Comfort: Bridging the Occupant Experience Gap

The 1:5:200 rule says it all: for every dollar spent on construction, five are spent on operations, and $200 on the people who
work there. Personnel costs dwarf bricks, beams, and utilities. So how can we design spaces for people beyond mere
sufficiency and basic comforts, spaces where people are healthy, productive, and able to truly thrive? And how can we
ensure that the design strategies we know are good for people actually make it into the final built product?

Many designers understand the importance of biophilic design and experiential delight. Yet these strategies are often the
first to get “value engineered” out. And despite its name, value engineering is seldom about creating value and rarely has
much to do with engineering. Too often it becomes synonymous with cost cutting. During this process, little attention is paid
to the lived experiences of the people who will ultimately inhabit the building.

This workshop explores the critical connection between intent and impact. It will focus on how to clearly articulate
experiential intentions, followed by practical ways, including using LEED v5, to advocate for and integrate human-centered
design so deeply into a project’s DNA that it withstands budget pressures and competing priorities, ensuring that the final
product is dynamic, inclusive, and memorable. Finally, we will discuss mechanisms for evaluating impact - how do we
measure success from the occupants’ experience? How do we know what’s working and what’s not? Because ultimately, it’s
about more than design, and more than comfort. It’s about creating inhabited spaces that actively contribute to occupant
wellbeing, inspire care, and connection. It is these spaces that people love and that consistently provide a return on
investment.