Post-Occupation Assessment and Place Quality: ANALYSIS AND RE-READING OF INSTRUMENTS FOR FIELD RESEARCH

The Research Groups Environment-Education (GAE) and Quality of Place and Landscape (ProLUGAR) have been developing teaching and research activities related to the applicability of concepts, methods and instruments that allow incorporating human-environment interactions produced during the observation experience in a Post-Occupancy Assessment. The conceptual and methodological approach that has characterized the researches of the Groups, proposes the re-reading and the re-signification of the classic techniques and instruments of an APO, expanding the concept and the perception of the quality of the place, by the observers and the users. This approach recognizes that it is not possible to have access to a reality that is independent of the observer and that this reality is not something predetermined, static and immutable, starting to adopt the designation experiential approach as a reflection and conceptual basis for his research. The experiential approach characterizes the experience of the observer in the environment or places in use, that is, how each environment or place simultaneously influences human action, and how the human presence gives meaning and meaning to each environment or place. In this sense, by recognizing and valuing human-environment interactions for the qualitative transformation of the place, this project aims to re-read and refine the set of techniques and instruments for Post-Occupation Assessment, based on the concepts of the experiential approach. The practical unfolding, the Embedded Observation, seeks to deal with the subjective aspects of the observations, when considering the emotions and reactions of the subjects - users and observers - who experience a certain reality, and presupposes a change in the observer's attitude towards the observed environment. When questioning the intrinsic efficiency of APO instruments and tools (RHEINGANTZ 2004) and adding human experience to the instruments and procedures traditionally used - without, however, denying their importance and usefulness - the observer takes a less distant and neutral posture, and becomes aware of the subjectivity of emotions and reactions experienced by observers and users during the observation experience. In seeking to integrate the socio-historical background of the observer and the users, the experiential approach seeks to confer a richer and more comprehensive meaning for the APO. The preliminary results are indicative of the possibilities of overcoming some of the limitations arising from the behavioral or behaviorist tradition, still prevalent in APO studies and applications, which, in general, are concerned with the behaviors of users in the observed environments without, however, paying attention for the reasons that justify them; or even, that they have little to do with the conduct of the experts and the analysis criteria they use in the interpretation of the results.

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