Test the residence before calling it complete.

Performance Commissioning and Post-Occupancy Learning Plan

Ordinary commissioning and POE verify building intent, system operation and user experience. They do not establish clinical or causal human outcomes.

Why P08 starts early

Design intent is easy to lose between drawing, purchase, installation and operation.

A product can be installed but not set up. A control sequence can work on a contractor’s phone but not for the owner or staff. A room can pass a daytime inspection and fail in its intended night mode. A system can be handed over without filters, setpoints, access, training or a clear response when it drifts.

P08 defines the evidence and operating requirements before those gaps become part of the completed residence.

Before design development

What will be tested has to be defined before it is tendered and built.

The Owner’s Project Requirements record the conditions, controls, operating modes, maintainability, evidence grade and acceptance path that matter to the owner.

The commissioning plan then translates that intent into submittal requirements, inspections, mock-ups, functional tests, verifier roles, instruments, training and later review.

From pre-occupancy to annual learning

The residence is reviewed at the moments when different failures become visible.

Stage 01

Pre-occupancy

Timing

Late construction to handover

Lock the intent, confirm the test plan, verify installation, record short baselines where relevant and resolve critical issues before opening.

Outputs

Owner requirements, commissioning plan, witness logs, baseline evidence and opening-readiness decision.

Stage 02

Opening

Timing

First 7 to 14 days

Confirm controls, training, practical usability, obvious defects, staff understanding and the first occupied operating patterns.

Outputs

Opening issues log, training completion and rapid corrective actions.

Stage 03

30-day review

Timing

Day 21 to 45

Review real use, early defects, control overrides, maintenance routines and environmental or system trends before workarounds become permanent.

Outputs

30-day tuning memo, corrective actions and updates to the Owner’s Control Report and Building Passport.

Commercial note

The 30-day review forms part of the Full Development Mandate baseline.

Stage 04

Seasonal review

Timing

First relevant wet-season and drier-season campaign

Test climate-sensitive questions under materially different outdoor conditions. Record rain, humidity, unusual occupancy, power loss, smoke, nearby construction, parties, maintenance and other context that can affect interpretation.

Outputs

Seasonal review, revised setpoints, updated operating procedures and unresolved-risk record.

Commercial note

Seasonal reviews are separately scoped unless expressly included.

Stage 05

Annual learning

Timing

Approximately 12 months

Review asset, maintenance, fault, utility, seasonal and voluntary feedback records. Decide what the project has established, what remains uncertain and what may be published.

Outputs

Annual evidence grade, Building Passport update, maintenance actions and case-study release decision.

Commercial note

Annual reviews are separately scoped.

Project-specific test plan

The evidence set follows the owner’s brief and the systems actually installed.

Possible test domains

• Lighting scenes, darkness and exterior spill
• AC, fans, thermal conditions and humidity control
• Outdoor air, extraction, filtration and dry-down
• Acoustic events, equipment noise and speech privacy
• Water, drainage, leak protection and shutoff logic
• Controls, local operation, manual override and power recovery
• Alarms, alerts and staff escalation
• Maintenance access, labels and replaceability
• Asset records, settings and handover completeness

Not every project needs every test. The plan records why a question is material, who is responsible and what evidence is sufficient for the intended decision.

Who may verify

The installer should not be the only source of proof where independence matters.

DALLEAU coordinates the cross-discipline intent, witnesses agreed tests, keeps the issue register and records owner decisions.

Technical acceptance, certified measurement and independent verification remain with the relevant appointed discipline or commissioning provider when the risk, contract or intended public claim requires it.

Review questions

• Who designed the system?
• Who supplied it?
• Who installed it?
• Who tested it?
• Is the test method documented?
• Is the instrument appropriate and recorded?
• What conflict or limitation remains?

Release conditions

Commissioning is planned before purchase and enforced before opening.

HP1

Before design development

Owner’s Project Requirements and the evidence plan are approved.

HP2

Before tender and purchase orders

Commissioning, submittal, mock-up, test, access and documentation requirements are included.

HP3

Before concealed-system acceptance

The required inspection, photograph, test and location evidence is complete.

HP4

Before opening

Functional tests, operator training, manual overrides and critical issue disposition are complete.

HP5

After occupation

The 30-day, relevant seasonal and annual review decisions are recorded with their evidence status and scope.

From test to correction

A failed test is useful only when responsibility and retest are clear.

Each issue records the intended condition, observed result, method, responsible party, corrective action, due date, retest requirement, accepted exception and effect on later claims or operation.

The issue remains open until the required evidence is complete or the owner formally accepts the residual condition.

Before opening

A system is not handed over until the people using it understand the intended mode.

Training covers critical setpoints, local controls, manual overrides, vacancy mode, filters, drains, alerts, reset procedures, power and network recovery, maintenance intervals and escalation.

The operating team receives a usable protocol, not only a folder of manufacturer manuals.

From raw record to public claim

Not every project record belongs in public.

Raw evidence

Measurements, photographs, test results, issue logs and operating records under restricted project access.

Project report

Cleaned and interpreted evidence linked to the owner brief, method, context, limitations and corrective actions.

Owner release

The owner decides what may be shared, with privacy, specialist review and contractual constraints respected.

Public Applied Note

An anonymised account of the question, method, conditions, intervention, result, limits and evidence level. It does not convert one residence into a universal claim.

Private by default

The residence is not a data-extraction product.

P08 uses the minimum evidence needed to answer the project question. Owner, family, guest and staff information is treated as sensitive. Access, retention, aggregation, anonymisation and publication permission are defined before collection.

Environmental and system data are preferred over person-level monitoring. Microphones, indoor cameras, biometrics, wearables and behavioural inference are outside the Atelier method by default unless a separate approved use case, consent model, specialist review and legal assessment exist.

Limits

Commissioning proves less than marketing often implies.

It can show that a system or room was tested against a defined project brief under stated conditions. It cannot by itself establish a medical outcome, causal improvement in sleep, cognition, stress or longevity, the behaviour of unmonitored rooms, rare future events or perfect maintenance over time.

Prohibited public claims

• Scientifically proven residence based on one project
• Improves sleep, cognition, stress or longevity
• Guaranteed performance
• Selective results without limitations
• Compliance claim without the relevant authority or appointed professional basis

Evidence and aftercare

A record of what was intended, tested, corrected and learned.

Outputs

• Owner’s Project Requirements
• Commissioning plan
• Witness and inspection logs
• Instrument and sensor record
• Issue and corrective-action register
• Training record
• Opening report
• 30-day tuning memo
• Seasonal review where scoped
• Annual review where scoped
• Final setpoints and operating modes
• Building Passport update
• Evidence grade and publication decision

Sources

The source finding and DALLEAU's residential interpretation are kept separate. Links open the original publisher or authority record.

1. The Commissioning Process and commissioning requirements for new buildings and systems

   Authoritative guidance. Commissioning from owner requirements through acceptance, documentation, training and operation. Limit: Permanent performance under every future condition or a clinical human outcome.

2. Lessons learned from 20 years of CBE's occupant surveys

   Growing evidence. The value and limits of structured occupant feedback across many building surveys. Limit: A causal person-level outcome or direct transfer from offices to a private residence.

3. Post-occupancy evaluation in residential buildings: a systematic literature review of current practices in the EU

   Growing evidence. A synthesis of residential post-occupancy evaluation practices and methods. Limit: One universal POE method or a guaranteed project-performance result.

4. Enhanced Air Sensor Guidebook

   Authoritative guidance. Planning, selecting and interpreting air-sensor measurements. Limit: Replacing calibrated professional instruments or inferring a medical outcome.

Related content

Methods Note

Why commissioning matters more than handover

Methods Note

How DALLEAU reads evidence for private residences in Bali

Related protocol

Building Passport and Data Stewardship Plan

Work

Applied Notes and commissioning evidence when separately approved

Plan the evidence early

A residence is easier to verify when testing is designed into the project.

P08 forms part of the Full Development Mandate evidence spine. A 30-day review is included in the mandate baseline. Seasonal and annual reviews remain separate scopes unless expressly included.