Case study : In-use

Peckham Pulse Healthy Living Centre Southwark Building Design Service is an urban local authority renowned for its approach to the design quality of the environment. This commitment led them to be awarded the 2002 RIBA Local Authority Award. Peckham Pulse Healthy Living Centre was built to encourage local people to get fit and stay healthy. Inspired by the Peckham Pioneer Health Centre of the 1930s, it explores the link between social and physical well being and preventing disease.

“We performed the DQI on Peckham Pulse four years after completion. We thought it would be interesting to see how the building, which is esteemed for design quality, would rate using the tool. It was also an excellent opportunity to get everyone involved in the construction process back together.

The DQI was performed as a facilitated workshop. Through all of our DQI experiences we have found facilitation essential to gain the maximum benefit from the DQI process. I have trained as a facilitator which was cost effective and helped increase the clarity of the DQI to the participants.

The stakeholders who participated were two project managers, an architect, contractor, client, three facilities managers and a user of the centre. Due to the lapse of time since completion it proved difficult reconvening everyone, but despite the initial organisational problems the workshop was thought by everyone to have been a success. The construction team really enjoyed talking to the users as to how the building was working, and they were very enthusiastic to be involved in a DQI process again.

The participants found the DQI process very interesting. They all felt that it was a necessity to identify the delights in a project. The overall design of Peckham Pulse scored highly in the DQI. We did, however manage to identify certain aspects which didn’t score well regarding the layout, which came as a surprise, and mechanical services, which may reflect the ensuing maintenance regime rather than the original design. We found the ‘weighting’ element of the DQI very important in prioritising what were the most important issues. Without this dimension budgetary and planning restraints could not be taken into account.

Using the DQI at the post occupancy stage on Peckham Pulse has provided us with valuable benchmarking criteria, which we are using on future projects.”

Patricia O’Reilly
Southwark Building
Design Service