This issue of Perkins and Will Research Journal includes four articles that focus on different research topics, such as occupant engagement and behavior relating to energy reduction in office spaces; global design and construction considerations for architectural design in developing countries; customization of BIM software applications for sustainable design and parametric modeling in Revit and guidelines for minimizing glare when harvesting natural daylight.

“A Study of Occupant Engagement: Energy Reduction Using an Online Competition Dashboard” illustrates how occupant behavior in commercial office spaces can influence building energy performance and reduce energy consumption. The article discusses results of a two-week inter-office competition using online energy management and visualization software where seven Perkins+Will offices were engaged in this activity. The purpose of the competition was to reduce office energy use and to examine how energy use visualizations influence occupants’ behaviors. Actual energy savings depended on the size of the office, number of employees as well as environmental and climatic context.

“Global Design in Developing Countries: A Case Study for Kenya: Women and Children’s Wellness Centre” discusses relationships between architectural design and considerations for environmental and social context as well as local construction techniques. The article discusses design of a healthcare facility located in Nairobi, Kenya as a case study to illustrate how locality influenced design decisions and outcomes.

“Parametric Control of BIM Elements for Sustainable Design in Revit: Linking Design and Analytical Software Applications through Customization” discusses customization of Revit and development of a custom plug-in for this software application that allows data exchange between BIM and analytical applications and parametric control of BIM elements based on the numeric values coming from analytic software. The custom plug-in allows for import of any type of data through Excel, but the article discusses specific application for sustainable design. The environmental analytic data, such as incident solar radiation coming from Ecotect is used to parametrically control dimensions and geometry of shading devices and façade elements.

“Understanding Glare: Design Methods for Improving Visual Comfort” reviews the definitions and methods to measure glare, such as Visual Probability (VCP) and the Unified Glare Rating (UGR) methods. It also reviews best practices for designing spaces that minimize glare when harvesting daylight, such as minimizing direct sunlight on working surfaces, use of active solar control and shading devices, separation of daylight from vision glazing and the use of light-shelves.