From data to strata? How design professionals “see” energy use in buildings

Improving design for efficient energy use in the built environment is a critical area for decarbonisation policy and practice. To date, this research emphasises improving tools and technology for predicting and managing energy use in buildings. No studies to date have explored how energy use is conceptualised by building design professionals. As such, this paper asks - how do architects and engineers ‘see’ and perceive energy use in UK Higher Education (HE) building design? Addressing this question is key to advancing how design professionals and building stakeholders can work together more effectively when designing for decarbonisation. We present visual narratives from 14 UK-based design professionals that include over 100 participant-produced photographs taken to represent their ways of ‘seeing’ energy use when designing HE buildings. The photo-elicitation interviews and images are analysed using Grounded Visual Pattern Analysis. The contributions of this research are twofold; first, they show how energy use is ‘seen’ and understood as both dehumanised graphs as well as emotion, personal values, family, and the natural world. This duality and contradiction sheds new light on the underlying tensions and competing professional/personal demands associated with the work of professionals designing for decarbonisation. Second, the paper provides new directions for the study of energy using visual research methods. Participant-led photography generates a different set of data that provides a deeper understanding of designers' conceptualisations and moves us beyond the dominant technological focus that is currently emphasised in research, policy, and practice.