Diary of a building: soliciting building users as proxy-researchers

In order to investigate the responsiveness of buildings, and through buildings the responsiveness of local design cultures to ideas of inclusion, creativity needs to be applied to the methods of analysis. One of the challenges of researching building experience is in mapping the temporal nature of these interactions, and how our interactions change at different times of the day, week and year. This paper describes the use of the diary-photograph and the diary-interview method to produce new forms of research evidence based on extended personal narratives and thereby accessing new perspectives of the effect of buildings on human performance. The research tools are placed in the hands of research participants in a paraethnographic approach, largely controlled by the participant. Photographs and written material are produced by participants who are encouraged to be creative and descriptive in detailing their interactions with a building over the course of one week. The investigation takes place in three separate buildings around Dublin City centre. The paper concludes by encouraging the creative imagination of architects towards new methods of investigation that analyse the two-way contingencies between a building’s qualities and the inner lives of its users.