Exploring User Representations and Energy Concerns during Design of Energy Renovation of an Existing Building

The purpose of this draft paper is to discuss how to study user representations in empirical cases and present preliminary analysis on a case from the building industry. The study investigates how architects, engineers and tenants produce, make use of and circulate various user representations while designing an energy renovation project of a social housing estate in Denmark. My ontological and epistemological approach is inspired by Actor-Network Theory and I identify three categories of user representations which will inform my analysis. The analysis is based on fieldwork during project meetings and everyday design work which include video observations, interviews and document analysis. The findings (so far) identify two types of user representations, which are briefly explored. The next step of analysis would be to keep exploring how user representations are treated on the building project and start to describe any possible controversies.