Abstract
Poor Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) adversely affects the performance and health of building users. Building users are an important source of information regarding IEQ and its influence on users’ wellbeing and productivity. This paper discusses the analysis and evaluation of IEQ in lecture halls of two public Architectural Campus Buildings (ACB) in Karachi, Pakistan. The method of this research is divided into three parts: (i) An analysis of local climate conditions, (ii) An on-site survey of two existing ACBs to analyze indoor environmental conditions. and (iii) The analysis of users’ satisfaction using a questionnaire survey. The research results showed that users are dissatisfied with existing hot and humid indoor environment conditions caused by interactions of local outdoor climate conditions, the building’s architecture, and inadequate ventilation within the building. The findings revealed that Karachi has 41.3% comfort hours with the warm sub-humid season to be the most comfortable season having 80.56% comfort hours. IEQ analysis unveiled that airflow in ACB1 is low, whereas, high airflow is observed in ACB2. The findings of this research unveiled that cross-ventilation by the adapted placement of openings, improved external shading devices, and provision of increased vegetation are required in both ACBs to achieve a more comfortable IEQ.
Highlights
This research discusses the analysis of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and the user’s perception of IEQ in lecture halls of two architectural campus buildings (ACB) in Karachi
The results revealed that IEQ with set parameters including thermal comfort, acoustics, and visual comfort in the acceptable range are the critical factors for occupants’ satisfaction
The findings investigate the relation between local climate, thermal comfort, and IEQ, but they can set live examples for students to design the buildings considering climate, IEQ and thermal comfort
Summary
This research discusses the analysis of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and the user’s perception of IEQ in lecture halls of two architectural campus buildings (ACB) in Karachi. People spend 90% of their time inside buildings, and students spend 30% of their time in schools [1]. Good IEQ of a building leads to the high productivity of the occupants. Studies have revealed that good IEQ improves the performance and health of a user [1]. Several studies were conducted in the past [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10], which aimed to evaluate the IEQ and thermal comfort in different educational and office buildings. The results revealed that IEQ with set parameters including thermal comfort, acoustics, and visual comfort in the acceptable range are the critical factors for occupants’ satisfaction
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