Comparing the occupants’ comfort between perimeter zone and interior zone in Asian office

Abstract

Asian office buildings receive plenty of heat and daylight because of their glazing facades. They also allow the occupants to view outside. These effects depend on the seat position in different distance from the window. A study of building performance regarding those difference effects is required to clarify the occupants’ comfort under contextual conditions. Therefore, this study aims to compare the impact of glazing facades on occupants’ comfort between the occupants in the perimeter zone and interior zone by analyzing the building performance in terms of thermal comfort and visual comfort. Measuring devices were installed to investigate temperature, humidity, and daylight in three office buildings in Thailand and three in Singapore. Simultaneously, occupants’ satisfaction were investigated using questionnaires during working hours. In total, 1,356 samples were surveyed. The questions were fixed for both thermal environment and visual environment in terms of sensation and satisfaction. Furthermore, the opening view and internal blind occlusion rate were noted by visual inspection. The results showed that the thermal environment and visual environment in the perimeter zone were affected by the outdoor environment more than the interior zone. However, most of the occupants were satisfied because they be able to adapt to a wide range of indoor environment conditions. The occupants in the perimeter zone were more satisfied in terms of temperature and view. On the contrary, occupants in the interior zone were more satisfied by the lighting environment. The dissatisfaction survey revealed that the thermal environment has the most influence on occupants’ comfort. However, daylight accessing was revealed to has the highest impact on occupants’ comfort in terms of building-facade effect. The results show that occupants’ comfort levels differed depending on the seat position in the current situation for Asian office buildings. The optimisation of building-facade performance considering its influence on occupants’ comfort is necessary.