Study on occupants' window view quality vote and their physiological response

Abstract

The window view quality related to the window view motif was recently introduced in buildings' certification methods such as LEED, BREAM, WELL and in technical standard EN 17037 as well. The experimental study of psychological and physiological response of observers to window view was performed in thermostatic chamber at class I of indoor environment quality conditions. The aim of the study was to: i) review models for numerical characterization of window view motifs; ii) collect observers' votes of window view quality, using 5-point Likert scale, with experiment simulating different window view motifs; iii) propose a new model for predicting window view quality vote, based on characterization of a window view motif, with additional consideration of sunny or cloudy conditions; iv) measure the brain waves power during window view observation in resting state, using wearable electroencephalography device, to find out to what extend observers' votes correlates with their physiological response. The results show that window view votes increase in case of dominance of natural elements, however the window view votes of built environment significantly increase in case of sunny conditions as well. No significant difference in window view votes was found regarding to the gender or age of observers. It was found that ranking, used in reviewed methods, significantly differ in correlation to our experimental results, with Spearman's correlation index from -0.35 (EN 17037) to 0.85 (View-out Quality Index method). The best fit model was upgraded with additional parameter, indicating sunny or cloudy conditions, defined as Window View Index. The power of alpha waves, the frontal alpha asymmetry and the alpha to beta ratio were used as physiological response indicators, because they are related to the observes' resting state. It was found out that physiological response is significantly less pronounced as observers' votes. Among analyzed biomarkers frontal alpha asymmetry shows the highest positive response, regardless of gender, to window views with dominated natural elements and also to sunny conditions. Based on these results we recommend frontal alpha asymmetry as most suitable biomarker in research of window view impact on well-being of occupants.