Visual Comfort and Self-Perception of Productivity in an Office Building in Raleigh, North Carolina

Abstract

Decision-making in architectural design is a complex process that includes various factors such as aesthetics, user needs, and environmental considerations etc. (Gercek and Arsan, 2019). Creating a visually comfortable space is one of the main goals for architects in the decision-making process (Konstantzos and Tzempelikos, 2017). ASHRAE Guideline 10P (2014) states four conditions which contribute to create a comfortable space for occupants: thermal, visual, indoor air quality and acoustics. Based on United Nations statistics (2017), the urban population is increasing and will become 60% of the total world population by 2030. The majority of employees will work in office environments (ASHRAE, 1993), and the time spent by employees in the workplace and re¬lated stress is increasing (Evans, G.W. and McCoy, J.M., 1998; Poursafar, et al., 2019). This elevates the importance of de¬signing comfortable office space for employees. Since staff (labor) costs are one of the primary costs of an organization, improvements that affect overall comfort have the potential to improve productivity, retention and benefit employers. Studies show that visual comfort can improve productivity in space (Boyss et al. 2003; Heschong, 2003; Aries et al., 2015). The goals of the study are to explore the relationship between visual comfort and the employees perception of their own productivity. The methods used in this study include survey and environmental monitoring. The participants, designer/ occupants in a design firm in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, participated in an online subjective survey asking about their perceived productivity and visual comfort in the space from Aug 19 - Sept 6, 2019. The illuminance was measured by sensors and serve as empirical data for reference. A correlational analysis was conducted between the results of the survey questions (visual comfort and productivity). The results show that there is no statistically significant relationship between visual comfort and employees’ perception of their productivity for the study period. Furthermore, the data collected from sensors showed that the daylight distribution in the open office is unequal.