Indoor Environment Satisfaction Research Articles

The effect of housework, psychosocial stress and residential environment on musculoskeletal disorders for Chinese women

Historically, discussions of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) have focused on paid work factors. However, the relation between housework (unpaid work) and MSDs for women is important. Little is known about the relationship between housework and MSDs and how this relationship can be influenced by physical environment factors and psychosocial stress, as well as other individual characteristics. Therefore, this study proposed a model to disentangle interactions between housework, residential indoor environment, psychosocial stress and MSDs for women, using the structural equation modeling approach, based on the cross-sectional data in the Central Plain of China. Model results showed housework (0.23) and psychosocial stress (0.44) were risk factors for the development of MSDs, while indoor environmental satisfaction (−0.27) was the protective factor for MSDs. Moreover, housework had a significant effect on psychosocial stress (0.20) while indoor environment satisfaction showed negative effect on psychosocial stress (−0.22). Furthermore, multiple group analysis suggested individual characteristics, including age, BMI, education, length of residence, household size and floor area, could change the strength of relationships in the model. This paper formulated and validated a model to define interactions between housework, residential indoor environment, psychosocial stress and MSDs for women, which would help improve knowledge on impact of housework on MSDs.

Building wellness performance and work engagement

AbstractThe aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of building wellness performance on the productivity of office workers. In six offices with different CASBEE Wellness Office (CASBEE‐WO) scores, a questionnaire survey on indoor environment satisfaction, work efficiency, CASBEE Office Health Checklist (CASBEE‐OHC) simplified version, and work engagement was conducted. The results revealed that most workers in offices with high wellness performance reported more satisfaction with the thermal, light, sound, and air quality environments. In addition, the overall indoor environment improved the work efficiency of workers. Moreover, workers in offices with high CASBEE‐WO scores tended to have high CASBEE‐OHC simplified version scores. In the offices with high CASBEE‐WO scores, the top 20% of workers with high work engagement tended to have higher CASBEE‐OHC simplified version scores than the remaining 80%. According to the “80/20 law,” most outcomes of a group depend on the top 20% of productive workers. Thus, considering the wellness performance of the office, it may be possible that the productivity of workers with high work engagement will be improved.

Subjective and Objective Evaluation of Shading on Thermal, Visual, and Acoustic Properties of Indoor Environments

Through objective measurement, subjective measurement, and prioritization methods, this study evaluates the impacts of different shading facilities on the indoor environment of multi-story residential buildings, such as dormitories. The objective measurements mainly include the operative temperature, daylight factor, and sound pressure level. The subjective measurement is obtained from occupant votes regarding their satisfaction with the thermal uniformity, natural lighting, external noise, and the overall indoor environment. The results show that the subjective evaluations were significantly more reliable than the objective measurements for predicting indoor environmental satisfaction. The prioritization method of the ordered logistic regression was then used to evaluate the impact of perceived indoor environmental quality on overall satisfaction. The results show that the impact of the perceived indoor environmental quality on overall satisfaction varied with the shading facilities. In addition, the occupants commented on the function of items affecting their application preferences and provided recommendations for improving balconies and sunshades to provide occupants with better indoor environments.

Occupants’ Satisfaction of Indoor Environment Quality in Non-Linear Minimum Buildings in Winter Based on the Role of Different Kinds of Perceptions

Non-Linear Minimum Building (NLMB) is a sort of low-carbon building designed to meet the needs of the growing urban population around the world. This study investigates the perceptions of indoor environments among students whilst staying in NLMBs. The students were asked to participate in the subjective survey in order to gather their indoor environmental satisfaction votes. The objectives of this study are to know the importance of six human sensations inside NLMBs relative to indoor environmental satisfaction. The main findings indicated the great function of the humidity sensation in NLMBs, followed by the thermal sensation, the noise sensation, the visual sensation, the air freshness sensation and the draft sensation. Although the subjects were not very satisfied with the humidity sensation, the overall indoor environmental satisfaction was quite high under the relatively cold conditions in winter. Moreover, the studies, through in-depth interviews, showed that the majority of people felt comfortable, and some of them experienced good feelings or experiences when they stayed in NLMBs.

Occupants’ satisfaction with LEED- and non-LEED-certified apartments using social media data

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified buildings aim to offer a sustainable and healthy building environment. Previous studies have shown mixed and inconsistent results on whether occupants in LEED-certified buildings are more satisfied than in non-LEED-certified counterparts. Those studies are usually based on surveys or questionnaires for commercial buildings and were limited by sample size and pre-defined question structures. Since most people would spend more time at home after experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic due to the flexibility to work remotely, assessing the satisfaction with residential buildings benefits future environmental design and certification system development. In this work, we propose a natural language processing-based approach for such assessment. The study collected 16,761 online reviews of 232 LEED-certified and 129 non-LEED-certified apartment buildings from social media, then applied topic modeling and sentiment analysis to evaluate occupants’ satisfaction. Based on topic modeling, we categorized online comments into three topics, 1) location and transportation, 2) running cost, and 3) health and wellbeing. The subsequent sentiment analysis has shown a statistically significant but small or negligible enhancement in the satisfaction occurring in LEED-certified apartments compared to non-LEED-certified ones concerning all three topics. The “significant but small or negligible uptick” has also been found in online star rating and indoor environmental satisfaction. The only exception with a large effect size is lighting which is found to be significantly more satisfying in LEED-certified apartments. Nevertheless, the statistical significance in online star rating disappears when normalized by rent price and property house value.

The Effect of Music Tempo and Volume on Acoustic Perceptions under the Noise Environment

This study aimed to investigate the distracting or masking effects of music tempo and volume, based on subjective evaluation under noise conditions. Two experiments were conducted with 32 participants. In the first one, the experimental conditions were set as follow: (1) the sound pressure levels of music are 45 dB, 60 dB, and 75 dB; (2) music tempos are 70 beats per minute (BPM), 110 BPM, and 150 BPM; (3) sound pressure levels of noise are 45 dB, 60 dB, and 75 dB; and (4) the noise types are talkers’ babble, traffic noise, and construction noise. All conditions on human acoustic perception were analyzed by orthogonal experiment. Based on part one, the second experiment was conducted. Sound pressure levels (50 dB, 60 dB, and 70 dB) of noise and sound pressure levels (50 dB, 60 dB, and 70 dB) of music and music tempo (70 BPM, 110 BPM, and 150 BPM) were assessed by subjective evaluation. The results showed although different types of noise had different effects on human perceptions, noise types had a small effect on acoustic comfort considering the superimposed music. Music can improve the acoustic environment. The sound pressure levels had significant effects on acoustic sensation. The tempo of the music affected the acoustic sensation insignificantly. Sound pressure levels of noise, music tempo, and sound pressure levels of music significantly affect acoustic comfort. The best acoustic environment in this study utilized superimposed 70 BPM, 60 dB music in a 50 dB noise environment. These results suggest that music can enable new strategies to improve indoor environmental satisfaction. Based on the findings, the effect of music on acoustic perceptions under the noise environment should be taken into account when aiming to enhance comfort in noisy environments.

Analysis of the Relationship Between the Housing Units Density in the Building and the Indoor Environmental Satisfaction of the Residential Complex (Case study: Sepahan-Shahr Town of Isfahan)

با افزایش روند شهرنشینی، افزایش تراکم راه حلی اجتناب‌ناپذیر برای اسکان جمعیت و همچنین جلوگیری از گسترش افقی شهر است؛ اما چگونگی این افزایش و ارتباط آن با کیفیت زندگی ساکنان موضوعی بحث‌برانگیز است. هدف از این مقاله پرداختن به یکی از مقوله‌های تأثیر متقابل تراکم و کیفیت زندگی از طریق واکاوی رابطة تراکم واحد مسکونی (تعداد واحد مسکونی در یک مجتمع مسکونی) با کیفیت محیط داخلی مجتمع‌های مسکونی است و بدین منظور شهرک سپاهان‌شهر در اصفهان نمونة موردی این پژوهش انتخاب گردید. به منظور دستیابی به این هدف، ابتدا مجتمع‌های مسکونی شهرک یادشده به 8 دستة تراکمی تقسیم و سپس داده‌‌های مورد نیاز، به منظور بررسی سنجه‌ها در شهرک سپاهان‌شهر، به روش اسنادی و میدانی (از نوع مشاهده، پرسش‌نامه) جمع‌آوری‌ شدند؛ بدین صورت که از روش نمونه‌گیری تصادفی طبقه‌بندی‌شده با روش تخصیص مساوی، با تعداد 136 پلاک در سپاهان‌شهر پرسش شد. ضمن اینکه، ابتدا پارامتریک بودن داده‌ها از طریق آزمون کولموگرف‌ـ اسمیرنف بررسی گردید و سپس از طریق آزمون کروسکال والیس و در پی آن آزمون یوـ من‌ـ ویتنی معناداری تفاوت دسته‌های تراکمی ساختمانی با یکدیگر بر حسب تأثیر سنجه‌های کیفیت محیط مسکونی بررسی و تحلیل شد. نتایج حاصله نشان داد که ارتباط سهمی‌واری بین تراکم تعداد واحدهای مسکونی و کیفیت محیط داخلی در مجتمع‌های مسکونی برقرار است و الگوهای کم‌تراکم و یا پرتراکمْ کیفیت داخلی بالاتر و درنتیجه مطلوب‌تری نسبت به الگوی تراکمی متوسط در مجتمع‌ها دارند و پیشنهاد می‌شود که، با توجه به ویژگی‌های اجتماعی و فرهنگی ساکنان سپاهان‌شهر به طور خاص و شهرهای مشابه به صورت عام برای داشتن مجتمع‌هایی با کیفیت بالاتر محیط داخلی، از الگوهای کم یا پرتراکم با رعایت معیارهای مرتبط با کیفیت محیط داخلی استفاده شود.

Correlation between perceived usability of building services and indoor environmental satisfaction in retrofitted low-energy homes

Comprehensive retrofit of dwellings frequently relies on the installation of partially automated heating and mechanical ventilation systems. While energy consumption is often successfully reduced, this intrusion of complex building services into the domestic sphere may create new challenges for the occupants. Through a questionnaire distributed to 2007 households in a social housing complex undergoing energy retrofit, this work seeks to identify the link between indoor environmental satisfaction and occupants' perceived ability to use and control residential heating and ventilation technology. The response rate was 17.1% (344 houses, of which 241 were retrofitted). Occupants expressed a general satisfaction with the indoor environment in retrofitted houses. However, they also expressed difficulties to understand and operate their heating and ventilation systems. The study revealed significant correlations between the users’ indoor environmental satisfaction and their perception of the usability of the building services. Nevertheless, an important share of the respondents achieved satisfactory indoor environmental quality despite living with systems with poor perceived usability. These findings point towards the hypothesis that poor usability is not an issue in normal operating conditions, but the lack of personal control becomes problematic in case of dysfunctional building services or failing building envelope.

Climate Adaptive Design Improvement Strategies of Traditional Dwellings in Southern Zhejiang for the Plum Rain Season Considering Comfort Conditions

This study investigated the adaptations of traditional dwellings to the complex regional microclimate in southern Zhejiang, China. Typical traditional dwellings in a village in the foothills and a village on the mid-slopes of Zhejiang’s alpine region were selected to study traditional construction strategies for climate responsiveness and the comfort level of indoor environments during the very humid plum rain season in early summer. Fundamental analysis of the climate and architecture, a response analysis of the dwelling form, an occupants’ comfort satisfaction survey, and field measurements of indoor and outdoor thermal environmental parameters were performed. The traditional dwellings and their design strategies for various regional environmental factors were explored from the perspective of (1) regional climate-adaptive strategies, (2) the thermal, airflow, lighting, and acoustic qualities of the indoor environment, and (3) the occupants’ indoor environment satisfaction. The results indicated that traditional dwellings in southern Zhejiang incorporate strategies of various effectiveness in ensuring indoor comfort.

People's subjective and physiological responses to the combined thermal-acoustic environments

When people are in real cases, the thermal environment and acoustic environment have an important influence on subjective and physiological responses and affect human comfort together. However, design guidelines and technical standards typically focus on a single environmental factor separately. This study aims to find out people's subjective and physiological responses to combined thermal-acoustic environments. 16 healthy students took part in this study. A within-subject factorial design was employed with three variables: temperature levels (18 °C,22 °C,26 °C), sound types (music of 70BPM, the noise of fan), sound pressure levels (50dBA, 65dBA, 80dBA). The results showed that while thermal comfort was affected by acoustic conditions, the thermal sensation was not. This effect of sound on thermal comfort was not reflected through thermo-physiology: skin temperature and fingertip blood perfusion had no significant differences in the different sound environments. In the near thermal neutral zone, acoustic comfort was not affected by temperature. The total comfort was not only affected by the main effects of temperature and sound pressure level (SPL) but also affected by temperature * SPL interaction. In a musical sound environment and under the same sound pressure level, thermal comfort, acoustic comfort, and total comfort were better than in a noisy environment. Based on the observations, we suggested the acoustic environment and thermal environment should be considered comprehensively when creating a comfortable indoor environment, and music can be used to improve indoor environment satisfaction to save energy in the building.

Exploring mobility & workplace choice in a flexible office through post-occupancy evaluation

Developments in information and communication systems, organisational structure and the nature of work have contributed to the restructuring of work environments. In these new types of work environments, employees do not have assigned workplaces. This arrangement helps organisations to minimise rent costs and increase employee interaction and knowledge exchange through mobility. This post-occupancy evaluation (POE) study focuses on a flexible office in a Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified building in Istanbul. An integrated qualitative and quantitative POE technique with occupancy tracking via barcode scanning and instant surveying has been introduced. Using this unique approach, we examined the directives/drivers in workplace choice and mobility from different perspectives. The aggregated data was used to discern work-related consequences such as flexibility, workplace choice, work and indoor environment satisfaction, place attachment and identity. The results show that employees who have a conventional working culture develop a new working style: ‘fixed-flexible working’.Practitioner Summary: This paper introduces a new POE approach for flexible offices based on occupancy tracking through barcode scanning to explore workplace choice and mobility. More than half (52.1%) of the participants have tended to choose the same desk every day. However, the satisfaction level of the ‘mobile’ employees was higher than that of the ‘fixed flexible’ employees.

Perceptive-cognitive aspects investigation in relation to indoor environment satisfaction collected from naturally ventilated multi-storey student accommodations in Malaysia

Investigation of occupant’s indoor environment influences can be identified through perceptive-cognitive aspects. Such an investigation leads to affective responses such as satisfied or dissatisfied, annoyed or not annoyed and hot or cold. This study investigates the perceptive-cognitive aspects of indoor environment among students who are staying in multi-storey accommodations in Klang Valley area, Malaysia. The students were asked to participate in the subjective survey in order to gather their indoor environment satisfaction votes. The objectives of this study are (1) to know how does the occupant of naturally ventilated multi-storey student accommodations respond to their indoor comfort whilst staying in an uncontrollable indoor atmosphere and (2) to identify what are the design features that contribute to the achievement of occupant’s overall indoor environment satisfaction. The main findings suggest that the uncontrollable indoor condition which occurred when occupants open their windows resulted in a more significant dissatisfaction vote toward indoor noise level in conjunction with warmer thermal sensation incidences. Moreover, despite the increasing indoor noise level recorded in rooms at higher floor levels, the findings show that room location, room orientation and shading ratio are not considered to influence the occupants’ overall indoor environment satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

Indoor Environmental Satisfaction in Two LEED Offices and its Implications in Green Interior Design

The green building movement is an attempt to address IEQ and occupant health concerns by providing healthier building environments. As improved IEQ is the stated goal of green design, we question how green offices are in fact performing in comparison to non-green buildings, from the occupants’ perspectives. The findings of this research showed there was no significant difference in the overall satisfaction with IEQ between the two LEED offices and conventional offices in the same city. The most influential IEQ aspect of overall satisfaction was lighting satisfaction. One LEED office had good satisfaction with the noise environment but poor satisfaction with the lighting environment; the other LEED office had good satisfaction with the lighting environment. The IEQ characteristics in the two LEED offices are discussed to generate design implications in green interior projects and IEQ improvements.

Text mining for occupant perspectives on the physical workplace

An analysis is presented of occupants' responses from a commercial building indoor environment satisfaction survey database. Building from satisfaction ratings and standardized categorical responses collected in surveys for 192 office buildings in the United States, text analysis software is used to analyse text responses to open-ended survey questions, focusing on occupants' perspectives on the workplace and building overall, temperature, and acoustics. These occupant texts detail interactions between occupants and their physical environment in a technical sense, but also interpret these interactions, assess their consequences, and reflect on social relationships and other matters that lie outside dimension-by-dimension assessments of the physical environment. Viewed together these texts reveal a user-centred perspective that points to issues that rest below the surface of more technical analyses of buildings, such as over air-conditioning, worker stress and frustration, workplace usability, and relationships between physical and other aspects of the workplace. Attending to this perspective could lead to improvements in occupant experience, building and technology design, building operations, and survey research, as well as inform initiatives that require occupant adaptation and cooperation, including those for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Il est présenté une analyse des réponses des occupants provenant d'une base de données d'enquêtes de satisfaction sur l'environnement intérieur d'immeubles commerciaux. En s'appuyant sur les notations de satisfaction et les réponses normalisées par catégorie recueillies dans des enquêtes menées sur 192 immeubles de bureaux aux Etats-Unis, un logiciel d'analyse de texte est utilisé pour analyser les réponses textuelles aux questions ouvertes d'enquête, en se concentrant sur les points de vue des occupants sur le lieu de travail et l'immeuble dans son ensemble, la température et l'acoustique. Les textes de ces occupants détaillent les interactions entre les occupants et leur environnement physique dans une acception technique, mais interprètent également ces interactions, en évaluent les conséquences et réfléchissent aux relations sociales et aux autres questions qui se situent hors des évaluations dimension par dimension de l'environnement physique. Considérés dans leur ensemble, ces textes sont révélateurs d'un point de vue centré sur l'utilisateur qui met l'accent sur des problèmes qui ne parviennent pas à affleurer dans les analyses plus techniques des immeubles, tels que l'excès de climatisation, le stress et les frustrations des travailleurs, l'utilisabilité du lieu de travail, et les relations entre les aspects physiques et les autres aspects du lieu de travail. Le fait de porter attention à ce point de vue pourrait conduire à des améliorations en termes d'expérience vécue par les occupants, de conception des immeubles et des technologies, d'exploitation des immeubles, et d'enquêtes par sondage, et pourrait également influer sur des initiatives qui exigent l'adaptation et la coopération des occupants, notamment des initiatives favorisant la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre. Mots clés: performances des immeubles qualité environnementale intérieure adaptation des occupants perceptions des occupants analyse de texte satisfaction sur le lieu de travail