Occupant productivity and office indoor environment quality : a review of the literature

The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature to draw an understanding of the relationship between indoor environmental quality and occupant productivity in an office environment. The study reviews over 300 papers from 67 journals, conference articles and books focusing on indoor environment, occupant comfort, productivity and green buildings. It limits its focus to the physical aspects of an office environment. The literature outlines eight Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) factors that influence occupant productivity in an office environment. It also discusses different physical parameters under each of the IEQ factors. It proposes a conceptual model of different factors affecting occupant productivity. The study also presents a review of the data collection methods utilised by the research studies that aim to investigate the relationship between IEQ and occupant productivity. The study presents a comprehensive discussion and analysis of different IEQ factors that affect occupant productivity. The paper provides a concise starting point for future researchers interested in the area of indoor environmental quality

Between Research and Practice:: A Comparative Analysis of Daylight Design Predictions in Atriums

Internal, multi-story atria present an opportunity to harvest daylight as well as create connections to the outdoors in commercial and educational buildings. They also have the potential to help moderate well-being for occupants and provide informal gathering spaces that form social interactions for buildings' users. Despite the increased deployment of atria in contemporary, sustainable buildings, there is a lack of studies investigating the relationship between atrium design strategies, expected outcomes, and their realized impacts on occupants' comfort, health, and experience. The intent of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of two different atria typologies in two LEED campus buildings from both building performance and occupants' perspectives. A comparative field study was conducted in these two buildings to assess how the shape, form, orientation, and geometry of the two atria impacted daylighting autonomy, glare, chronobiological light response, occupants' perceptions, and functional use of both spaces. This paper concludes with insights on the relationship between daylighting design metrics employed in practice and their consequential impacts on the real space as perceived by the occupants. It attempts to answer whether an atrium that meets building performance standards necessarily translate to a healthy indoor environment and positive human experience. Results from this study suggest that atrium design can be optimized to balance daylight quantity and quality through prescribed design parameters. However, the success of the design with the intent of a space that encourages social interaction requires more attention to human behavior, atrium function, and typology

Visualization of Acoustic Comfort in an Open-Plan, High-Performance Glass Building

The aesthetic and functional appeal of high-performance, open-plan office buildings presents special challenges. Extensive use of glass at the building’s perimeter to improve visual comfort and office communication can negatively impact acoustic comfort without proper design considerations. This study investigates the utility of a novel visualization approach to documenting the interactional impact of acoustical comfort on the health and well-being of occupants in an open-office environment. Room acoustic measurements of background noise and speech transmission index were conducted and distraction distances were calculated and visualized using a mapping technique. In addition, a comprehensive pre- and post-occupancy evaluation protocol was employed. The paper illustrates the reliability of the visualization approach to aid in the interpretation and comparison of various open-office acoustic solutions from a human-centric acoustic environment perspective