Visueller Komfort und Tageslicht am Büroarbeitsplatz. Eine Felduntersuchung in neun Gebäuden

Die Studie befasst sich mit der Frage, welche Faktoren die Zufriedenheit mit der Tageslichtversorgung an Büroarbeitsplätzen im Alltag beeinflussen, und berücksichtigt jahreszeitliche Unterschiede. Neben der Auswertung von 977 Fragebögen ermöglicht die ergänzende Analyse des Nutzerverhaltens an den untersuchten Arbeitsplätzen Rückschlüsse auf die Bedürfnisse der Nutzer und ihre Toleranzgrenzen. Aus den Ergebnissen können Hinweise für die Planung von nutzerfreundlichen Gebäuden abgeleitet werden

Visueller Komfort und Tageslicht am Büroarbeitsplatz. Eine Felduntersuchung in neun Gebäuden

The study contributes to the determination of parameters that influence occupant satisfaction with the daylighting of workplaces in everyday life under consideration of seasonal differences. The users’ assessments (977 questionnaires) are supplemented by an analysis of the users’ behavior that allows conclusions on the users’ needs and on their tolerance towards adverse conditions. By evaluating users’ ratings and interventions, clues for the planning of user friendly buildings can be identified

Integrating Human Satisfaction into the Design Phase – Generating Motivation and Knowledge in Architectural Education

The design of sustainable cities and buildings needs to include thoughts on circumstances influencing human satisfaction be it for thermal, visual, or other dimensions of human perception. While human satisfaction should be regarded as a dimension of sustainability alone, the provision of thermal and visual satisfaction is also a key driving force for energy use in buildings. Research on human perception of the built environment and their interactions with it has a long tradition. At the same time, open research questions especially with respect to the interaction between different dimensions of human perception, e.g. the effect of thermal stimuli on visual perception, are part of the current debate within the research community. In contrast, the amount of scientific knowledge related to human satisfaction transferred to architectural students is low and consequences of their decisions during design studio works for the later occupants are seldom addressed. This paper describes the experiences and results of a teaching experiment, in which architectural students were asked to reflect their own design work finished in a previous year with respect to effects on human satisfaction by means of experimental studies. The research questions raised were a) which design issues can be investigated through experimental studies, and b) to what extent can the motivation of architectural students towards the topic of occupants’ satisfaction be raised. A seminar consisting of three phases was conducted in two consecutive summers. First, students received input related to scientific methods, thermal and visual perception, and had to reflect on one of their previous design works in order to extract research questions and hypotheses. In the second phase, students had to design and conduct a small experimentalstudy related to their research questions. In addition, they had to participate in the experiments organized by their fellow students. In the third phase, the experimental data was analysed and had to be presented together with the reflection of consequences for future design works. The results of this teaching experiment show the huge variety of design issues dealt with in the context of this seminar. Research questions originating from the students were in parts related to cutting edge research questions such as the interaction between different dimensions of perception. From the perspective of a raised motivation, a large number of students showed great interest in the topic, participated with enthusiasm, and evaluated this seminar very high. Limitations have to be seen in the small sample sizes reachable by this seminar approach with many experiments being conducted with less than 10 participants due to limited resources in time and budget, and in the low level of statistical knowledge, which is not part of architectural education

Does thermal control improve visual satisfaction? Interactions between occupants’ self-perceived control, visual, thermal, and overall satisfaction

Occupants’ satisfaction had been researched independently related to thermal and visual stimuli for many decades showing among others the influence of self-perceived control. Few studies revealed interactions between thermal and visual stimuli affecting occupant satisfaction. In addition, studies including interactions between thermal and visual stimuli are lacking different control scenarios. This study focused on the effects of thermal and visual factors, their interaction, seasonal influences, and the degree of self-perceived control on overall, thermal, and visual satisfaction. A repeated-measures laboratory study with 61 participants running over two years and a total of 986 participant sessions was conducted. Mixed model analyses with overall satisfaction as outcome variable revealed that thermal satisfaction and visual satisfaction are the most important predictors for overall satisfaction with the indoor environment. Self-perceived thermal control served as moderator between thermal satisfaction and overall satisfaction. Season had slight influence on overall satisfaction. Random effects explained the highest amount of variance, indicating that intra- and interindividual differences in the ratings of satisfaction are more prevalent than study condition. Future building design and operation plans aiming at a high level of occupant satisfaction should consider personal control opportunities and take into account the moderating effect of control opportunities in multimodal interactions

Komfortlabor 1 + 2

Bürogebäude werden errichtet, damit Nutzer sich darin aufhalten und komfortabel arbeiten können. Für die nachhaltige Nutzung von Gebäuden sind neben dem Energieverbrauch in erster Linie das Nutzerverhalten und die Nutzerzufriedenheit entscheidend. Doch was führt dazu, dass wir uns in einem Raum klimatisch wohl fühlen, dass es uns nicht zu heiß, zu kalt, zu hell oder zu dunkel ist? Was bedeutet „Komfortempfinden“ und wie können in einem Komfortlabor wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse gewonnen werden, die Entwurfsentscheidungen unterstützen? Das arch.lab ist eine Plattform für Forschung in der Lehre an der Fakultät Architektur. Es hat die Aufgabe, forschungsorientiertes Studieren und Lehren im Kontext der Studiengänge Architektur und der Kunstgeschichte zu entwickeln und zu fördern. Je Studienjahr vergibt das arch.lab bis zu sechs Förderungen an Seminarkonzepte der Fakultät, die für das neu eingeführte Modul „Forschungsfelder“ im Masterstudiengang Architektur entwickelt werden

A promising protocol for the endothelialization of vascular grafts in an instrumented rotating bioreactor towards clinical application

Pre-endothelialization of a tissue-engineered vascular graft before implantation aims to prevent thrombosis and immunoreactions. This work demonstrates a standardized cultivation process to build a confluent monolayer with human aortal endothelial cells on xenogenous scaffolds. Pre-tested dynamic cultivation conditions in flow slides with pulsatile flow (1 Hz) representing arterial wall conditions were transferred to a newly designed multi-featured rotational bioreactor system. The medium was thickened with 1% methyl cellulose simulating a non-Newtonian fluid comparable to blood. Computational fluid dynamics was used to estimate the optimal volume flow and medium distribution inside the bioreactor chamber for defined wall-near shear stress levels. Flow measurements were performed during cultivation for constant monitoring of the process. Three decellularized porcine arteries were seeded and cultivated in the bioreactor over six days. 1% MC turned out to be the optimal percentage to achieve shear stress values ranging up to 10 dyn/cm2. Vascular endothelial cells formed a continuous monolayer with significant cell alignment in the direction of flow. The presented cultivation protocol in the bioreactor system thus displays a promising template for graft endothelialization and cultivation. Therefore, establishing a key step for future tissue-engineered vascular graft development with a view towards clinical application