Sustainable Post-Occupancy Evaluation Survey (SPOES): An Approach to Human Factors in Minnesota State-funded Buildings

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 1120-1124
Keyword(s):  
Interior Design ◽  
Residence Hall ◽  
Employee Health ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
University Of Minnesota ◽  
Sustainable Building ◽  
Post Occupancy Evaluation ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Building Designs ◽  
Evaluation Survey

An interdisciplinary team from the Interior Design (ID) and the Center for Sustainable Building Research (CSBR), University of Minnesota developed a tool to inform sustainable design practices in state-funded buildings. The internet-based questionnaire called Sustainable Post Occupancy Evaluation (SPOES) provides both quantitative and qualitative analysis of building occupants’ satisfaction, health, and wellbeing via 12 indoor environmental quality (IEQ) categories. Since 2009, SPOES has provided business and building owners, architects, interior designers, facility managers of 60 state-funded workplace, classroom and residence hall buildings IEQ scores of occupants’ satisfaction to help them better engage building occupants and bring employee health and wellbeing to the forefront of their practices. This presentation will cover the SPOES questionnaire and report formats, results from workplace, classroom, residence hall buildings, and implications for evaluating the impacts of building designs on occupants’ health and wellbeing.

Healthy Workspaces: Strategies for Increasing the Indoor Environmental Quality at Call Centre Interiors for Employee Wellbeing and Productivity

BUILDER ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 284 (3) ◽  
pp. 60-63
Author(s):  
Salih Ceylan
Keyword(s):  
Interior Design ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Call Center ◽  
Call Centre ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Interior Space ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Interior Spaces ◽  
Certification And Accreditation ◽  
Cultural Functions

Indoor environmental quality is a requirement for good architectural and interior design. The definition of indoor environmental quality refers to the conditions of the interior space that provide health and wellbeing for its occupants. Elements of indoor environmental quality are thermal comfort, indoor air quality, ventilation, ergonomics, natural and artificial lighting, odor, and acoustic quality. Indoor environmental quality is required in every type of interior space including ones with residential, educational, and cultural functions and workspaces. It is also included as one of the factors of energy efficient and sustainable design in building energy certification and accreditation systems. This study focuses on call center interiors as a type of workspaces, where the employees spend a long time in the interior space communicating with customers on the phone. The aim is to provide theoretical information and practical application suggestions for higher quality design in call center interiors. The methodology of this paper consists firstly of a literature review to study and analyze the definition and elements of indoor environmental quality, and its implementation into call center interiors as workspaces. Analytical studies lead to strategy proposals for better designed call center interior spaces. The results of the study indicate that better designed interior spaces in call centers lead to better health and wellbeing of the employees, resulting with higher performance and service quality.

POST-OCCUPANCY EVALUATION (POE) OF CONVENTIONAL-DESIGNED BUILDINGS: THE EFFECTS OF OCCUAPNTS’ COMFORT ON PRODUCTIVITY

2015 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Farid-Wajdi Akashah ◽  
Azlan Shah Ali ◽  
Siti Fatunah Mohd Zahari
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Indoor Air Quality ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Work Performance ◽  
Comfort Level ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Post Occupancy Evaluation ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Spss Software

POE is important to evaluate comfort level and satisfaction of building occupants because it indicates their productivity, health, and wellbeing. It is absolutely necessary to ensure building occupants are comfortable and satisfied about buildings’ indoor environmental quality (IEQ). Productivity may be interrupted due to building occupants’ discomfort, which affect their work performance. This study presents the how comfort and satisfaction affects the occupants’ productivity in conventional-designed buildings. Five office buildings located in University of Malaya were selected as the case studies. 278 questionnaires feedbacks found to be useful to form a database on the IEQ. Data obtained were analyzed using SPSS software. The findings shows that majority of the respondents in conventional-designed building were slightly comfortable and satisfied about their IEQ comfort level which were indoor air quality, thermal, lighting, and noise comforts. Although, the design of conventional buildings did not taking into account on sustainability designing, it still functionally well and provided comfort which leads to increasing of employees productivity. The associative test showed significant correlation between illness symptom and IEQ components. Admin buildings had more noticeable illness symptoms in contrast with Faculty buildings. It could be concluded that building occupants’ productivity were least affected by the conventional-design building.  

scholarly journals Association between Building Characteristics and Indoor Environmental Quality through Post-Occupancy Evaluation

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1659
Author(s):  
Rafaela Bortolini ◽  
Núria Forcada
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Mediterranean Climate ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Post Occupancy Evaluation ◽  
Efficiency Measures ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Building Characteristics ◽  
Evaluation Survey

Post-occupancy evaluations are common tools used to periodically assess Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) in tertiary buildings. Although the large amount of data collected from surveys contain valuable information, the influence of building characteristics on IEQ considering the different uses of the rooms and different types of occupants is rarely considered in the evaluation. This study presents an analysis of the association between building characteristics and IEQ in different building rooms (classrooms and offices) and different occupants (students and lecturers) using a post occupancy evaluation survey to 1013 occupants in 26 higher educational buildings in Spain under a Mediterranean climate. This research demonstrated that building characteristics influence IEQ perceptions of the different rooms in tertiary education buildings. The possibility of controlling the lighting, shadows or heating, ventilation air or conditioning (HVAC) systems are the most influential factors when analyzing IEQ. The findings of this research are of interest to facility managers aiming at implementing energy efficiency measures based on user-centric satisfaction or developing maintenance plans focused on IEQ enhancement.

scholarly journals A Ten-Year Review of Primary School Flexible Learning Environments: Interior Design and IEQ Performance

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
Diksha Vijapur ◽  
Christhina Candido ◽  
Özgür Göçer ◽  
Shirley Wyver
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Interior Design ◽  
High Energy ◽  
The Body ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Flexible Learning ◽  
Physical Infrastructure ◽  
And Performance

Flexible Learning Environments (FLEs) arose as enablers for implementation of student-centric pedagogical approaches. Interior design is the key to the success of FLEs, providing the physical infrastructure needed for students to engage on several learning activities, from individual to group work, which take place in a variety of zones ranging from low to high energy. Therefore, a harmonious synergy between the interior design and subsequent Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) performance of FLEs’ physical configuration and learning activities is needed. The objective of this paper is to systematically review (in accordance with the PRISMA method) existing literature related to FLEs within primary school settings, typically catering to children aged 5–12 years old, to understand the body of work investigating the design and performance of FLEs over the last decade (2010–2020). Key findings suggest that the proximity and acoustic and visual permeability of zones found in FLEs may give rise to inadequate IEQ conditions delivered to students. In addition, it could be inferred from the results of the literature review that interior design and IEQ have not been sufficiently investigated in an integrated manner.

Indoor Environmental Quality Survey: A Brief Comparison between Different Post Occupancy Evaluation Methods

2013 ◽  
Vol 864-867 ◽  
pp. 1148-1152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Galatioto ◽  
Giuliana Leone ◽  
Daniele Milone ◽  
Salvatore Pitruzzella ◽  
Vincenzo Franzitta
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Evaluation Methods ◽  
Building Performance ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Objective Method ◽  
Post Occupancy Evaluation ◽  
Subjective Judgments ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Indoor Conditions

Building occupants are important factor in giving information on indoor conditions such as comfort, productivity, building performance and occupants ́ health. Even that, being their appraisal mainly based on subjective judgments, it is difficult to set up a standard and objective method for this purpose. The present work aimed to describe, analyze and compare the most common tests on this topic, in order to highlight critical, failings and strengths.

scholarly journals Assessing occupant comfort in an iconic sustainable education building

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Best ◽  
Brian Purdey
Keyword(s):  
Work Environment ◽  
Natural Ventilation ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Evaluation Study ◽  
Green Buildings ◽  
Sustainable Building ◽  
Post Occupancy Evaluation ◽  
Royal Institution ◽  
Occupant Comfort ◽  
Occupant Satisfaction

The building that houses the Mirvac School of Sustainable Development at Bond University is the first educational building to achieve a six Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. It has won numerous awards since opening in August 2008 including being judged the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) Sustainable Building of 2009. After more than two years in use a post-occupancy evaluation study was carried out to assess the performance of the building from the viewpoint of the users; both resident staff and transient students. Results for factors such as lighting, thermal comfort, noise and air quality. were compared to benchmarks established by the Usable Buildings Trust. The evaluation also assessed the occupants’ perceptions of the building’s impact on their own productivity. Users generally find the building provides a comfortable work environment although a number of areas of performance were noted as posing some concerns. These included intrusive noise in some parts of the building and some issues with glare in daylit teaching spaces. Such concerns were found to be in accord with the results of previous studies and they highlight some recurrent problems in “green” buildings designed to maximise the use of natural ventilation and natural light. These design challenges and how occupant satisfaction is to be measured and benchmarked are also discussed in the context of this comparative building study.

scholarly journals Multicultural Learning and Experiences in Design through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Framework

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Abimbola Oluwatoni Asojo ◽  
Yuliya Kartoshkina ◽  
Babatunde Jaiyeoba ◽  
Dolapo Amole
Keyword(s):  
Interior Design ◽  
Intercultural Sensitivity ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Collaborative Teaching ◽  
Teaching Methodology ◽  
University Of Minnesota ◽  
International Learning ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
The University

One of the requirements for interior design students by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) is to be “prepared to work in a variety of contexts as well as across geographic, political, social, environmental, cultural, and economic conditions.” To help with this preparation, faculty partners from two institutions- the University of Minnesota Interior Design and the Architecture Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria- created unique learning experiences for their students by using Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). The main goal of this teaching methodology is to develop students’ cross-cultural competence by linking university classes in different countries. Two COIL projects were chosen to help students practice solving design problems while responding to specific socio-cultural contexts. Students from both countries seemed to greatly benefit from this learning experience. Findings from students’ reflections after the learning experiences indicated deeper intercultural sensitivity in their design solutions and appreciation of technology and collaborative teaching in developing this sensitivity. Overall the framework of COIL strengthened the integration of multicultural learning experiences in both settings.  

Short-term Measurements of Indoor Environmental Quality in Selected Offices – Case Study

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludmila Meciarova ◽  
Silvia Vilcekova ◽  
Eva Kridlova Burdova ◽  
Ilija Zoran Apostoloski ◽  
Danica Kosicanova
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Indoor Climate ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Healthy Environment ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
The One

Decent quality of indoor air is important for health and wellbeing of building users. We live, work and study in indoors of various types of buildings. Often people are exposed to pollutants at higher concentrations than these that occur out-doors. Continual investigation of indoor air quality is needed for ensuring comfort and healthy environment. Measuring and analysis of occurrence of physical, chemical and biological factors is the first step for suggestion of optimization measures. Inside school buildings there are often inadequate indoor climate conditions such as thermal comfort parame-ters or ventilation. The aim of this study was determination of indoor environmental quality in selected offices in the building of elementary school in Slovakia. The values of operative temperature were not within the optimum range of values for the warm period of the year in one of the monitored offices. The intensity of illumination was lower in the two offices. Low levels of particulate matters were measured except the one office where permissible value was exceeded by 7.6%.

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