The impact of IEQ (daylight, thermal comfort, acoustics and ventilation) in school settings is a subject of concern for many scholars and parents and teachers. This review has appraised the breadth of studies that have examined the influence of IEQ on learning performance and health in schools. Using the replicable search processes of a systematic literature, adopted from medical research practice, one hundred and fifty relevant articles were retrieved from four search databases (Science direct, Scopus, PubMed and Google Scholar). Analysis of these articles has revealed that the impact on students’ health and comfort of each individual IEQ variable is significant. This, in some studies, has been shown to influence learning performance. However, while these variables are inter-linked in building design they are not studied together in health and learning performance studies. An evidence-based method is proposed for investigating what relative contributory effect these four variables have on learning performance. As these IEQ variables individually have a very significant effect on student performance, this study has the potential to guide important changes in the design and refurbishment of new and existing school buildings. If successful, it could support educational quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning. Keywords: Daylighting, Thermal comfort, Acoustics, Ventilation

Classroom furniture has evolved over time from fixed desks facing the front to maintain order and control to a range of flexible furniture types to encourage student-centred pedagogies. This article reports research that applied a sociomaterial approach to explore how furniture is used in a flexible learning environment. Data were gathered from observations, reflections, student focus group interviews and teacher interviews in one school in New Zealand. In this context it was found that students used furniture for different purposes. Individual student preferences and differences were evident including unconventional use of furniture. The use of furniture was influenced by the teachers, students, environment, furniture design and the curriculum, and mediated by pedagogy and a focus on developing autonomy and environmental competence. The students demonstrated environmental competence, including awareness of the ways that the available furniture can be used for different types of curriculum activities and how environmental and social conditions can affect comfort, collaboration and concentration levels. In classrooms where students move around the space, environmental competence should be deliberately embedded in the teaching programme implicitly and explicitly. In this context, the teachers controlled the environment and the students had restricted autonomy over their use of furniture. The notion of student-centredness in contemporary classroom environments requires further investigation.

The problem of shelter in developing countries is the shortage of affordable housing especially for the urban poor. This housing shortage exposes the citizens to live in inadequate housing conditions. This study presents evidence of the factors affecting the shortage and or provision of sustainable affordable housing in Cross River State, Nigeria. Primary data was collected from semi-structured interviews and unobtrusive observations. This data was then analysed using descriptive statistics (frequency counts and simple percentages). The study findings revealed that, many interviewees suggested that rural-urban migration 98% (n=48), and lack of planning, maintenance and management 90% (n=45) as the main factors leading to the shortage of affordable housing. The interviewees suggested that poor implementation of government housing policies 84% (n=42), difficulty in purchasing land 94% (n=47), the high cost of building materials 96% (n=48), and lack of finance and access to credit facilities 80% (n=40) were significant challenges hindering the provision of sustainable affordable housing. The study concludes that affordable housing shortage and or provision can be minimised and enhanced by encouraging building developments that are; flexible and smart with minimal usage of non-renewable energy, use of durable and locally available building materials that respond appropriately to environmental factors and forces, availability of housing for the target population and a switch to a more sustainable way of planning, design, construction and maintenance of buildings.

<p>This thesis introduces a methodological approach for assessing Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) at an unprecedented scale in a large property portfolio to identify good and poor IEQ in buildings to inform design, asset management, maintenance, and evidence-based policy decisions. There is clear evidence that with deteriorating IEQ conditions, there is a decrease in human performance and their acceptability of the indoor environment. This thesis initially sought to find precedents for the influence of combined IEQ (lighting, temperature, relative humidity, acoustics, and indoor air quality) measurements on learning performance in schools and found none. No standards for measuring or characterizing this all inclusive IEQ in classrooms was found. In previous IEQ studies, there is no coherent guidance on representative placement of sensors (data loggers) and height to place a multi-variable sensor within a space. </p> <p>The primary purpose of this thesis was to ascertain whether a one-point sensor measurement could be representative of the environmental condition across a space and where might be the best location to measure IEQ in many classrooms. Using the New Zealand Ministry of Education portfolio as a case study, physical measurements and observations were carried out in three typical case study classrooms, in three selected schools in Wellington. An array of sensors that simultaneously measures all five IEQ variables in a single device were deployed on the vertical walls and on the horizontal measuring plane in the case study classrooms during non-school days and school days in summer, autumn, and spring. One external sensor was positioned outside the classroom in a shaded walkway to monitor external environmental data and external weather data was also retrieved from the closet weather station. </p> <p>The main conclusion is that for all five environmental variables, the relationship between the central horizontal plane and vertical wall sensors was consistent for approximately 80% of the time. This indicated that a vertical wall sensor can reliably predict IEQ levels at the centre of a classroom. This study concludes that a one-point sensor located on an unglazed vertical wall, where the sun is unlikely to shine and away from any sources of heat can strongly predict IEQ at the most frequently occupied parts of a space (the centre). </p> <p>A one-point measurement provides an indication of what is happening in a room, but not necessarily all the variations (differences) across the room. The use of a one-point sensor gives a general indication of IEQ trends and patterns. It can suggest that IEQ highs are way too high or the lows way too low, or the range of extremes are too broad. It cannot pinpoint problem causes, or specific local issues, but is useful to triage good and poor IEQ in classrooms for early discrimination from hundreds or more classrooms of how to direct the maintenance or refurbishment programmes for large groups of school buildings. An additional level of information could be picked up better by using multiple sensors, building modelling or in combination with other qualitative methods such as survey of occupants. These findings can be used by researchers, architects, building scientist and policymakers to diagnose building performance in a national school property portfolio. The same process could be used in any large property portfolio to prioritize remediation works. </p>

The New Zealand Ministry of Education (MoE) has begun measuring the light, temperature, noise and CO2 level of 21 selected schools using a single sensor. This sensor is being developed as a method for routine measurement in order to understand the performance of New Zealand's school buildings. This study used a Climate Based Daylight Modelling to appraise the MoE methodology, to determine what can be learned from the use of a single sensor in one location in a classroom, to estimate the lighting comfort across a space. Daylighting is focused upon because it has the most spatial variation in a space. The findings of this study support the assertion that a one-point sensor measurement on a vertical wall could predict illuminance across the centre of the horizontal work plane; and provide a useful benchmark to estimate the light distribution across a space. However, regardless of how representative of a space a one-point measurement is, it is difficult to quantify the daylight distribution over time throughout the space. If various daylight indicators are well documented and analysed alongside the measured data, a strategically positioned one-point sensor on the vertical wall could be useful in predicting the daylight quantity of a space.