The relation between indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and occupants comfort has become a critical area of research through building life cycle. The importance of the relationship becomes highlighted when IEQ has a strong influence to change people behaviour through its nature specifically in places like an office building where the productivity of occupants remains at the top of everything. In this regard, this manuscript documented the parameters of the indoor environment quality which has a strong influence on occupants' comfort. Through critical review of literature, it has been found that IEQ parameters as thermal, noise, light and air quality could strongly affect the human comfort and health while having a critical role in energy consumption in the building. Moreover, there is a complicated relation among IEQ parameters which make it difficult for a designer to find a balance among them regarding occupants' comfort and productivity and this complication is more confusing in green construction. Many post occupancy evaluation (POE) studies in both conventional and green buildings have carried out, but almost none of them indicated a full satisfaction with IEQ parameters simultaneously. Therefore, this paper investigated among IEQ parameters and their correlation with each other pertaining to occupants' satisfaction, health and productivity in office buildings with different methods of construction.
The quality of the indoor environment has become a vital component for buildings due to the time spent indoors. To this extent, the performance of the indoor environment is considered as part of the greenery criteria by green rating schemes such as the Green Building Index in Malaysia. This study aims to investigate and assess the quality of the indoor environment of Platinum-certified office buildings in a tropical climate. This research applied a case study approach over two Platinum-certified office buildings. Post-occupancy evaluation is employed integrating full-scale measurement with an occupants’ survey. The measurement was carried out from May to August, and 112 questionnaires were retrieved to evaluate occupants’ satisfaction with aspects of the indoor environment. Thermal comfort, indoor air quality, acoustic, lighting, furniture, and cleanliness are considered as the main study variables. The findings of full-scale measurement indicated high relative humidity, and low air velocity and illuminance. While occupants reported overall indoor environment quality (IEQ) comfort, a significant correlation of variables was observed. The main sources of dissatisfaction were identified as overcooling around 24 °C, high relative humidity (RH), around 70% RH, glare, and background noise around 51.9 dB. Statistically, a significant difference between occupants’ responses to IEQ of two cases was identified, although both buildings are labelled with a Platinum certificate.
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