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Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is becoming a key aspect considering the building envelope and occupants' health. A lot of energy is consumed to achieve the satisfactory IEQ in the building. The main challenge for the building designer is to enhance the IEQ with the minimum energy consumption. The present paper investigates the contributing parameters and different assessment models for IEQ. The presented study will be helpful to analyse multi-functional parametric comfort and in turn will help to improve the occupant's health. IntroductionThe major purpose of buildings is to provide a healthy and comfortable environment for occupants. In most parts of the world, people spend more than 90% of the day in indoors. The indoor environment results from the interaction of the site, the climate, the building system, and the building occupants. The number of related complaints has increased in recent years with increased building tightness, growing use of materials that consume natural resources, and increase in energy use to achieve indoor comfort. The comfort of an indoor environment is very much affected by weather elements. Comfort is a way of measuring occupant's satisfaction which in turn can directly affect health and productivity.Globally, with the rapid growth in urbanization and increase in the number of dwelling units, achieving the comfort of an indoor environment by natural means is a major challenge to the designers. Today's building industry is minimizing a different kind of footprint: the energy, carbon, and environmental footprint of buildings. The aim in the building's design or renovation phase should include improvement of the building's energy efficiency and reduction in environmental impact of the building. Optimal energy management in the building sector is the key factor in energy conservation. Due to the importance of good quality of the indoor environment and the problems caused by high energy consumption, various government agencies have enacted a series of policies and regulations aimed at increasing the energy efficiency of dwellings and ensuring a good indoor environment. The building designers have a challenge to achieve the indoor comfort with the least energy requirement. In order to investigate the aspect of indoor environmental quality (IEQ), data collection methods for

Due to rapid urbanization of developing cities, the planners have a major challenge in designing climate responsive built environment for modern urban dwellers. In order to maintain a good built environmental quality, the various key design parameters of existing built form would need to be reviewed and analyzed to seek appropriate improvement. The present paper highlights the case study of a test room model in an educational campus. The experimentation was carried out in composite climatic zone of Nagpur in India. The desired built environment parameters viz., indoor light intensity, temperature and humidity was recorded and analyzed during experiments under controlled conditions of room openings. A functional index model was developed by this study using the multi-parametric regression analysis of the results. The qualitative assessment of the aforesaid parameters in terms of indoor comfort in the built environment was carried out. The developed mathematical index model for various functional parameters over the given geographic location can suitably be used by the designers for evaluating and enhancing the indoor comfort of a built environment suitable for the climate of Nagpur, India.

The present paper focuses on developing a strategy to control the indoor temperature in slum dwellings under redevelopment. The proposed framework aims at improving the building planning and appropriate selection of construction materials along with controlled cost with respect to currently adopted practices. The proposed strategy is elaborated with a case study in Nagpur, India. A single storey, four-room model was planned as per the National Building Code of India. The performance of the model building was evaluated by using energy simulation software TRNSYS. The cellular light-weight bricks used in the construction were made with bio briquette ash (BBA), which is a locally available waste material. Instead of using the conventional reinforced cement concrete (RCC) roof, aluminium and sawdust were suggested as a reflecting-cum-insulating material. To improve the temperature control in model homes, installation of a reflecting-cum-insulating material was conducted, consisting of aluminium and sawdust, over the conventional RCC roof. The model building constructed with these new materials was compared with that built with conventional fly ash bricks and RCC roof. Results show that the proposed model building improved the efficiency of indoor temperature control by 23% and, at the same time, reduced the cost by 13%. The present concept will contribute to the redevelopment of slum dwellings to deliver cost-effective dwelling units that provide occupants with acceptable thermal comfort.

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