A previous study clustered home occupants into archetypes with a questionnaire. This study uses qualitative methods to strengthen those previously-found archetypes with data pertaining to the participants’ home experiences. Focus groups were carried out where generative activities were conducted involving the generation of collages. The first activity dealt with the expression of ‘meaning of energy use at home’ and the second one with the ‘ideal home experience’. Analyses were done with content and thematic analysis. Codes were drawn from the data and were assimilated through an affinity diagram. The diagram produced two categories: building themes and human themes, along with five sub-categories (home, financial, energy, psychological, and behavioural aspects). The outcome shows that each archetype expresses needs and meanings of an ideal home experience and energy use differently from each other. The results provide evidence that generative techniques can be used in energy research. In this case, to validate and substantiate the quantitative archetypes previously produced with a questionnaire. Interpretive knowledge in energy research allows for a better understanding of occupants’ differing behavioural patterns in regards to energy use and comfort. It allows customizing interventions to the archetypes’ specific needs to decrease energy consumption while maintaining comfort.@en

To study the combined effect of different environmental factors on children in a classroom setting, 250 children from seven primary schools were exposed to 36 different environmental configurations (‘all’ and ‘fewer’ acoustical panels; ‘displacement’ and ‘mixing’ ventilation; sound type: ‘children talk’, ‘traffic’, and ‘none’; and ‘direct’, ‘indirect’ and ‘soft’ lighting). In a four-way factorial design, they assessed with 18 groups on eight different days temperature, draught, noise, light and smell. Correlation, three-way ANOVA, comparison tests and multi-regression analysis were used to analyse relationships, and main, cross-modal and interaction effects. The results show that more acoustical panels had a positive effect on the children’s assessment of sound. Sound type had a main effect on the assessment of sound. Statistical significant cross-modal effects were found for lighting and sound type on the assessment of smell. Significant three-way interactions between ‘Vent’, ‘Sound’, and ‘Light’ types were found for smell and light in the ‘fewer panels’ situations; and for light in the ‘all panels’ situations. Multiple-regression analysis also showed that perception of smell was significantly related with draught, sound and light perception in ‘fewer panels’ conditions. Further studies on these cross-modal interactions are recommended, specifically at individual level.@en

To identify current problems in the classroom and to conceptualize design solutions by primary school children to solve these problems, 335 children from seven primary schools participated in a workshop held in the Experience room of the SenseLab, comprising of two parts. In part 1, the children were asked to think about their own classroom at school and to choose an IEQ-problem in their own classroom that they are bothered with. In part 2 of the workshop, the children were asked to imagine they are an inventor or scientist in 2040 with all resources available and to make a design for the future. The content analysis of the problems and solutions appearing in the drawings and the written text resulted in 5 themes (light, noise, temperature, air and other than IEQ) and 16 sub-themes (11 for the problems and 5 for the solutions). Noise-related problems were most frequently reported (58%), followed by temperature (53%), air (22%), and light (16%). Girls reported more problems than boys, which is possibly related to a better recollection of negative feelings towards those problems in their classrooms. 47% of the children proposed solutions related to more than one IEQ-problem. Solutions ranged from existing solutions, for example headphones to protect against noise to far-fetched solutions such as send noisy children away by means of a rocket. The outcome showed that children can be valuable contributors in co-designing ‘new’ or ‘adapted’ classroom environments.@en

The growing field of indoor health and comfort studies recently shifted from predicting the average comfort and wellbeing of a large population into identifying the needs of individuals in different scenarios. This study aimed to identify different profiles of office workers in the Netherlands who took part in the OFFICAIR study, based on their self-reported health and comfort. Associations of respondents’ health and comfort with gender and type of office indicated that female occupants experienced significantly higher numbers of building-related symptoms and consistently lower satisfaction levels of their office environment than male occupants. Workers in open space offices without partitions reported lower satisfaction and suffered from building-related symptoms more frequently than occupants in single person offices. TwoStep cluster analysis revealed three profiles of occupants: Healthy and satisfied workers, Moderate healthy and noise-bothered workers and Unhealthy and Air and temperature-bothered workers. While the first group was by far the healthiest, significant higher risks for building-related symptoms such as dry eyes (OR: 3.38), dry skin (OR: 2.87) and watering, itchy eyes (OR: 2.7) were identified for the unhealthy group than for the moderate healthy group. The results confirm the need of an integrated approach to better understand moderate and unhealthy groups in order to provide customised solutions for individuals with different complaints and needs.@en

It is well known that the demand on hospital staff is increasing and that their comfort and health may be affected negatively by dose and building-related aspects. Comfort and health may differ between hospital departments. However, outpatient areas are understudied. To better understand comfort and health of staff in outpatient areas a survey was performed in which social comfort, personal and work-related aspects were all accounted for. This study aimed to identify comfort and health in relation to different room types. Of the 1694 invitations that were sent to outpatient staff of six buildings, 566 respondents (33%) were included in the analysis. There was little difference in the prevalence of the main self-reported symptoms, dry eyes and headache, and indoor air complaints, whereas acoustical, visual, thermal and social comfort differed statistically significantly between those working in different room types. Compared to other (inpatient) hospital and office studies, the prevalence of symptoms and dissatisfaction with comfort was high, especially dissatisfaction with daylight. Considering the dynamic use of workplaces in outpatient areas and the high ERI, this study reinforces the necessity for inclusion of personal and work-related characteristics in studies on comfort and health of occupants.@en