Azzazy, S; Ghaffarianhoseini, A; GhaffarianHoseini, A; Naismith, N; Doan, D T and Hollander, J B (2025) The significance of indoor thermal comfort on occupants' perception: In university buildings in auckland, New Zealand. Building Research & Information, 53(1-2), pp. 19-39. ISSN 0961-3218
Abstract
Any building creates a unique micro-environment. Educational buildings tend to offer a wide range of purposes, with more operational functions than most other buildings. This paper focuses on the occupant's experiences of Indoor Thermal Comfort (TC) in educational buildings in Auckland, New Zealand. The TC can impact the occupant's experience and thus affects student learning. This survey-based study examines users' experience of the educational building's comfort levels. The collected data from educational building users (n = 109) was analysed to evaluate the relationship between the perceived experience and the building's function. The key findings of the survey were: (a) Identifying TC as the most significant factor that directly impacts the occupants' mood or mental state, even when compared to more cognitive factors; (b) Identifying the lecture room as the most critical space for occupants' thermal perception; and (c) the deviation between the preferred and experienced mental state, in the selected campus were relatively matching. This study contributes to the existing knowledge of educational buildings by quantifying the impact of TC on the occupant's experience.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | building function; building performance; educational buildings; indoor environment; thermal comfort survey; questionnaire survey |
| Index terms: | questionnaire, thermal perception, survey, building performance, educational building, comfort, thermal comfort, mood, indoor environment, deviation, New Zealand |
| Subjects: | financial and cost management, data collection methods, environmental engineering, occupational health and safety management, environmental science, construction type, quality assurance, behavioral psychology, Geography |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Health and Safety, Geographical Context, Quality Management, Construction Technology, Cost Management, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here