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Post-Occupancy Evaluation Studies: For High Performance, Sustainable and Healthy Environments
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Post-Occupancy Evaluation Studies: For High Performance, Sustainable and Healthy Environments

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2019) | Viewed by 45562

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Christhina Candido

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia
Interests: POE; IEQ; high-performance environments
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) tools have been used to understand building performance from the occupant perspective. This Special Issue of Buildings aims to collate success stories about high-performance environments assessed with POE tools. Particular emphasis will be given to investigations focusing on two key dimensions embraced by the built environment: Sustainability and health.

Dr. Christhina Candido
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Indoor Environmental Quality
  • Human-centric design
  • Health
  • Productivity
  • Physical activity
  • Sustainability

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 1200 KiB  
Article
Differences in Occupants’ Satisfaction and Perceived Productivity in High- and Low-Performance Offices
by Özgür Göçer, Christhina Candido, Leena Thomas and Kenan Göçer
Buildings 2019, 9(9), 199; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9090199 - 30 Aug 2019
Cited by 46 | Viewed by 7181
Abstract
This paper reports the results from a dataset comprising 9794 post-occupancy evaluation (POE) surveys from 77 Australian open-plan offices. This paper specifically focuses on a sub-set of 20 offices (n = 2133), identified from ranking 10 offices each, with the least ( [...] Read more.
This paper reports the results from a dataset comprising 9794 post-occupancy evaluation (POE) surveys from 77 Australian open-plan offices. This paper specifically focuses on a sub-set of 20 offices (n = 2133), identified from ranking 10 offices each, with the least (n = 1063) and highest (n = 1070) satisfaction scores, respectively. The satisfaction scores were evaluated on the basis of seven factors (i.e., building/office aesthetics and quality, thermal comfort and indoor air quality, noise distraction and privacy, personal control, connection to outdoor environment, maintenance and visual comfort, and individual space). Using the POE survey data from 20 offices, regression analyses and two-way ANOVA tests were carried out to understand the differences in occupants’ satisfaction and perceived productivity arising from open-plan offices. According to the statistically significant regression analyses results, it was identified that building/office aesthetics and quality (β = 0.55, p < 0.001) and noise distraction and privacy (β = 0.33, p < 0.001) were the two strongest predictors contributing perceived productivity in low-performance offices. Two-way ANOVA test results for the 10 high-performance offices indicate that the perceived productivity was strongly associated with the office’s physical configuration, the employees’ working experience, and the working hours at that office. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-Occupancy Evaluation Studies: For High Performance, Sustainable and Healthy Environments)
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16 pages, 2823 KiB  
Article
The Rise of Office Design in High-Performance, Open-Plan Environments
by Christhina Candido, Prithwi Chakraborty and Dian Tjondronegoro
Buildings 2019, 9(4), 100; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9040100 - 23 Apr 2019
Cited by 37 | Viewed by 12598
Abstract
This study aimed to identify key drivers behind workers’ satisfaction, perceived productivity, and health in open-plan offices while at the same time understanding design similarities shared by high-performance workspaces. Results from a dataset comprising a total of 8827 post-occupancy evaluation (POE) surveys conducted [...] Read more.
This study aimed to identify key drivers behind workers’ satisfaction, perceived productivity, and health in open-plan offices while at the same time understanding design similarities shared by high-performance workspaces. Results from a dataset comprising a total of 8827 post-occupancy evaluation (POE) surveys conducted in 61 offices in Australia and a detailed analysis of a subset of 18 workspaces (n = 1949) are reported here. Combined, the database-level enquiry and the subset analysis helped identifying critical physical environment-related features with the highest correlation scores for perceived productivity, health, and overall comfort of the work area. Dataset-level analysis revealed large-size associations with spatial comfort, indoor air quality, building image and maintenance, noise distraction and privacy, visual comfort, personal control, and connection to the outdoor environment. All high-performance, open-plan offices presented a human-centered approach to interior design, purposely allocated spaces to support a variety of work-related tasks, and implemented biophilic design principles. These findings point to the importance of interior design in high-performance workspaces, especially in relation to open-plan offices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-Occupancy Evaluation Studies: For High Performance, Sustainable and Healthy Environments)
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14 pages, 223 KiB  
Article
Does the Number of Occupants in an Office Influence Individual Perceptions of Comfort and Productivity?—New Evidence from 5000 Office Workers
by Eziaku Onyeizu Rasheed, Maryam Khoshbakht and George Baird
Buildings 2019, 9(3), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9030073 - 25 Mar 2019
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 5744
Abstract
Purpose—The purpose of this article is to present evidence of occupants’ perception of their work environment in five different office types (Solo, Duo, 2–4, 5–8 and 8Plus offices). The study examined the influence of the number of office occupants on individual perception of [...] Read more.
Purpose—The purpose of this article is to present evidence of occupants’ perception of their work environment in five different office types (Solo, Duo, 2–4, 5–8 and 8Plus offices). The study examined the influence of the number of office occupants on individual perception of indoor environment quality (IEQ) in office environments. Design/methodology/approach—A dataset of 5000 respondents in 67 commercial and institutional office buildings was analysed using IBM SPSS v23. The dataset contained user response on the BUS Methodology questionnaire that is designed to retrieve occupants’ perception of their work environments. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression analysis were conducted to calculate the impact of the office environment on occupants’ perception of comfort and productivity. Findings - This study showed that occupants in Solo and Duo offices perceived higher satisfaction with their environment (except for temperature in summer), better health and productivity; and more control over the office environment than those in 5–8 and 8Plus offices. Occupants in 8Plus offices were most satisfied with the temperature in summer. It was also noted that the IEQ factors that predicted comfort were observed to not predict productivity. Noise was the only IEQ factor that had predictive power for both comfort and productivity in all the office spaces. Originality/value—This article provides intriguing findings on occupants’ perception of various types of office environment that contributes significantly to the debate on open-plan versus cellular office environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-Occupancy Evaluation Studies: For High Performance, Sustainable and Healthy Environments)
13 pages, 2958 KiB  
Article
Understanding the Office: Using Ecological Momentary Assessment to Measure Activities, Posture, Social Interactions, Mood, and Work Performance at the Workplace
by Lina Engelen and Fabian Held
Buildings 2019, 9(2), 54; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9020054 - 25 Feb 2019
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 6204
Abstract
Studying the workplace often involves using observational, self-report recall, or focus group tools, which all have their established advantages and disadvantages. There is, however, a need for a readily available, low-invasive method that can provide longitudinal, repeated, and concurrent in-the-moment information to understand [...] Read more.
Studying the workplace often involves using observational, self-report recall, or focus group tools, which all have their established advantages and disadvantages. There is, however, a need for a readily available, low-invasive method that can provide longitudinal, repeated, and concurrent in-the-moment information to understand the workplace well. In this study, ecological momentary assessment (EMA) was used to collect 508 real-time responses about activities, posture, work performance, social interactions, and mood in 64 adult office workers in three Australian workplaces. The response rate was 53%, and the time to fill out the survey was 50 seconds on average. On average, the participants were sitting, standing, and walking in 84%, 9%, and 7% of survey instances, respectively. The participants reported they were working alone at their desks in 55% of all reported instances. Reported mood varied up to nine points within one person over the course of the post-occupancy observations. EMA can be used to paint a rich picture of occupants’ experiences and perceptions and to gain invaluable understanding of temporal patterns of the workplace, how the space is used, and how aspects of the workplace interact. This information can be used to make improvements to the physical and social workspaces and enhance occupants’ work performance and mood. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-Occupancy Evaluation Studies: For High Performance, Sustainable and Healthy Environments)
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Review

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22 pages, 3232 KiB  
Review
Healthy and Sustainable Hospital Evaluation—A Review of POE Tools for Hospital Assessment in an Evidence-Based Design Framework
by Andrea Brambilla and Stefano Capolongo
Buildings 2019, 9(4), 76; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9040076 - 27 Mar 2019
Cited by 51 | Viewed by 12411
Abstract
Hospitals are complex, high-performance systems that demand continuous quality improvement. Several instruments evaluate the organizational or clinical qualities but very few focus on the built environment. The purpose of this paper is to compare and review the recent tools able to assess the [...] Read more.
Hospitals are complex, high-performance systems that demand continuous quality improvement. Several instruments evaluate the organizational or clinical qualities but very few focus on the built environment. The purpose of this paper is to compare and review the recent tools able to assess the hospital built environment and test how they measure health, sustainability, or both through Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE). A literature review has been conducted in the field of hospital quality assessment and 13 POE instruments have been included and analyzed through Ulrich’s Evidence-Based Design (EBD) framework. The percentage and the content of health or sustainability-related criteria have been compared and further discussed. Health related criteria the most recent tools are used three times more than in the tools developed in the nineties. The most used EBD criteria are safety enhancement (n = 131; 14%) and visual environment (n = 119; 13%). Although sustainability remains a relevant issue, today, growing attention is dedicated to the impact of built environment on occupant’s health. Further investigation is needed to understand the effectiveness of those instruments in practice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-Occupancy Evaluation Studies: For High Performance, Sustainable and Healthy Environments)
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