Military facilities feature distinctive requirements with regards to building technical and structural design, material use and indoor environmental conditions (IEC), as these buildings serve specific purpose and the personnel occupying the premises may wear uniform or protective clothing (administrative staff, special forces, training personnel etc.), that can greatly affect their satisfaction level with thermal comfort and productivity.
In order to acquire data on the actual indoor environment conditions and obtain a feedback from the occupying personnel on their satisfaction level with the IEC in an administrative military building situated in a special purpose military compound, a series of IAQ measurements (temperature, humidity, CO2 level) and a survey on indoor air quality and thermal comfort was conducted in different premises of the administrative office building. A total of 73 respondents occupying the building participated in the survey.
The results of the conducted survey revealed that there is a high degree of dissatisfaction with the IEC in military buildings, that is attributed to inadequate ventilation and overtemperature. That matched the collected indoor environmental quality (IEQ) data, forming a direct relationship between the poor energy efficiency and low satisfaction rate with IEC.
The study reiterates the need to address the poor current technical state of unclassified building stock, emphasizes the call for developing clear regulatory requirements for newly-constructed unclassified buildings and thorough feasibility assessment for renovation projects.
Healthy building design guides are cogent and necessary. While elements that contribute to healthy buildings are multifactorial, the perception of sound versus noise is subjective and difficult to operationalize. To inform the commissioning process, the acoustics in an open office was examined following the first international building certification system that focuses on the well-being of occupants. Results highlight the role facility managers play in ensuring acoustical quality and offer suggestions to optimize healthy building rating systems. Mixed empirical evidence concerning the advantages of open office designs exists, as does evidence that noise, and a lack of privacy, affects workers’ levels of distraction and dissatisfaction. Sound masking systems can lower stress levels and augment performance. However, the sound produced by these systems can also be disruptive; conflicting information exists for facility managers to use when making decisions. The results suggest that, although objective measurements and healthy building guidelines for designing satisfactory indoor acoustic environments are important, changes to the physical environment, and acoustical systems, in particular, require iterative subjective assessments within the retrofit process to bolster occupant satisfaction. Mixed-methodologies used in this study may aid facilities managers in capturing and interpreting occupant data about physical stimuli in the workplace and improving the commissioning process.
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