No abstract

In research and assessment of indoor environmental quality (IEQ), the terms ‘Comfort’, ‘Health’ and ‘Well-being’ are often used interchangeably without a clear definition of terms or effects on conditions for occupants. This calls for a systematic restructuring of the ontological approach to IEQ and, based on a meta-analysis of recent IEQ literature, the authors suggest three substantial contributions: 1) A framework consisting of comfort, health and well-being as three equal branches of IEQ to increase focus on previously neglected aspects and make inter-domain relations more transparent. 2) The identification of key IEQ trends and by extension suggestions for formal definitions of three main domains as part of a multidisciplinary conceptual framework for working holistically with IEQ. 3) The introduction of positive stimuli to IEQ assessment as opposed to the predominance of focus on the absence of negative parameters of current practice. Through including this positive stimuli dimension, the field of IEQ shifts from ‘not bad’ to ‘truly good’, encouraging the design of enriched environments to further positive experiences improving occupant well-being.

Research and practice agree that decisions taken early in a project have a higher impact and are less costly. Current building performance assessment methods are not suited to accommodate the responsiveness required for early design processes and are often used for validation in the later stages where the feedback has little design impact. Tools developed specifically for early stage Design Decision Support (DDS) are either too simplistic, provide no solution to addressing combined indoor environmental quality (IEQ), or risk worsening the overall IEQ by optimizing performance indicators in isolation. Most comprehensive building assessment methods evaluate several topics but follow a linear approach which fails to support holistic performance feedback and fails to meet the demand for assessment speed.This paper presents application examples of a holistic IEQ assessment tool (IEQCompass) in design processes. Design experiments demonstrate that the applied approach can meet the challenges of early stage DDS pointed out in existing literature. Findings from the experiments indicate that the IEQCompass can provide: (1) seamless early-stage assessments through rapid-feedback on changing designs, (2) timely decision support by guiding design teams with criteria overviews, design comparisons and holistic assessment results, and (3) dialogue and communication support between architects, engineers and clients.

General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.-Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.-You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain -You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal -

Literature reveals several attempts to evaluate indoor environment (IE) using a single index or indicator. Variations in quality of included measurements and variations in weights between the included areas have challenged the models. The work presented in this paper defines the potential of having a comfortable and healthy IE. It filters out the uncertainty caused by the occupants by looking only at the physical frames given through the building. The occupants are instead included in the evaluation by questionnaires. The case presented shows how it is possible to identify possible IE improvements before a renovation and illustrates how this can be combined with the use of questionnaires.