Necessary Conditions for Multi-Domain Indoor Environmental Quality Standards

Abstract

A discussion of sustainability in architecture cannot be meaningfully carried out without the inclusion of most buildings’ central purpose, namely the provision of indoor environments that are accommodating of occupants’ needs and requirements. To this end, building designers and operators are expected to demonstrate compliance with codes and standards pertaining to indoor environmental quality (IEQ). However, the majority of conventional IEQ standards, codes, and guidelines have a single-domain character, in that they address IEQ in terms of a number of isolated domains (i.e., thermal, visual, acoustic, air quality). In this context, the present contribution explores the current state of multi-domain IEQ evaluation approaches and the necessary conditions for their further development and application. Toward this end, a number of common building rating schemes were selected and analyzed in detail. The results of this assessment imply the necessity of both short-term improvements of the existing schemes in terms of the transparency and plausibility of the applied point allocation and weighting strategies and the fundamental need for a deeper empirically grounded understanding of the nature of occupants’ perception of and behavior in the built environments.

Toward a critical assessment of indoor environmental quality standards

“…However, as illustrated in Figure 1, common systems for building rating and certification (e.g., [14,15]) appear not to entail explicit specifications of indoorenvironmental requirements. Rather, they tend to refer to other thematically related national or international standards such as ISO, EN, DIN, or ANSI [1]. Some of these standards (e.g., DIN EN 15251) refer, in turn, to other standards.…”

“…Figure 4 schematically illustrates the elements of such indoor-environmental comfort equations. Thereby, a set of physical variables is intended to formulate dependent variables that capture building users' level of comfort [1]. Whereas physical variables can be typically derived by measurements, dependent variables result from subjective evaluations.…”

“…Standards represent a key source of information and support for professionals and stakeholders in the building delivery process. Building designs and the actual buildings' performance need to comply with the IEQ-related mandates in these standards [1]. The question is, however, if by the virtue of their entailment in the standards, mandates and requirements can be automatically assumed to be entirely objective and based on solid scientific evidence.…”

Occupant-Centric key performance indicators to inform building design and operations

“…They found that, although the metrics are clearly defined, there is no clear methodology for benchmarking and correlating those metrics with occupants' subjective responses. Mahdavi et al reviewed current state-of-art IEQ evaluation approaches and indicated that existing approaches tend to be mono-dimensional, and people's evaluation of the IEQ are often overlooked (Mahdavi et al 2020).…”

Exploring Cross-Modal Influences on the Evaluation of Indoor-Environmental Conditions

“…Building standards and guidelines regarding human comfort commonly address indoorenvironmental requirements in isolation (Mahdavi et al, 2020a). However, typical indoor environments, such as office settings, are multi-dimensional and include a multitude of indoorenvironmental factors (e.g., thermal, auditory, visual, and air quality conditions).…”