Indoor Environmental Quality and Comfort in Offices: A Review

Abstract

People spend about 90% of their time in closed spaces such as residential and office environments, and indoor environmental quality (IEQ) has effects on their health, well-being, overall comfort and work productivity. The IEQ domains (i.e., thermal, acoustic, visual and indoor air quality) are able to influence office users’ work day and even cause the onset of diseases. This review aims at investigating IEQ in offices and the multidomain combined effects on occupants’ overall comfort. Studies published between 2016 and 2022 were summarized, focusing on four research questions formulated to deepen the knowledge on (i) IEQ perception and evaluation, (ii) IEQ indexes and parameters, (iii) factors that influence comfort perception and (iv) IEQ and comfort representation in space and time. For these research questions, a total of 29, 19, 10 and 9 studies, found on the Scopus database through a keywords search, were considered, respectively. The studies were included only if they appraised a multidomain approach. The results obtained for each research question reveal that: (i) Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) surveys are often applied to understand how occupants perceive IEQ, and in-field monitoring based on low-cost sensors is implemented more and more to acquire IEQ data, (ii) a set of indexes and parameters for IEQ assessment is not standardized yet, although some parameters are commonly used, (iii) personal factors like age and gender, and contextual factors like workstation location and office type, influence occupants’ comfort perception and (iv) dashboards are used to allow office end-users to visualize the indoor conditions of the environment.