The Impact of Indoor Environmental Quality on User Comfort and Well-Being in Sustainable Office Buildings

Abstract

This dissertation examines the impact of Indoor Environmental Quality on user comfort and well-being in a sustainable office building. The dissertation focuses on Be.On Paphos in Cyprus as a single case study and examines how users perceive indoor air quality, thermal comfort, acoustic comfort and visual comfort. It also investigates how these perceptions relate to overall comfort, well-being, productivity and job involvement. The research was based on a questionnaire survey completed by 28 office users. The questionnaire used a five-point Likert scale and included both closed questions and one open-ended question. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics, including mean scores, percentages and comparisons between the main IEQ categories. The findings show that the indoor environment of Be.On Paphos was generally perceived positively. All main questionnaire categories received average scores above the neutral midpoint of the scale. Visual Comfort received the highest average rating, followed by Productivity and Job Involvement and Indoor Air Quality. Acoustic Comfort received the lowest score, mainly because of issues related to sound privacy, noise disturbance and workspace layout. The open-ended responses added further detail to the findings. They showed that user comfort is influenced not only by technical IEQ factors, but also by privacy, type of work, human behaviour, view quality and the use of shared spaces. Therefore, the study concludes that Be.On Paphos provides a generally successful sustainable office environment from the users’ perspective. However, the results also show that sustainable design and positive overall ratings do not guarantee equal satisfaction with all indoor environmental factors.