Indoor environmental quality is a wide context that covers various specialised elements and is not limited to the aspects of air quality, thermal comfort, and acoustics that are discussed in this paper. Lighting configurations are also an integral aspect of creating efficient work environments.
Conclusion
Indoor environmental quality is highly complex as it considers a wide range of interlinked aspects. This paper considers some of these elements such as indoor air quality, thermal comfort and acoustics within workplaces. Through an extensive literature review, a range of papers have been studied to understand the impact of these elements on occupant health, comfort, performance and productivity. A series of solutions are then studied which can be easily integrated within the indoor environment, especially if it was carried out from the early design stages in the project. Understanding the health and economic benefits associated with creating such viable environments is crucial in implementing such practices as an industry standard.
While there is a large body of evidence for the indoor environmental quality of work spaces in American and European cities, similar research within the context of the Middle East is quite limited. Since occupants in air conditioned buildings express greater dissatisfaction with their indoor environment, it would be interesting to see occupant responses to IEQ in offices in the Middle East, as almost all the buildings are mechanically ventilated. Similarly, most of the strategies in this study are selected based on ease of integration and cost efficiency, and it does not consider some of the psychosocial strategies such as indoor landscaping. The effects of adopting such alternatives within the indoor environment to improve health and well-being can also be studied.
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854 ZEMCH 2015 | International Conference | Bari- Lecce, Italy