Occupant satisfaction in Adelaide's commercial office buildings

Abstract

This paper addresses a post occupancy evaluation of a sample of office buildings in Adelaide, South Australia, which compares ‘green’ rated examples against more conventional buildings. Internal environment monitoring and occupant surveys were conducted to assess the perceived thermal, visual and aural comforts, as well as health and productivity. The results show that green buildings provide slightly higher satisfaction in some thermal comfort aspects, however lower satisfaction in a number of significant elements, such as light and noise. Current trends in office design are in some cases seen to accentuate these issues. The results indicate that improvement in the design of buildings is an ongoing process which needs to be supported with effective and comprehensive feedback systems which includes evaluation of the product in use; a system that is currently lacking in the commercial built environment.