The Nature and Determinants of Indoor Environment Quality in High-Rise Apartments of Melbourne, Australia
Date
2023
Authors
Carre, Andrew Stephen
Editors
Advisors
Williamson, Terence
Soebarto, Veronica
Soebarto, Veronica
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Abstract
As Australian cities grow, residential building landscapes are changing, particularly in the larger cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. A feature of this change has been the increasing prevalence of high-rise apartment buildings in inner-city neighbourhoods of which the local government area of the City of Melbourne is a good example. As residential densities increase, concerns have been raised about the appropriateness of high-rise apartments and studies have identified a range of issues including apartment size (too small), lack of choice, dominance of car parking, poor access to daylight, poor ventilation, poor privacy, and poor layout. Many of the problems identified can arguably be categorised as relating to the Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) of these high-rise apartments in general. Previous researchers have sought to inform policymakers about the prevalence and nature of these problems by conducting resident interviews and surveys, however, they have not considered the objective indoor conditions which contribute to resident satisfaction, nor have they addressed the adaptive cycles that residents employ to achieve the conditions they prefer. As policymakers begin to develop requirements to mitigate the problems identified, such as the Apartment Design Guidelines for Victoria, the ADGs, it remains unclear if the solutions will be successful, as little is known about the actual indoor environments they seek to enhance. This research helps fill this void by observing apartment indoor environments in the City of Melbourne and considering the actions of residents to suit their preferences by posing the questions: Q1. How do the residents of Melbourne’s high-rise apartments assess the IEQ of their dwellings and what factors influence such assessment? Q2. Are existing design guidelines sufficient to achieve acceptable IEQ outcomes in Melbourne’s high-rise apartments? To address the questions a mixed-methods approach was adopted which was guided by a hypothetical model of IEQ based on Auliciems’ psycho-physiological model of thermal perception (PMTP). The research involved five (5) phases of data collection and analysis covering phase 1: focus groups (14 participants), phase 2: a resident survey (98 participants), phase 3: case study longitudinal field investigations (14 participants in 9 households over 12 months), phase 4: a synthesis of results, and phase 5: a critical evaluation of the ADGs, informed by the findings from phase 4. The focus group data were employed to understand the language and reasoning employed by high-rise apartment residents as they perceived and adapted (and adapted to) the IEQ of their apartments. Data from resident survey were analysed statistically to identify relationships between resident and apartment characteristics as well as to assess the importance of IEQ within a wider field or resident considerations. The synthesis phase of analysis (phase 4) drew together findings from the aforementioned phases of data collection and analysis resulting in six ‘Apartment IEQ Principles’, as follows: Principle 1: IEQ defined Principle 2: IEQ is a referent of housing satisfaction and deserving of attention. Principle 3: IEQ is important, but it is not the most important consideration for apartment residents. Principle 4: IEQ is the outcome of a multidimensional assessment of the indoor environment. Principle 5: IEQ correlates with personal, apartment, and environmental attributes. Principle 6: IEQ is the outcome of adaptation as represented by the IEQ Regulation Model. Of these principles, it is principle 6 that encapsulates the answer to Q1 by putting forward an explanatory theory of IEQ regulation (the IEQ Regulation Model) that builds upon Auliciems’ PMTP. The proposed IEQ Regulation Model places IEQ as the outcome of a balance between the personal preferences of residents (informed by expectations) and the burden of adaptation presented by a combination of apartment and personal circumstances. By incorporating the principle of adaptive burden, the model presents designers and policymakers with an alternative pathway to achieving IEQ, beyond the achievement of a single set of ‘ideal’ physical conditions. The underlying principle that IEQ is, at least in part, an outcome of adaptation challenges the idea that it can be provided solely by achieving fixed building performance outcomes. Designers seeking to achieve good IEQ in buildings may achieve more fruitful results if resident adaptions that minimise adaptive burden are imagined and facilitated. In phase 5 of the research, the six (6) Apartment IEQ Principles were employed as criteria against which the sufficiency of the ADG’s were assessed. The analysis was summarised in a scorecard that showed that while the importance of IEQ as a referent of residential satisfaction was acknowledged, it’s multidimensional nature and the important role of adaptation in determining satisfaction were largely overlooked. Indeed, the very nature of the ADG’s, as applicable only to new dwellings, limits their ability to influence the experience of resident cohorts, such as renters, who were found to be more likely to be dissatisfied with IEQ. While this research identified areas where the ADG’s could be improved, it is important to note the goals of the ADG’s extend well beyond the IEQ of apartments, rightly acknowledging that the determinants of resident satisfaction, more generally, extend beyond IEQ (principle 3). The critique presented must therefore be viewed as limited to the consideration of apartment IEQ within the ADG’s. In addition to addressing the research questions posed, the research makes a broader methodological contribution. The use of the LCL, developed as part of the research, enabled the observation of a wide range of indoor environmental parameters and resident adaptive behaviours. These data were able to be used in regression analysis that facilitated a holistic consideration of the relationship between the indoor environment and apartment resident satisfaction that departs from previous approaches that consider IEQ in a piecemeal fashion by considering environmental domains (thermal, acoustic, luminous etc.) in isolation from one another. This novel approach, facilitated important refinements to Auliciems’ model as described by the IEQ Regulation Model.
School/Discipline
School of Architecture and Civil Engineering
Dissertation Note
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2023
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