Wellbeing and the Built Environment: Exploration of Multi-unit Residential Buildings (MURBs) and Offices

Research exploring the impact of multi-unit residential buildings and office buildings on inhabitant wellbeing

Status: Current

Research themes: Health and comfort Energy and GHG emissions

Research areas: Wellbeing and comfort in the built environment; Building design and retrofits for performance improvement

Project Objective

This wide-ranging, interdisciplinary project was established to develop methods to evaluate both individual and collective wellbeing in buildings. Specifically, the goal is to examine how features of the building including indoor environmental quality and features of the building community interact to influence the wellbeing of building inhabitants.

Approach

Literature reviews on approaches to assessing collective wellbeing and the use of social practice theory in exploring building interactions were conducted.

For the field study component of this project, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used including seasonal surveys, focus group interviews and Photovoice, which is the interpretation of meanings through pictures to collect inhabitants’ feedback on the indoor environment. One-year continuous measurement of in-suite indoor environmental quality parameters (including air temperature, relative humidity, particulate matters, carbon dioxide concentration, total volatile organic compounds, illuminance level and sound pressure level) will also be measured by using a compact wireless sensor package. In addition, inhabitants’ interactions with the windows and ceiling fans will be monitored and momentary environmental assessments will be conducted via smartwatches .

Findings

This project will begin to inform what aspects of the building environment and community add to or detract from inhabitants’ wellbeing so that we can eventually to identify what ‘interventions’ can enhance wellbeing practices in existing built environments.