Center for the Built Environment

The main objective of the Ph.D. study was to examine occupants’ perception of comfort in nonindustrialbuildings (homes and offices), in particular how building occupants understand comfortand which parameters, not necessarily related to indoor environments, influence the perception ofcomfort.

To meet the objective, the following actions were taken: (1) a literature survey exploring whichindoor environmental parameters (thermal, acoustic, visual environment and air quality)predominantly determine overall comfort and whether other factors unrelated to the indoorenvironment influence the perception of comfort; the literature survey summarized 42 peerreviewedand conference articles and 1 book covering the period from 1970 to 2009;(2) preparation, distribution and analysis of a questionnaire survey sent to 2499 addressesrepresenting the most common types of residential buildings in Denmark and filled out by 645persons (response rate of 26%); and (3) analysis of the post-occupancy satisfaction surveyconducted by the Center for the Built Environment (CBE) at the University of California Berkeleyin 351 mainly U.S. office buildings and filled out by 52,980 building occupants.