Questionnaire Survey on Factors Influencing Occupants’ Overall Satisfaction on Different Office Layout in a Mixed-Humid Climate

This research seeks to identify overall satisfaction/dissatisfaction of occupants in different office layouts and to determine the differences between occupants’ reported office layout and other reported factors. These factors include gender, age, view, working hours, visual comfort, and thermal comfort. The survey study was sent to occupants in office buildings (n =1,026) that are located in mixed-humid climates.

The results show that the highest satisfaction ratings were reported by occupants in enclosed offices and open-offices with low partitions. The results also show that the open-office spaces with high partitions had lower satisfaction appraisals in comparison with lower partitions across 7 IEQ factors except ‘view.’ In addition, between open-plan offices, satisfaction with ‘quality of light’ and ‘thermal condition’ slightly increased as the height of partitions decreased. These findings enhance an understanding of occupant satisfaction by indicating that increasing partition height contributes to higher dissatisfaction among office workers.

keywords: Overall satisfaction, Office layout, Mixed-humid climate, Open-plan office, Survey study