Environmental Comfort Indicators for School Buildings in Sustainability Assessment Tools

Tatiana Santos Saraiva, Manuela De Almeida, Luís Bragança and Maria Teresa Barbosa
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Tatiana Santos Saraiva: International Doctoral Program in Sustainable Built Environment, School of Engineering, Minho University, Guimarães 4800058, Portugal
Manuela De Almeida: Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering, Minho University, Guimarães 4800058, Portugal
Luís Bragança: Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering, Minho University, Guimarães 4800058, Portugal
Maria Teresa Barbosa: Department of Civil Engineering, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora 36036900, Brazil

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-11

Abstract: Decades ago, the only requirement to construct a building was to give men the right conditions for the execution of their work or leisure activities. With the development of knowledge about the internal and external environments of buildings, other requirements have been added such as the issue of user comfort. New construction techniques have been incorporated and new products have been created to improve internal environment comfort. This research addressed the importance of using indicators related to environmental comfort in sustainability assessment tools applied to school buildings. It also considered the importance of environmental issues for the good performance of human beings, and the harmonious coexistence of the comfort indicators indoor air quality, thermal comfort, visual comfort, acoustic comfort and ergonomic comfort based on data gathered in research carried out with users of high schools (only students). This research was carried out in two different cities of different countries, Guimarães (Portugal) and Juiz de Fora (Brazil), that have similar characteristics of teaching standards and climate conditions (temperature and air humidity). In this study, interviews were made through questionnaires and, later, the information collected was analyzed. This study demonstrates the need to include an ergonomic indicator for school buildings in sustainability assessment tools.

Keywords: comfort indicators; assessment tools; sustainability in school buildings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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