OR-20-C033 -- Visual Environmental Parameters Associated with Visual Satisfaction in Multiple Office Buildings

The visual environmental quality affects occupants’ satisfaction, comfort, and health, but current studies rarely observe the specific design parameters in thevisual environment that promotes occupant visual satisfaction which potentially improves overall environmental satisfaction. In this study, occupantsatisfaction responses were collected via right-now survey, visual environment was measured, and building attributes were collected at 1394 workstations in49 office buildings. This study 1) modeled the survey responses to discover which visual satisfaction responses have considerable impact on overallenvironmental satisfaction, and 2) assembled survey responses, building attributes, and measures to track which building attributes and environmentalmeasures in the visual environment most affected subjective responses. In the first part, satisfaction with light level for computer work showed the biggestpotential to raise overall environmental satisfaction in feature selection model. In the second part, two major parameters determining high satisfaction withlight level for computer work were identified: percentage of workstations with seated view on a floor and ceiling light fixture type. Average satisfaction withlight level for computer work can be improved by keeping percentage of workstations with seated view at least 35 % and installing ceiling light fixture typesof 1' x 4' (30 cm x 120 cm).