4.7 Review

Boundary conditions for non-residential buildings from the user's perspective: Literature review

Journal

ENERGY AND BUILDINGS
Volume 268, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA
DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2022.112192

Keywords

Lighting; Energy; Occupancy; Boundaries; Non-residential buildings; Users

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This paper reviews the boundary conditions (B/C) in specific categories within non-residential buildings and explores users' requirements and needs of the built environment through quantitative evaluations and expert reviews. The findings indicate a broad definition of B/C, including specific values, conditions, interconnected factors, etc., to better understand the shaping of the built environment.
Background and objective: This paper aims to review the boundary conditions (B/C) in specific categories (energy, building use, and lighting) within non-residential buildings to pave the way to a better understanding of users' requirements and needs of the built environment. For this paper, B/C are understood as unique preconditions, specific characteristics for use, determining specific features of buildings, enabling an accurate understanding of non-residential spaces concerning energy use, user behaviour, and lighting. Methods: This paper describes the results of an overall quantitative (1st method) review and a systematic review (2nd method) of boundary conditions and their factors within different types of non-residential buildings from the users' perception. Followed by a qualitative experts' literature review (3rd method) on B/C within offices, schools, and hospitals chosen by a team of international experts working together on Subtask A: User perspective and requirements, Task 61 LEA (International Energy Agency): Solutions for daylighting and electric lighting. Results: The first review method led to the selection of 21 papers. The second method resulted in the selection of 7 papers out of 93,143 found in Scopus; during the 3rd review, experts collectively chose 74 additional papers focussing on the users' factors contributing to specific B/C. The scope of this paper is limited only to offices, schools, and hospitals. Based on the findings, the authors recognise a broad definition of boundary conditions from specific values, and conditions to interconnected factors, user profiles, functions of the building types, and operating hours. Conclusions: This paper is an overview of B/C factors found in the literature that can help explain the occupants' behaviour and the use of spaces. B/C are often type of building/user/location/situation/simulation input-values and method-specific. Therefore, they cannot be widely applicable but offer patterns and help to understand the correlations between various factors shaping the built environment. A better comprehension of the reasons for identifying B/C and their factors can help in developing a deeper knowledge of how we use buildings to find optimal ways to design them. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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