Muna Hanim Abdul Samad

A Review on Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) Attributes for Malaysian Post occupancy Evaluation (POE) in Green Office Building

Green buildings represent sustainable design and construction that require a holistic interaction between all components of a building that are environmentally responsible throughout a building’s life cycle from the beginning until the completion. A green building should deliver its occupants with a comfortable indoor environment that will satisfy their comfort needs and enhance the productivity while working in the building. Among the numerous efforts in the emerging green building is the establishment of green building certification systems worldwide that is considered as one of the most prominent and systematic approaches to the continuous effort in promoting outdoor and indoor environmental sustainability. The benefits of these tools are they can guide the development of construction industry towards its best practice and improve the quality of building for tenants and occupants. Previous literature revealed that Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) assessment in green rating standards such as the LEED United State and BREEAM United Kingdom does play a significant role in the certification process of green building. Thus, the IEQ comprises several main aspects such as temperatures, humidity, noise, lighting, space design, structural systems and last but not least the building envelope design. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to review the aspects of IEQ in Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) study previously conducted by researchers around the world. The paper will focus on the development of IEQ assessment attributes that can be used in POE for an office building in a hot and humid climate. It will also provide an emphasis on the relationship between IEQ and Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) in determining post occupant’s satisfaction. It is hoped that these research findings will bring benefit to green certification bodies in Malaysia such as the Green Building Index (GBI) and GreenRE Malaysia in evaluating office building in post-occupancy stage.

Relationship Between Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) and Occupant’s Satisfaction in Malaysian Rated Office Building: A Pilot Study

Green building development is an upcoming topic and is driven mostly by the growing awareness of the environment impact of construction on the satisfaction, health, performance, well-being and productivity of its occupants. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) and occupant’s satisfaction in a Platinum rated GBI’s office building located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaire from the building occupants and analysed using Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) Smart PLS. This analysis was conducted in obtaining the level of reliability and validity of the data in measuring occupant’s productivity in relation with the IEQ. Subsequently, the result of the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) for each of the variables shows that there are no collinearity issues in between the attributes.

Fieldwork measurement of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in Malaysian platinum-rated green office buildings

An Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) fieldwork assessment was conducted in the Platinum-rated GBI office building located in Putrajaya Malaysia. The aim of the study is to determine the current indoor performance of the selected green office building. The field measurement consists of several IEQ parameters counted under the GBI Malaysia namely the Thermal Comfort of temperature, relative humidity, air movement and heat transfer as well as solar radiation. This field measurement also comprises of the measurement for the background noise, visual lighting and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) focusing on the aspect of carbon dioxide concentration. All the selected indoor parameters were measured for the period of five working days and the results were compared to the Malaysian Standard. Findings of the field measurement show good indoor performance of the Platinum rated office building that complies with the GBI standard. It is hoped that the research findings will be beneficial for future design and construction o...

Life Cycle Analysis of Building Materials

The construction industry and building materials consume a large amount of resources and energy during its extraction, production, construction, throughout its use and even demolition process, hence causing high impacts to the natural environment. Apart from an increase in energy use, these impacts of materials range from ecological degradation, harm to human health and global warming. In order to reduce the impacts, an assessment and analysis of building materials is crucial prior to the design and construction of buildings to predict the risks and enable the decision makers to minimize those risks. This chapter gives an overview of the lifecycle approach in material selection and the assessment and analysis of materials used in the construction based on ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006. It also presents the results of the testing on life cycle assessment of common building materials adopted in mosque construction in Iraq based on five categories: global warming, ozone depletion, human toxicity, acidification and eutrophication. This study identifies the stages in which the materials have greater impact and give recommendation in reducing the overall impact of the materials used.

The Role of Building Materials in Architectural Design

The argumentation of previous studies demonstrated the historical evolution of the materials in architecture and the position of the materials in the design process. The purpose is to recognize the role of materials in architectural design, and the materials are a core element of the design process. This paper is about the way materials can be used to create personality and character of the design. The research finds two overlapping roles for materials which are providing technical functionality and building personality. Thus building materials were one of the major factors for new innovation forms through the history of architecture. Keywords: Building Materials, Architectural Design, Technical Functionality, Aesthetic Attributes.