REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF EXISTING METHODS TO ASSESS THE INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (IEQ) FOR OFFICE BUILDINGS

Population in developed countries spend most of their time indoors, whether in their homes, workplaces, stores or leisure areas. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this situation worsened and now, more than ever, the importance of a high Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) is highlighted. The IEQ is very important in building performance since it is directly related to its occupants' comfort, health, wellbeing, and productivity and the Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) concept. Therefore, it is essential to develop tools to support designers' decision-making in the materialization of indoor environments with higher quality. From the state-of-art analysis, it is possible to conclude that the methods to assess the overall building performance already consider the IEQ. Still, most use an approach that does not cover all relevant indicators. In this context, this paper presents the first milestone of a research work that aims to develop a new method to rate the overall IEQ of office buildings in Portugal. The main objective of the present study is to propose a list of IEQ indicators for office buildings, adapted to the Portuguese context, based on the analysis of existing rating methods for buildings and the recommendations of national and international standards. © 2022 The Author(s). Licensed under a CC-BY 4.0 licence.

High Time-Resolution Monitoring of Volatile Organic Compounds During Multi-Surface Disinfection Activities in Buildings with PTR-TOF-MS

Increased usage of chemical disinfectants during the COVID-19 pandemic may impact the chemical composition of indoor air in residential and commercial buildings. This study characterized gas-phase concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during multi-surface disinfection activities in a tiny house research facility. This unique facility provided a controlled, yet realistic environment for simulating whole-building disinfection events. VOCs were measured in real-time (1 Hz) in the bulk air of the tiny house with a proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-TOF-MS). In addition, particle number (PN) size distributions were measured with a high-resolution electrical low-pressure impactor (HR-ELPI+). PTR-TOF-MS measurements demonstrate that chemical disinfectant spray products applied to multiple surfaces can substantially increase indoor VOC concentrations. © 2022 17th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate, INDOOR AIR 2022. All rights reserved.

Towards improved thermal comfort predictions and higher energy savings: building energy model of an open-plan office based on indoor CO2 and temperature controls

In recent work, a Hierarchical Bayesian model was developed to predict occupants' thermal comfort as a function of thermal indoor environmental conditions and indoor CO2 concentrations. The model was trained on two large IEQ field datasets consisting of physical and subjective measurements of IEQ collected from over 900 workstations in 14 buildings across Canada and the US. Posterior results revealed that including measurements of CO2 in thermal comfort modelling credibly increases the prediction accuracy of thermal comfort and in a manner that can support future thermal comfort prediction. In this paper, the predictive model of thermal comfort is integrated into a building energy model (BEM) that simulates an open-concept mechanically-ventilated office space located in Vancouver. The model predicts occupants' thermal satisfaction and heating energy consumption as a function of setpoint thermal conditions and indoor CO2 concentrations such that, for the same thermal comfort level, higher air changes per hour can be achieved by pumping a higher amount of less-conditioned fresh air. The results show that it is possible to reduce the energy demand of increasing fresh air ventilation rates in winter by decreasing indoor air temperature setpoints in a way that does not affect perceived thermal satisfaction. This paper presents a solution for building managers that have been under pressure to increase current ventilation rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022 17th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate, INDOOR AIR 2022. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of infection probability in a multiroom office space using computational fluid dynamics coupled with Wells-Riley model

The current COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of health safety assessment in various indoor scenarios. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) combined with a modified Wells-Riley equation provides a powerful tool to analyse local infection probability in an indoor space. Compared to a single infection probability characterising the space in the traditional Wells-Riley model, the coupled approach provides a distribution of infection probability within the space. Furthermore, this approach avoids assuming a well-mixed state, usually related to Wells-Riley equation. This study compares displacement and mixing ventilation strategies with four different ventilation rates to assess the local quanta concentrations modelled using passive scalar transport approach. The simulation results are processed to also account for the effect of wearing masks and vaccinations. The result show that a well-designed displacement ventilation system can significantly reduce infection probability compared to mixing ventilation system at similar airflow rate. Additionally, the results emphasised the importance of wearing mask and getting vaccinated as a means of reducing infection probability. © 2022 17th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate, INDOOR AIR 2022. All rights reserved.

The Impact and Complex Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Working Environment and the Use of Coworking Spaces in Malta

Coworking spaces in Malta have grown in their presence and use only within the last decade, yet the COVID-19 pandemic may have altered the cultural working office norms of Maltese society. Indeed, this chapter, using in-depth interviews with different groups of people, that is, co-worker owners, employees, traditional employers and members of an employment association, aims to explore how the pandemic may be impacting the coworking industry in complex ways. From the narratives, it emerged that the soft lockdown measures related to the pandemic had caused immediate negative effects due to the fear of contagion on the use of coworking spaces in Malta and the limitations related to social distances in workspaces. However, the pandemic itself may have created a shift within the Maltese context where the idea of remote working is perceived as beneficial and may become more popular. The pandemic may have contributed to the revision of the Maltese employers' priorities, such as the importance of owning or renting a permanent office space or giving permission to employees to work from home or renting a coworking space for socialisation at work. Therefore, the pandemic may have caused damaging short-term effects to the coworking industry in Malta yet possibly beneficial long-term effects. © 2023, The Author(s).

Variability of Thermal Comfort and Energy Consumption by Introducing Working from Home

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies have introduced working from home to avoid the risk of infection. In this study, we conducted questionnaire surveys and analysed the building energy management system (BEMS) in an office building where the number of employees working from home increased after the onset of the pandemic. The influence of working from home on the indoor environment satisfaction and the variability in energy consumption at home and office was determined. The indoor environment satisfaction was significantly higher when working from home than when working at the office. In 2020, the total energy consumption at home and office decreased by 30% in April and increased by 22% in August compared to the previous year. To work from home while saving energy regardless of the season, it is necessary to reduce office energy consumption by decreasing the number of workers present at the office. © 2022 17th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate, INDOOR AIR 2022. All rights reserved.

Global trends of the research on COVID-19 risks effect in sustainable facility management fields: a bibliometric analysis

This study used bibliometric analysis to investigate global research trends regarding the effect of COVID-19 risks in sustainable facility management fields. Between 2019 and 2021, the Scopus database published 208 studies regarding the effect of COVID-19 risks on sustainable facility control fields. VOSviewer software was used to analyse the co-occurrence of all keywords, and Biblioshiny software allowed getting the most relevant affiliation using the three-field plot. The results show the contribution by authors from 51 countries, and 73 keywords were identified and organised into six clusters, such as the effect of COVID-19 risks on human health, supply chain in construction projects and industry, disaster risk management in a changing climate, sustainable supply chain benchmarking, facility management and quality control, and, finally, sensitivity analysis & decision-making. © 2023 Khaled Jameel Aladayleh et al., published by Sciendo.

The Effects of Virtuality on Agile Development

In this article, we explore how agile development teams are affected by transition from physical to virtual agile teamwork. To this end, we examined three agile teams at a software company, which due to Covid-19 had to change from working in a shared office space to individual home offices. We find that virtual work affects agile development in that there are fewer interactions, more written communication, more formalized relationships, and increased use of documentation. Furthermore, we find that virtual agile teams need a different style of team management. In light of this, we discuss whether a virtual context is compatible with agile development, or whether the form of work is affected so much that it no longer can be considered agile. © 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Successful Change Management Strategies for Unforeseen Events: Impact of COVID-19 on Facility Management

Facility managers are increasingly tasked with being the champions of change in their organizations, which may include activities such as space management revisions, construction delivery practices, maintenance programs, technology implementations, and others. While much of the previous organization change management research has focused on how facility managers enable the adoption of planned change events (i.e., new technology), this study identifies the successful change strategies used in responding to unforeseen circumstances or events. The researchers evaluated these unplanned changes through the lens of COVID-19, given its nearly universal impact on facility management as a profession. The research team collected survey data from nearly 900 organizations in more than 60 countries, and conducted detailed follow-up interviews with 28 organizations. Twenty-two parameters were grouped into three categories: organizational characteristics, organizational change management practices, and change adoption measures. The research team used three random forest models and three logistic regression models to further examine the relationship between the data and the change adoption measures. The results indicate that three organizational change practices were particularly important to overall adoption success and achievement: appointment of a change agent, support of leaders, and the timeframe for implementing the change. The analysis also suggests that the type of unplanned change initiative has an impact on its long-term adoption throughout the organization. Organizations should consider using a formal change management approach in order to successfully implement unplanned change initiatives. This paper highlights the importance of an effective change, the active involvement and support of senior leaders, and the timeline of implementing the change - even if it is unforeseen. © 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.

How do buildings adapt to changing occupancy? A natural experiment

Most office buildings regulate their indoor climate through conservative setpoints and schedules based on maximum occupancy. However, the occupancy of most office buildings rarely exceeds 50%. Buildings' lack of adaptability to partial occupancy exacts a toll on their energy use by providing building services excessively and inefficiently. Largely vacant office buildings left in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic present a natural experiment to evaluate the extent of this problem. Three-parameter univariate changepoint models were employed to estimate the change in energy use before and during the pandemic in two institutional office buildings: one with occupancy-based ventilation, and one with traditional ventilation. A calibrated energy model was developed for the traditional building to determine how much energy could have been saved if occupancy-based ventilation was implemented. It was found that the building could have saved up to 32% and 12% for heating and cooling, respectively, in the pre-pandemic period alone. © International Building Performance Simulation Association, 2022

Advanced Control for Hammerstein-bilinear HVAC System

The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced many aspects of human life, including working environments. Some research finds that there is a tendency to the increase of energy and CO2 emissions of large office buildings in developed countries, such as US and Europe's top five economics, post-pandemic. Therefore, advanced heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) technology that can reduce energy consumption in the building sector will yield a significant impact on the total national energy consumption. Many buildings equipped with conventional control in their HVAC control systems, such as PI or PID controls. Such controllers have drawbacks like unable to handle cross-coupling nature and constraints in a HVAC system. Conversely, model predictive control (MPC) - which belongs to advanced control - has the advantages when dealing with the system with constraints and uncertainties as it can take into account them in its optimization control problem formulation. This paper derived mathematically an industrial HVAC system based on Hammerstein-bilinear model - a model consists of a static nonlinearity followed by a dynamic bilinear subsystem. The obtained linear output-error (OE) models are subsequently used as plant models in the MPC design. The MPC controller performance is quite superior and proven to be able to meet the desired control objective (keeping the zone temperature in range of . In addition, the MPC controller gives more economic energy consumption (about save) than the PI one both for temperature and humidity control loop. © 2022 ACM.

Acoustical Effects of Surgical and N95 Masks on Speech Perception in Open-plan Offices

Wearing face masks (alongside physical distancing) provides some protection against COVID-19. Face masks can also change how people communicate and subsequently affect speech signal quality. This study investigated how two common face mask types affect acoustic analysis of speech perception. Quantitative and qualitative assessments were carried out in terms of measuring the sound pressure levels and playing back to a group of people. The responses gauged proved that masks alter the speech signal with downstream effects on speech intelligibility of a speaker. Masks muffle speech sounds at higher frequencies and hence the acoustic effect of a speaker wearing a face mask is equivalent to the listener having slight high frequency hearing loss. When asked on the perception of audibility, over 83% of the participants were able to clearly hear the no mask audio clip, however, 41% of the participants thought it was moderately audible with N95 and face shield masks. Due to no visual access, face masks act as communication barriers with 50% of the people finding to understand people because they could not read their lips. Nevertheless, based on these findings it is reasonable to hypothesize that wearing a mask would attenuate speech spectra at similar frequency bands. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.

Self-rated health implications of noise for open-plan office workers: An overview of the literature

In open-plan offices (OPO), workspaces without ground-to-ceiling dividers, noise is one of the most complained about aspects, causing physical and psychological impacts. With the increasing interest for a human-centric design, notably after the publication of ISO 22955, this review aims to identify the main noise sources in this office layout and the employees' perception of related health effects, evaluating the interventions proposed to overcome their impacts. Following the PRISMA guidelines, a review was conducted using the Scopus and PubMed databases, considering subjective questionnaires distributed in offices, which could include physical workspace assessment. It excluded studies limited to: (a) laboratory experiments;(b) isolated cognitive tests;(c) office layouts other than OPO;(d) systematic reviews;and (e) mathematical models. Sixty studies were identified and the screening process resulted in 11 selected for inclusion, which indicated irrelevant speech, chatting, and telephone ringing as the main noise sources causing productivity loss, stress, and low comfort rates due to distraction and lack of privacy. To overcome these impacts, researchers suggested the use of sound-absorbing surfaces, separated zones for different tasks and headphones, although their effectiveness relies on human behaviour and economic feasibility. Thus, the evidence indicates that noise is a recurrent issue in OPOs, it demonstrates the importance of appropriate acoustic performance of the workspace and the necessity of new studies regarding OPO workers' perception of noise and their health, particularly after the COVID-19 new safety guidelines. © The Author(s) 2023.

COVID-19 and Minimizing Micro-Spatial Interactions

COVID-19, the novel coronavirus that has disrupted lives around the world, continues to challenge how humans interact in public and shared environments. Repopulating the micro-spatial setting of an office building, with virus spread and transmission mitigation measures, is critical for a return to normalcy. Advice from public health experts, such as maintaining physical distancing from others and well-ventilated spaces, are essential, yet there is a lack of sound guidance on configuring office usage that allows for a safe return of workers. This paper highlights the potential for decision-making and planning insights through location analytics, particularly within an office setting. Proposed is a spatial analytic framework addressing the need for physical distancing and limiting worker interaction, supported by geographic information systems, network science, and spatial optimization. The developed modeling approach addresses dispersion of assigned office spaces as well as associated movement within the office environment. This can be used to support the design and utilization of offices in a manner that minimizes the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Our proposed model produces two main findings: (1) that the consideration of minimizing potential interaction as an objective has implications for the safety of work environments, and (2) that current social distancing measures may be inadequate within office settings. Our results show that leveraging exploratory spatial data analyses through the integration of geographic information systems, network science, and spatial optimization, enables the identification of workspace allocation alternatives in support of office repopulation efforts. © 2022 held by the owner/author(s).

Promotion of entrepreneurship through business incubators: Regional analysis in Spain

This study focuses on business incubators in Spain, which helps compare regions within Spain. This study has four goals: to shape taxonomy of the Spanish business incubator system, to compare between regions, to identify the factors affecting incubators' success, and to analyse during the COVID pandemic. Of the 478 business incubators registered in Spain, 89 were selected as the sample for study. Business incubators provide office space, equipment and mentoring services, as well as financial, legal and administrative support for entrepreneurs and start-up companies. Non-parametric statistical techniques are used to compare between regions, considering each regional business incubator as an ecosystem. The study focuses on six Spanish regions: Madrid, Catalonia, Castile-Leon, Aragon, Basque Country and Galicia. © 2023 Elsevier Inc.

Comparing airborne infectious aerosol exposures in sparsely occupied large spaces utilizing large-diameter ceiling fans

In sparsely occupied large industrial and commercial buildings, large-diameter ceiling fans1 (LDCFs) are commonly utilized for comfort cooling and destratification;however, a limited number of studies were conducted to guide the operation of these devices during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study conducted 223 parametrical computational-fluid-dynamics (CFD) simulations of LDCFs in the U.S. Department of Energy warehouse reference building to compare the impacts of fan operations, index-person, and worker-packing-line locations on airborne exposures to infectious aerosols under both summer and winter conditions. The steady-state airflow fields were modeled while transient exposures to particles of varying sizes (0.5–10 μm) were evaluated over an 8-h period. Both the airflow and aerosol models were validated by measurement data from the literature. It was found that it is preferable to create a breeze from LDCFs for increased airborne dilution into a sparsely occupied large warehouse, which is more similar to an outdoor scenario than a typical indoor scenario. Operation of fans at the highest feasible speed while maintaining thermal-comfort requirements consistently outperformed the other options in terms of airborne exposures. There is no substantial evidence that fan reversal is beneficial in the current large space of interest. Reversal flow direction to create upward flows at higher fan speeds generally reduced performance compared with downward flows, as there was less airflow through the fan blades at the same rotational speed. Reversing flow at lower fan speeds decreased airflow speeds and dilution in the space and, thus, increased whole-warehouse concentrations. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

COVID-19: a catalyst for revitalizing mixed-use urban centers? The case of Paris

Since the mid-1990s, the French public authorities have changed regulations to allow commercial building conversions into housing. The COVID-19 crisis has affected the global economy, social connections, environmental trajectories and energy demand/supply. Countries have been considering measures to reduce the pandemic's long-term impact and since the beginning of 2020, national governments have recommended that companies facilitate remote work. Thus, COVID-19 has prompted some office building depopulation. With working from home expected to continue after the pandemic, due to technological, environmental and economic considerations, there is a growing impetus to convert empty office space into residential uses. The present research aims, through the Parisian case study, to consider the impacts of the pandemic and the acceleration of homeworking. Using a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology, the study aims to (1) critically analyse the policy tools implemented by the Paris municipality following the COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate commercial building conversions and (2) evaluate the potential for such conversions, considering former policies. We found that adaptive reuse policies have been implemented following the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. However, according to the collected data, conversion potential is limited, due to the continuing demand for office space despite the changes and economic considerations. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Resilience Index Framework for the Construction Industry in Developing Countries

The construction industry in many developing countries is considered the main engine for economic growth. Quantification of the resilience of the construction industry in developing economies is essential for stakeholders and decision makers. Many researchers have attempted to quantify the construction industry's resilience in the context of developed economies;however, there is lack of established measures of such quantification in developing countries. This paper proposes a framework for the composition of an index that quantifies the resilience of the construction industry in developing countries. The proposed framework is demonstrated in the context of three developing countries: Rwanda, Egypt, and Turkey. The index is composed of measures such as the construction value added to a country's gross domestic product (GDP) and employment in construction. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is utilized for weighting and aggregation of the individual variables. Studying the causal relationship between construction growth and economic development from 1971 to 2022, results show that construction growth leads to economic development in each of the three countries. Results of the proposed index values indicate that the construction industry in each of the three countries demonstrated increased resilience by sustaining both its outputs and its employment generation aspect in the two years following the coronavirus pandemic in 2019. Quantification of the construction industry's resilience in countries where the construction growth leads to the economic growth would provide a crucial insight for stakeholders and decision makers. © 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Delivering a new helicopter base at Kai Tak for the Hong Kong Government Flying Service

An additional helicopter base has been built for the Government Flying Service at the former Kai Tak airport runway site in Hong Kong, China. The base allows high-rise development to take place at Tung Chung new town near the service's existing base at Hong Kong International airport, which would have restricted emergency helicopter operations during poor weather. The project involved construction of a take-off and landing pad, parking bays and hangar for two helicopters, plus an office building for the flight planning centre and air command and control centre. This paper describes how use of an NEC contract helped ensure close collaboration between the employer and contractor, leading to timely completion with zero accidents despite restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Environmental Architectural Design during the Pandemic Era: Office Buildings as a Case Study

Environmental Architecture immortalizes buildings and realizes their ability to cope with sudden changes for several decades, Infectious diseases played a huge role in shaping the built environment. Throughout history, The function of those areas has changed and the interior is redesigned as well as the city, planning, and infrastructure, as occurred in the 14th century at the time of the plague's spread(1). Pandemics come from spreading by humans while they use the spaces as a medium in their daily activities. Therefore, spaces should play as an antiviral medium to ensure well being and health today. The world is panicking at the discovery of a new pandemic that will lead to the closure of most of the outdoor activities in the inhabitant life, and the built environment has always shown the ability to develop after a predicament. One of the most common questions by users is what will happen in buildings that host roaming, mixed exploration, and spontaneous social interaction, such as office buildings? This research aims to adapt the design of the office buildings that host mixed uses to be an anti-pandemic environment to decrease the case of a pandemic;by integrating the science of medicine, architecture, urbanization, knowledge of modern materials, methods, and theories. As well as looking forward to advanced technology using analytical methodologies by adapting the analysis of already existing buildings altered architecturally to reduce the spread of pandemics through which a proposal can be developed to enhance the performance of office buildings in the time of a pandemic. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.