Sustainable Architecture & Social Science: Mixed-Mode Spaces & People

Modern offices are traditionally associated with air-conditioning systems, however in recent times concerns for improving environmental performance in buildings have led to the integration of natural ventilation with the creation of hybrid systems called mixed-mode that allow variations associated with external thermal conditions to improve indoor air quality and people's thermal comfort. This book is based on a research that investigated how people felt about and interacted with a mixed-mode space. Thermal, perceptual and behavioural approaches were used to investigate occupants' thermoregulatory patterns in a multifunctional changeover mixed-mode space. The National Australia Bank (NAB) at 800 Bourke Street, Melbourne Docklands (Australia) represented a unique opportunity for a case study, having nine floors of open-plan air-conditioned offices with the north façade designed as mixed-mode multifunctional kitchen-lounges at every floor where people can choose between air-conditioning and natural ventilation. The case study was used as a basis of investigating the indoor environment and its occupants through field work and the adaptive thermal comfort theory.

Autorentext

Angela Lm Alessi has been involved internationally in ecological sustainable design, cultural derived urban planning, architecture, environmental psychology and social science as an architect, an educator, an author and a public speaker. Her focus is on the integration and understanding of human behaviour related to new ecological living models.