Winter 2003 Case Studies in Sustainable Design

an INFORMAL SURVEY on ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY in ARCHITECTURE STUDIOS

in conjunction with Our Case Study

Introduction

Research on a topic relevant to our case study was presented on February 11, 2003. I conducted an informal survey of architecture students on the environmental quality of their studio spaces to illuminate the issues involved in survey-taking in architecture. (For a copy of the Power Point Presentation on this topic, please visit the Case Studies in Sustainable Design homepage and click on the link to "survey design").

Surveys can prove useful tools to gather information on programming needs for clients, and post-occupancy satisfaction. Jacqueline Vischer's Environmental Quality in Offices highlights the effective surveying of occupants on their level of satisfaction with various parameters within building environments: lighting, noise and temperature levels, air quality, visual and acoustic privacy, noise and space. Architects can assess the success of their designs based on the levels of satisfaction reported by these kinds of surveys, and might use them to inform further projects of similar type.

I chose to adapt Vischer's survey to informally gather opinions on studio environmental quality in the department of architecture at the University of Oregon.

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fumiko docker fdocker@darkwing.uoregon.edu

Part of Professor Alison Kwok's Seminar in Sustainable Design at the University of Oregon