Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) for residential buildings: Literature Review

Abstract

Users’ perception of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) is critical for sustainable residential
development. IEQ factors that affect evaluation of quality life for occupants in residential buildings are
thermal comfort, air quality, light quality and indoor acoustics. This study critically reviewed literature
on IEQ for residential buildings with the view to establish an improved IEQ concept on sustainable
development. The objectives of this study were to identify the IEQ factors and examine findings on
users’ perception for residential buildings. Materials and methods obtained from Google Scholar
adopted a critical literature review of sixty-two selected published journals between 1970-2023.The
findings revealed that thermal comfort, indoor air quality, light and acoustic relate to physical
characteristics for residential buildings. However, IEQ for residential buildings are influenced by
building orientation, gender and age. Each space within the same residential building has different IEQ.
Therefore, the proposed IEQ evaluation models will help architects, other building team professionals
and the policy makers to identify the problems. This study underscores the need for new perspective
on users’ perception of IEQ for mud residential buildings as the key element required for sustainable
development.