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.