London, United Kingdom.

Garment factories in Bangladesh have been heavily criticised over the last 30 years for the working conditions in which employees must labour. High internal gains from artificial lighting and equipment produce an intolerably hot work environment, which exacerbates the already uncomfortable climatic. This paper identifies the causes of this poor thermal environment through a detailed analysis of a garment factory in Dhaka. Two key spaces are selected: the ironing space and the sewing space. Through the evaluation of the building fabric, and the reduction of the artificial lighting demand, thermal comfort conditions within these spaces is improved relative to a defined comfort zone of the workers. The research identifies strategies that can be adopted as a basic design guidelines in the vital work spaces in a garment factory in order to attain a comfortable working environment