Post occupancy evaluation of an office building : the case of country club estate, Johannesburg

Most organisations nowadays want to build offices that are cost effective, but at the same time they forget to consider the impact of IEQ on the occupants’ wellbeing and performance. These offices are equipped with air-conditioners, which may impact negatively on performances if not monitored, controlled and maintained. An occupant’s performance may be accelerated or reduced, based on the effectiveness of IEQ in the office buildings. It is imperative that the employer or management create a work environment that is conducive to the occupants’ needs, so that the occupants may be able to improve their work performance that often yields increased productivity. The main aim of the study was to investigate the efficiency of a building’s Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) and how it affects workers with regard to productivity. The objectives of the study were: to determine the level of satisfaction of the occupants in terms of the IEQ, evaluate the effects that the current IEQ of the building has on the productivity of the occupants, and proffer solutions to identified problems so that the building performance can be improved, and similar future buildings can be improved upon in terms of IEQ. Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) was utilised to conduct the evaluation. This will help stakeholders and managements to ensure that past mistakes committed are not repeated in the future buildings. POE analyses IEQ related to Indoor Air Quality (IEQ), thermal comfort, occupant’s satisfaction and occupant performance and productivity. There is a correlation between different indoor parameters of the occupants’ satisfaction, health and productivity at the workplace. For these correlations to complement each other successfully, IEQ factors must be conducive to human wellbeing. Workplace environments are perceived as unsafe and unhygienic. This situation is caused by poor planning of workstations, low indoor air quality, inappropriate lighting in the office, lack of ventilation and insufficient safety measures. In particular, findings of this study demonstrate the low level of occupants’ satisfaction with regard to office buildings in the Country Club Estate, Johannesburg. The results from this study show that POE is perceived to be completely new to occupants of the Country Club Estate. Management or stakeholders have a huge task ahead to address the benefits of implementing POE and to face the consequences if POE is not implemented