Buildings' indoor environmental conditions : a thematic analysis of verbatim comments from university library stakeholders

Building users' comfort and satisfaction are significant factors in ensuring the overall productivity levels of its users. In recent times, considerable attention has been geared towards managing building occupants' comfort, energy use and improving the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of buildings. However, little attention has been focused on the occupants themselves. The lack of attention to building users, their perceptions and opinions hinder the ability to fully address the users' comfort to improve their productivity within these buildings. Therefore, this paper examines the building's indoor environmental conditions from the users' perspective to improve their comfort, satisfaction and productivity. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with users of a university library building in Australia who were purposively selected. This library building is used as a case study for this research. The results from a thematic template analysis revealed energy consumption patterns and disturbing indoor environmental conditions experienced in buildings. Further, the results disclosed significant strategic measures to improve building users' comfort and productivity. These measures include shifting energy costs from weekends to weekdays, introducing daylight harvesting systems, ensuring greater external shading, introducing adequate blinds and shutters, and avoiding extensively large openings in buildings. The study outcomes present significant strategies for building managers in improving facility management. In addition, the findings can aid in enhancing building users' comfort, satisfaction and productivity. Finally, the findings contribute to knowledge on improving the IEQ of buildings.