Windows and office worker satisfaction : positives and negatives

As part of NRC’s Cost-effective Open-PlanEnvironments (COPE) project, we conducted alarge field study involving measurements in nineoffice buildings. Physical data were collected in779 individual workstations, and simultaneouslythe occupants of those workstations answered aquestionnaire about their satisfaction with variousaspects of environmental satisfaction. Among thesignificant results were a set related to windowproximity. Occupants seated closer to windowswere more satisfied with lighting, but less satisfiedwith ventilation, acoustics and privacy. In the NorthAmerican context, people seated further from awindow may not have a view of a window at theirseated position. Analysis of similar data from theNetherlands, where everyone had a view of a windowfrom their seated position, provides some subtletyto the issue of satisfaction with lighting. In this case(data from 333 people in 10 buildings), occupantscloser to a window were less satisfied with lighting forcomputer work, which we attribute to glare problems;those further from the windows still had a view, butwith reduced risk of glare.