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Developing and Testing Visual Privacy Metrics
... To ensure parity across relevant design criteria, conceptual metrics and frameworks have been developed to quantify the overall quality of the outdoor view and visual privacy [35]. These rely on tangible parameters, leveraging physical parameters measured from architectural (e.g., opening size and distance from the window) [36] and urban (e.g., visual angles, distance to view objects) parameters [37][38][39]. However, cultural and social nuances prevent view quality metrics from being universally applied across any given population, with privacy being a salient feature that inherently occurs, yet inevitably differences, across different cultures [40]. ...
... Both the need and approaches of regulating privacy vary across different cultures can result in different residential building forms and design practices around the world [43]. Diverging preferences for visual privacy can even be found in multicultural urban regions [38]. Cultural differences not only change how visual privacy is perceived through window openings, but also the connection to the outside users will have from the view [38,41,44]. ...
... Diverging preferences for visual privacy can even be found in multicultural urban regions [38]. Cultural differences not only change how visual privacy is perceived through window openings, but also the connection to the outside users will have from the view [38,41,44]. Some cultural backgrounds prioritise visual privacy over the provision of having a view out, so as to ensure outsiders are unable to see inside the space [34]. ...
Window shading control is motivated by many reasons. Very few studies consider the influence of non-physical
factors that underpin occupant motives for shading control. A candidate reason that concerned this study was
cultural differences. Diverging values, beliefs and norms can lead to different design considerations for building
architecture to accommodate users’ expectations. This can also influence a wider array of window functions, e.g.,
daylight access, thermal comfort, natural ventilation, privacy and view out. We investigated the influence of
cultural differences in this context. An online survey was administered to collect responses from Arab and non-
Arab population groups from across the globe. We compared how occupants would prioritise different window
functions in their typical workspaces to better meet their needs across these two groups. The analyses showed
that Arab respondents prioritised privacy more than non-Arab respondents. The importance placed on privacy
was consistently larger for the Arab group when they worked from their own residential home (r = 0.36),
rather than at their office workspace (r = 0.16). Shading control for daylight access was a highly prioritised
motive for both groups, which was also equally weighted as the most important reason for both opening and
closing window shades with no statistical difference (r = -0.10) found between both groups. Thermal comfort
was deemed more important by the Arab respondents, although this may have been caused by climate factors.
The study highlights how culture has important implications on window preferences and shading control, which
can be influential in the context of design considerations to accommodate user needs.
... Balconies' design, distance to streets, and neighbourhood were all found to be contributing factors. Other studies reported the necessity of keeping adequate distances between the residential buildings and also between the main entrance of the house and the public street (Alkhalili et al., 2018;Shach-Pinsly et al., 2011). ...
... On the other hand, in buildings with smaller setbacks like categories C and D, more intrusion of visual privacy happened between people. The findings are directly in line with previous findings like Shach-Pinsly et al. (2011); Alkhalili et al. (2018) who concluded that suitable distances between residential units, as well as between the main door of the home and the public roadway, are required to have better privacy. Other studies highlighted the importance of the plan of the building and its site in achieving visual privacy Mortada (2003). ...
Currently, there is a growing interest in enhancing building regulations in Jordan since it has a direct impact on the quality of the built environment and then on individuals’ life. Human satisfaction is connected with comfort level in several aspects, including thermal, physical, psychological, and personnel. Such a relation required a comprehensive and integrated vision to be analysed in general and in conservative culture as Jordan in specific. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the impact of buildings’ setbacks on thermal comfort and visual privacy for residential development, which has been classified into four categories based on assigned land use. Field observation and spatial analysis were done for the research setting. The relation between thermal comfort and visual privacy in a detached house was tested by using primary data that was conducted through an online survey from 254 respondents. Research data were analysed using multinomial regression analysis showing that the level of satisfaction correlates with setbacks; a higher level of satisfaction resulted from better thermal comfort and visual privacy with larger setbacks. However, this contradicts principles of sustainability that appreciate intensification guidelines to reduce sprawl. So, there is a need to revise building codes to improve the level of satisfaction and well-being.
... More importantly, the value of healthy houses is identified as a major added value as part of better living standards, well-being, and quality of life (Spetic et al., 2008). Other aspects, such as indoor environment visual comfort (Carlucci et al., 2015;Giarma et al., 2017;Xue et al., 2016), privacy matters (Alkhalili et al., 2018), and indoor spatial layouts and density (Chan et al., 2008) are also the main factors for considering healthy indoor living environments. These could be seen as major parameters for the improvement of housing typologies by the development of new housing patterns or enhanced methods of residential refurbishment strategies and/or principles. ...
Health evaluation of the indoor environment is an important part of the housing study. During the recent COVID-19 lockdown and the increase of longer indoor stays pose a measured threat to general health conditions of residents, especially those that live in more compact and populated living environments. For health-oriented studies that focus on the analysis of indoor environments, many variables should be taken into consideration that could also help to optimize natural lighting, natural airflow, better privacy, less noise from neighboring housing units/buildings, etc. Hence, this study focuses on satisfaction analysis of both general comfort and indoor thermal comfort.
By evaluating these, we are able to shed light on inequalities that exist across a large body of 10 housing typologies in the UK. The sample-based satisfaction analysis is representative to indicate the correlations between multiple factors, and specifically those that could have negative impacts on the living indoor environments and human health. The findings of this study suggest that based on the collected data, there is a definite link between dissatisfaction rates and the implications of the housing conditions. Under the circumstances of the lockdown period, the study’s findings could help to find solutions
for better indoor environment design, upgraded standards, and pathways for new policy guidelines. A discussion on correlation analysis highlights the issues that are important for the study of housing and health.
... Research shows that there are six main parameters that impact indoor visual comfort: glare, outside view, daylight, lighting level, uniformity of lighting, and privacy [83,113,114]. The surveyed studies report most of these parameters are important for visual comfort in MURBs except glare. ...
Access to acceptable levels of daylight are important for people’s quality of life. Multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs) are known to perform poorly in terms of daylight compared to other residential building types. There are neither appropriate agreed upon metrics, nor effective methods for designing for daylight in MURBs. This paper presents results of a speculative design study that utilizes generative design to explore alternative geometries for the MURB tower typology. The experiment combines a genetic algorithm for spatial variation with climate-based daylight modeling (CBDM) to test the new forms against variations of the point tower MURB floorplan are commonly used. This paper identifies the poor performance of typical MURBs for daylight, and proposed new techniques for form generation. A new workflow has been developed and tested and a number of challenging issues have been identified.
Dwellings in multi-storey apartment buildings (MSAB) are predicted to increase dramatically as a proportion of housing stock in subtropical cities over coming decades. The problem of designing comfortable and healthy high-density residential environments and minimising energy consumption must be addressed urgently in subtropical cities globally. This paper explores private residents' experiences of privacy and comfort and their perceptions of how well their apartment dwelling modulated the external environment in subtropical conditions through analysis of 636 survey responses and 24 interviews with residents of MSAB in inner urban neighbourhoods of Brisbane, Australia. The findings show that the availability of natural ventilation and outdoor private living spaces play important roles in resident perceptions of liveability in the subtropics where the climate is conducive to year round "outdoor living". Residents valued choice with regard to climate control methods in their apartments. They overwhelmingly preferred natural ventilation to manage thermal comfort, and turned to the air-conditioner for limited periods, particularly when external conditions were too noisy. These findings provide a unique evidence base for reducing the environmental impact of MSAB and increasing the acceptability of apartment living, through incorporating residential attributes positioned around climate-responsive architecture.
The purpose of this study is to understand the healthy housing quality of four different multi-family attached house complexes that the constructions were finished at different years. In order to evaluate their healthy housing quality, the evaluation indicators of healthy housing, that have already existed, were used and the four complexes with different dwelling unit ages, located in Busan of Korea, were evaluated. For this, this study carry out residents’ evaluations of healthy housing quality through surveys on their satisfaction, and the study mainly identified characteristic according to dwelling unit age. According to the study, the health housing quality of multi-family attached house, of which the dwelling unit age is 10, begins to decrease in terms of managerial aspect. The healthy housing quality of social and managerial aspects is important for dwellers. The evaluation results can then be utilized to develop guidelines to manage and maintain healthy housing environments for apartments.
A 2004 CIE report introduced the concept of a necessary daily light dose that contemporary life in industrialized countries does not deliver, but to which better use of architectural daylighting could make a valuable contribution. Nearly a decade has passed since the last substantive reviews of the health and well-being effects of daylight and windows, making it time for a renewed examination of the literature. Moreover, there has been scant attention paid to the role of daylight in residential buildings, which is the focus here. This review identified three broad processes through which residential windows and skylights can affect people in their homes, for good and ill: visual processes, acting primarily through light detected at the retina by rods and cones; non-visual ocular processes, acting primarily through light detected at the retina by intrinsically photoreceptive retinal ganglion cells; and processes occurring in the skin. This qualitative review revealed that there is no shortage of research questions facing photobiologists, psychologists, architects, lighting designers and others in the broad lighting community, whether their interests are general or specific to daylighting for residences. The report includes a detailed research agenda aimed at furthering the use of daylighting and windows in the service of human well-being.
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing
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The Impact of Private and Shared Open Space on Livability in Subtropical Apartment Buildings
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Vancouver
Gigapixel
Panorama
Photography. gigapixel.com.
Available
at:
http://www.gigapixel.com/. (Accessed: 5th January 2018)