Eefke van den Ouweland, Wim Zeiler, Yvonne de Kort, Gerarda Nierman, Gert Boxem and Wim Maassen
Year:
2014
Bibliographic info:
8th Windsor Conference, 10-13 April, 2014, Windsor UK

In the field of building design a rather conservative culture dominates: during the design process, standards are used to achieve physiological comfort. Physiological comfort is a necessity in order to achieve psychological comfort and eventually occupant satisfaction and overall wellbeing. To achieve occupant satisfaction and wellbeing, physiological comfort as well as psychological comfort have to be met. Psychological comfort can be defined as a sum of six distinct components: self acceptance, personal growth, purpose in life, positive relations with others, environmental mastery and autonomy. Salutogenesis provides a theory which describes a positive approach in psychological wellbeing. In this research, the knowledge from psychology is combined with knowledge on the traditional design approach to develop a holistic solution to create overall comfort. The current design approach provides a threshold level for physiological comfort, while manageability, comprehensibility and meaningfulness provide psychological comfort.