Evaluation on indoor environment quality of dense urban residential buildings

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the indoor environmental quality among residential buildings in dense urban living environment, after the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which called for a review on the relationship between health issues and the authors' built facilities. Design/methodology/approach – Environmental tests include thermal comfort, noise, daylight and air quality inside the residence of typical housing units were carried out. Based on inferences drawn from test results, the paper developed systematic conclusions. Findings – It was observed that most of the occupants (over 70 per cent of 125 households) were tolerating the higher air temperature and dimmer daylight inside their residence, which was proven to fall behind Hong Kong Standard. On the contrary, people reflected that they were also trying to abate noise and dust concentration in their daily life. Research limitations/implications – Owing to the flat occupants' exclusive property rights in law, there were limited access to the residents' flats and only 32 occupants out of 125 allowed us to conduct the survey. Yet, the data set was justified. Practical implications – The results provides practical guidance for the design of future housing to enhance health and comfort of occupants. Originality/value – Originality of the findings is based on on-site data collected in dense urban housing condition. Rating data were also collected from the occupants concerned about their habituation conditions in Hong Kong after the outbreak of SARS, which was a major crisis that called for fundamental review of the authors' built facilities.