Environmental Design and Human Performance. A Literature Review

Ambient conditions inside the buildings may work as positive stimuli for occupants, or as stressors, given that the human body is regulated by physiological and psychological processes, that react to the physical factors. So, air, warmth or cold, lighting, daylight and views, sound and acoustic setting, layout and building details, must be seen today as important architecture elements to manage and control for designing places not only healthy and comfortable, but also effective and productive, because it may contribute to human performance and productivity. However, while references on occupant health and comfort in buildings results plentiful, literature on the effects of physical factors on human performance appears dated, scarce and inhomogeneous, and thus difficult to consult. The paper presents a literature review aimed at starting a state of the art about effects of physical factors of building interiors on occupant's performance. Particularly, the purpose is to overview environmental conditions and interior details of buildings, that have been experimented and resulted to have effect on occupant performance and ability, considering which category of occupant have been involved and which kind of ability have been observed; in which kind of buildings these observations have been made. As result, an updated selection of research about effects of buildings interiors feature on occupant performance is identified, based on which more confirmed research aspects emerge and those to be further developed detected.