Contextual Drivers of Indoor Comfort: A Neurophysiological and Perceptual Evaluation

Abstract

The design of indoor environments has a crucial role in shaping occupants' perception of comfort, and consequently their health, and wellbeing. While current environmental research has extensively explored and standardized the physical drivers of comfort, the contextual drivers, remain underexplored. Contextual drivers are characterized by indoor design elements that are mainly subject to designers’ choices, and are evaluated subjectively by occupants through questionnaires, with limited neurophysiological evidence. Therefore, this study integrates neuroarchitecture, environmental psychology, and occupant-centric design to systematically examine how contextual variations influence cognitive and affective responses in office environments. Using a multi-phase, sequential approach, this research combines the Kano model with electroencephalography (EEG) to identify, categorize, and assess key spatial features affecting occupant comfort, aided by virtual reality (VR). The first phase involved exposing participants to visual stimuli representing contextual variables identified in the literature. This experiment revealed significant brain activity differences in the frontal (F8), temporal (T4), parietal (P4), and occipital (O1) regions. In the second phase, qualitative interviews helped identify occupant’s perspective on impactful contextual variables of indoor spaces, and a survey to categorize spatial features into Kano’s Attractive, One-Dimensional, Must-Have, and Indifferent classifications based on their perceived impact on comfort. Findings showed that occupants had different design priorities in a maximal or minimal office setting. The final phase involved a validation EEG experiment, measuring neurophysiological engagement and perceptual comfort by exposing participants to environments classified as either functional (attractive) or dysfunctional. Findings revealed that Kano-classified attractive features elicited distinct EEG responses, particularly in the alpha (F4, F8), beta-high (C4), beta-low (T4, O2), and gamma (C3) frequency bands. Each brain region and channel were associated with a cognitive function that is heightened or improved when exposed to the different visual stimuli, like emotional processing, spatial awareness, cognitive engagement, and memory related functions. This study contributes to the growing field of neuroarchitecture, by bridging occupant preference models with physiological validation and providing empirical evidence that environmental design decisions have measurable effects on brain activity and cognitive processes. The integration of EEG with occupant feedback offers a data-driven framework for optimizing indoor environments, demonstrating the potential of VR-based experimental techniques for design validation.

Date of Award	22 May 2025
Original language	American English
Supervisor	Ravindra Goonetilleke (Supervisor)