An empirical study of window opening behavior during the transition seasons in Hong Kong public rental housing estates

Abstract

This thesis proposes that public housing estate occupants’ choices regarding window control play a critical role in the performance of natural ventilation. Its findings reveal that the rationale behind occupants’ window-opening behavior was in accordance with the theory of environmental psychology. By emphasizing the active role that occupants can play in utilizing natural ventilation, it is hoped that the discrepancy between the measured and simulated performance of natural ventilation can be reduced so as to improve the sustainability of modern green buildings.

The literature of window opening behavior shows that, with varying degrees of correlation, window control patterns are affected by such as clothing and drinks, indoor and outdoor temperature, façade design, perceived comfort and control, time of day, and the previous state of windows, i.e. open or closed. As the relationships identified are stochastic rather than precise, neither precise temperature nor some other physical condition can be conclusively said to determine window opening behavior. Thus, any prediction would be probabilistic rather than deterministic, and further research was required to reveal the effects of physical and non-physical variables and individual characteristics on occupant behavioral patterns.

Guided by the school of thought that says occupants will adapt to the built environment by making various adjustments and that activities and building performance influence each other, the study reported in this thesis adopted the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explore and explain the direct, indirect and moderating relationships between window opening behavior and a range of social and psychological factors. The model of TPB was used to investigate the influence of urban greenery in the surrounding neighborhood and that of other perceived environmental conditions in predicting window opening behavior.

This research was carried out using the case study approach. Qualitative analysis of the study results on two accredited green public rental housing estates for low-income residents in Hong Kong was performed to identify common passive design practices and understand actual natural ventilation performance in the interests of occupants’ needs. In addition, quantitative analysis of the result of a questionnaire survey was performed to test the correlations between various factors determining window-opening behavior. Although the survey results do not fully support the research hypothesis that the view of urban greenery in a neighborhood encourages window opening behavior by affecting behavioral beliefs, they do show that such social factors as attitudes toward opening windows and the perceived benefits of urban greenery can predict window opening intentions. Also, the findings reveal that the existence of eaves over windows and the perceived outdoor noise level moderates the relationship between intentions and window opening behavior and that the attitude-intentions relationship is moderated by gender, education level, and family income.

The present study applies psychological knowledge to the process of natural ventilation via the manual operation of windows. It can be concluded from its analysis that residents’ participation in the design process is critical to realization of the simulated performance of natural ventilation. In architectural design practice, a partnership with residents is the preferred option in designing windows.