Frontiers in Built Environment

Ensuring high Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) in educational settings is crucial for Students performance. Within IEQ, the combined effects of different domains are highly relevant, yet the interaction between acoustics and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) requires further exploration. While laboratory studies allow precise environmental control, their representativeness of a real classroom is often unclear due to the inability to recreate all real-world stimuli. Therefore, this study examines the combined effects of acoustics and IAQ on calculation tasks, comparing results when experiments are performed in a laboratory versus real classrooms with the same participants. Nearly 200 students participated in the laboratory experiment, which included five auditory conditions: quiet, playground noise, birdsongs, and mechanical ventilation at 160 L/s and 200 L/s. A split plot design was employed where half of the students were exposed to good IAQ while the remaining experienced poorer IAQ. Results revealed main effects only for listening conditions, heavily mediated by individual noise sensitivity. These findings partially contradict previous classroom results. A comparison between settings indicates pupils were generally faster in the laboratory. Interestingly, the most favourable condition was mechanical ventilation in the lab, but playground noise in the classroom. These results illustrate the lab-dilemma regarding discrepancies between controlled and real-world conditions. While precise causes were not definitively identified, they are hypothesised to stem from individual characteristics, highlighting a strong need for better characterisation of student-related aspects in future studies.

تأمین کیفیت بالای محیط داخلی (IEQ) در محیط‌های آموزشی برای عملکرد دانش‌آموزان بسیار حیاتی است. در چارچوب IEQ، تأثیرات ترکیبی حوزه‌های مختلف بسیار مهم است، اما تعامل بین آکوستیک و کیفیت هوای داخلی (IAQ) نیازمند بررسی بیشتری است. اگرچه مطالعات آزمایشگاهی امکان کنترل دقیق محیطی را فراهم می‌کنند، اما به دلیل ناتوانی در بازآفرینی تمامی محرک‌های دنیای واقعی، نمایندگی آن‌ها از کلاس‌های واقعی اغلب نامشخص است. بنابراین، این پژوهش تأثیرات ترکیبی آکوستیک و IAQ را بر وظایف محاسباتی بررسی می‌کند و نتایج زمانی که آزمایش‌ها در آزمایشگاه در مقایسه با کلاس‌های واقعی با همان شرکت‌کنندگان انجام می‌شود را مقایسه می‌نماید. نزدیک به ۲۰۰ دانش‌آموز در آزمایش آزمایشگاهی شرکت کردند که شامل پنج وضعیت شنیداری بود: سکوت، صدای زمین‌بازی، آواز پرندگان و تهویه مکانیکی با دبی ۱۶۰ لیتر بر ثانیه و ۲۰۰ لیتر بر ثانیه. طرح آزمایشی اسپلیت‌پلات به کار گرفته شد که در آن نیمی از دانش‌آموزان در معرض IAQ مطلوب و نیم دیگر در معرض IAQ نامطلوب قرار گرفتند. نتایج نشان داد که اثرات اصلی تنها برای شرایط شنیداری مشاهده شد که به شدت توسط حساسیت فردی به صدا میانجی‌گری می‌شد. این یافته‌ها تا حدی با نتایج قبلی کلاس‌های درس در تناقض است. مقایسه بین محیط‌ها نشان داد که دانش‌آموزان به طور کلی در آزمایشگاه سریع‌تر بودند. جالب آنکه مطلوب‌ترین وضعیت در آزمایشگاه تهویه مکانیکی و در کلاس درس صدای زمین‌بازی بود. این نتایج معضل آزمایشگاهی را در خصوص تفاوت‌های بین شرایط کنترل‌شده و دنیای واقعی نشان می‌دهد. اگرچه علل دقیق به طور قطعی شناسایی نشدند، فرض بر این است که این تفاوت‌ها ناشی از ویژگی‌های فردی باشند و بر لزوم شناسایی بهتر جنبه‌های مرتبط با دانش‌آموزان در مطالعات آتی تأکید می‌کند.

Wellness resorts increasingly rely on therapeutic architecture to support users’ physical and psychological restoration, yet the pathways through which these design principles shape spatial circulation remain underexplored, particularly in the Nigerian hospitality context. This study investigated the influence of seven therapeutic architecture principles (connection to nature, natural lighting, natural ventilation, multi-sensory design, privacy and control, aesthetics and emotional harmony, and integration of artwork and colour) on the spatial circulation experience of users across three purposively selected resorts in Nigeria: Ilaji Resorts, Oxygen Orbit Resort, and Lakowe Lakes Golf and Country Estate. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional survey design, 297 copies of the questionnaire were administered to resort visitors, wellness practitioners, and resort staff through purposive and convenience sampling, of which 230 were validly retrieved and analysed, representing a 77.4% response rate of questionnaires administered. We conducted multiple regression analyses of eight spatial circulation indicators against the seven predictors. Findings show that all eight regression models were statistically significant (p < 0.01), with aesthetics and emotional harmony and connection to nature emerging as the strongest positive predictors specifically of ease of movement between spaces, the circulation outcome most strongly explained overall, while privacy and control was most strongly associated with privacy through spatial layout, and natural lighting was most strongly associated with the effectiveness of wayfinding and signage. Integration of artwork and colour, however, showed the strongest negative coefficient for the reduction of disorientation, suggesting that artwork and colour interventions may compete with intuitive wayfinding if not carefully placed. Accessibility, the indicator most closely tied to vertical circulation, was the most weakly explained by the therapeutic principles, indicating that stairs, ramps, and lifts in these resorts are still designed chiefly to functional and accessibility standards rather than therapeutic ones. The study concludes that therapeutic architecture principles are meaningfully associated with horizontal circulation experience in wellness resorts in Nigeria. The findings are best read as case evidence transferable to comparable resorts, not as statistically generalisable to the wider sector. The study recommends that designers prioritise daylighting, biophilic connection, and restrained, purposefully placed artwork in circulation design, while extending therapeutic considerations to vertical transitions.