Improving thermal comfort and working performance in windowless environment: Relieving thermal response by introducing artificial view windows

IF 7.1 2区工程技术 Q1 CONSTRUCTION & BUILDING TECHNOLOGY

Energy and Buildings Pub Date : 2025-09-15 DOI:10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.116444

Yuyan Chen , Nianping Li , Xiaoyu Tian , Xinhao Hu

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Although windowless environments are increasingly adopted due to urban land scarcity, they often lead to negative effects on human well-being. Artificial windows simulating natural views may serve as an effective intervention strategy, yet related research remains limited. This study investigated the functions of artificial view windows from three perspectives: psychological responses, physiological responses, and working performance.

A four-phase controlled experiment was conducted in climate chambers with the air temperature of 28 °C. The conditions included without window (Control group), real-natural view window (RW), artificial window in illustration form (AWI), and in displayer form (AWD), with different semantic content and window-to-wall ratio (WWR). Thermal comfort and physiological response, and working performance tests were collected from 80 participants.

The results show that artificial windows have the function of real-natural view windows to some extent. Compared to the control group, both real-natural/artificial view windows significantly reduced thermal sensation (p < 0.05) while improving thermal comfort and thermal acceptance. AWD increased relative completion speed in working performance tests (p < 0.01), though accompanied by elevated reports of dizziness and eye fatigue, while AWI showed advantages in relieving sick building symptoms. Thermal comfort and thermal acceptance showed significant correlations with semantic parameters: greenery ratio and natural element proportion. The results demonstrate that natural element density in artificial windows critically influences thermal comfort optimization. This establishes empirical evidence for semantic-content prioritization in artificial window design.

The conclusions could offer suggestions for the selection of artificial windows, which could ameliorate the adverse effects of a windowless building environment, optimizing energy allocation.

Abstract Image

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改善无窗环境的热舒适性和工作性能：通过引入人工观景窗缓解热反应

尽管由于城市土地稀缺，无窗环境越来越多地被采用，但它们往往对人类福祉产生负面影响。模拟自然景观的人工窗户可能是一种有效的干预策略，但相关研究仍然有限。本研究从心理反应、生理反应和工作绩效三个方面探讨了人工观景窗的功能。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Energy and Buildings 工程技术-工程：土木

CiteScore

12.70

自引率

11.90%

发文量

863

审稿时长

38 days

期刊介绍： An international journal devoted to investigations of energy use and efficiency in buildings Energy and Buildings is an international journal publishing articles with explicit links to energy use in buildings. The aim is to present new research results, and new proven practice aimed at reducing the energy needs of a building and improving indoor environment quality.