Multifactorial approach to indoor environmental quality perception of social housing residents in Northern Spain

ABSTRACT Social housing users are generally more vulnerable due to age and socioeconomic conditions and have to deal with specific problems related to vulnerability to poor indoor environment exposure. The current housing model does not respond to the diversity of family structures and their needs, and it is, therefore, essential to integrate residents’ perspectives into the process of improving their quality of life, health and comfort. This study aims to analyse the factors that influence the perceived Indoor Environmental Quality and comfort of public rental housing. It also aims to study occupants’ perceived comfort in relation to the characteristics of the dwellings. To achieve the objective of the study, a multifactorial approach has been applied to a sample of 283 dwellings in 16 buildings of the public rental stock in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain, with data obtained in a survey conducted in the winter. The analysis of the incident variables in the perceived indoor environment supports the idea of the influence of occupants’ perspectives and the subjectivity of their responses in the comfort analyses and provides new insight into the relationship between the physical characteristics of social housing and households’ perceived comfort.