Modelling the WELL building concepts for office environments: PLS-SEM approach
Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology
ISSN: 1726-0531
Article publication date: 23 August 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The health, well-being and productivity (i.e. WELL) of office building occupants are vulnerable to poor office environments. Therefore, this study aims to identify new features and concepts of office buildings in supporting occupants’ WELL. To achieve that aim, this study: explores new WELL features for office buildings, develops new WELL concepts for office buildings and examines the influence of the newly developed WELL concepts on existing WELL building standard (WELL v2) concepts.
Design/methodology/approach
The first phase involved ten experts to assign weightage for health, well-being and productivity. In the second phase, 206 questionnaire survey data were collected from office building occupants throughout Malaysia. Exploratory factor analysis established new WELL concepts for office buildings. Partial least-squares structural equation modelling examined the influence of the newly developed WELL concepts on the existing WELL v2 concepts.
Findings
Two new WELL concepts were developed: “space and services”, consisting of sufficient space, workstation privacy, office layouts, building automation systems, cleanliness and information technology (IT) infrastructure, and “building security”, consisting of security systems and safety at parking lots. Here, “space and services” influences all existing WELL v2 concepts, and “building security” influences the water, nourishment, mind and community concepts of WELL v2.
Originality/value
This study uncovers holistic WELL building concepts to support occupants’ health, well-being and productivity with additional new features and concepts for construction industry policymakers to establish holistic building assessment tools.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Universiti Malaysia Pahang (PDU213001-1). The authors thank the participants for their time and participation in the survey to make this study possible. The authors are also grateful to the editors and anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments, which improved this paper’s quality.
Citation
Tan, C.Y.M., Rahman, R.A. and Lee, Y.S. (2023), "Modelling the WELL building concepts for office environments: PLS-SEM approach", Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEDT-04-2023-0141
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited