One of the largest building materials makers decided to prove the performance of its products in a real work setting by creating a high-quality environment in its North American headquarters in Malvern, Pa. Then, Saint-Gobain used the 289,000-sq-ft retrofit-expansion of the 1960s building as a living laboratory for an occupant comfort study. The research went further than most by starting with a staff comfort survey in the company’s former offices in Valley Forge, Pa.
The three-year pre- and post-occupant-comfort initiative, likely a first on such a large scale, has shown that the design of Saint-Gobain’s $80-million Malvern facility resulted in a 90% improvement in indoor air quality (IAQ) and a 40% improvement in acoustical comfort. Overall, occupants reported a 26.3% improvement in visual, acoustical, thermal and spatial comfort.