+12%
more occupants thermally comfortable in room with a window
Exact: 12% more participants thermally comfortable
Window access increased the share of thermally comfortable occupants by 12%
In a randomised crossover laboratory experiment with 86 participants, air and window surface temperature were held at 28°C in both conditions, a slightly warm setting. Comparing a room with a window to one without, thermal sensation was significantly cooler (0.3 thermal sensation vote, equivalent to 0.74°C lower), and 12% more participants reported being thermally comfortable in the space with a window.
For those managing workplace environments, this points to window access as a factor that can shift how warm a space feels to occupants even when the actual air temperature is unchanged. The mechanism the study proposes is visual connection to the outdoors influencing thermal perception, alongside effects on emotion and working memory, which bears on decisions about workspace layout and glazing in warm conditions.
The evidence is well supported, coming from a controlled crossover design that isolates window presence as the variable at a fixed 28°C. It applies specifically to this laboratory workplace setting with 86 participants under slightly warm conditions; whether the same shift in comfort holds across other temperatures, building types or longer occupancy periods is not established by this design.
- Cognitive task performance
- Standardized cognitive task performance
- Skin temperature
- Skin temperature measurement
- Thermal comfort votes
- Thermal comfort voting
- Stress recovery
- Ulrich SRT: nature exposure triggers parasympathetic recovery from stress
Workplace
In the space with versus without windows, the thermal sensation was significantly cooler (0.3 thermal sensation vote; equivalent to 0.74 °C lower), and 12% more participants were thermally comfortable.
Used in these factorsheets
Extreme heat probably lowers comfort.
Extreme heat probably lowers sustained attention.
Nature views probably lower negative emotion.
Nature views probably raise comfort.
Nature views probably raise positive emotion.
Nature views probably raise sustained attention.
Nature views probably raise visual comfort.
Nature views probably raise working memory.
View out probably lowers negative emotion.
View out probably raises comfort.
View out probably raises mood.
View out probably raises positive emotion.
View out probably raises satisfaction.
Window-to-wall ratio probably raises beauty.
The evidence is very uncertain whether view out affects productivity.
The evidence is very uncertain whether window-to-wall ratio affects comfort in workplaces.
Put to work
Architect
A nature view needs 35 per cent greenery to lift satisfaction
When the value engineering round opens and the glazing spec is first in line to be cut, you defend a nature view only by naming the effect figure that justifies it.
Asset manager
No certification premium attaches to the nature view on its own
A certification premium prices the whole label into rent and exit value, but it never tells you which single measure inside the building earned it.
Corporate real estate manager
Outward views reach staff cost through sleep and stress
Optimised daylight and views came with 37 minutes more sleep and 42 per cent higher cognitive scores, and a 2006 REHVA guidebook puts staff cost at 100 to 200 times a building's energy cost.
Developer and investor
No study ties a rent premium to the nature view
Nature views change measurable outcomes in people; the link from there to rent stays a category average, not a per-building figure.
HR manager
A view of nature restores attention
Berman and colleagues validated attention restoration on a backwards digit-span task, and cognitive control is rated strong; on retention there is one study, and it dates from 1998.
Marketing manager
A nature-view claim is safe only as a description of the view
For the real estate marketing lead: a nature-view study measured 37 extra minutes of sleep under one tested condition, and this worksheet sets the boundary an exposé sentence must keep to pass an advertising review.
Workplace strategist
Nature views lower reported stress and sharpen attention
Boubekri and colleagues measured 37 more minutes of sleep and a 42 per cent gain on cognitive scores: a capex paper defends that figure only by naming the author and the limit a finance committee will probe first.
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share of students scoring in the normal cognitive range flipped from minority to majority after renovation
Normal MoCA scores rose from 25% to 80% of students after renovation
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Read more in
Workplace Why open-plan offices break concentration
In open plan the work staff say they lose to noise can double, and speech intelligibility predicts it better than the sound level.
Education Which classroom conditions affect learning
Where the evidence on classroom air, acoustics, light and green is strong, where it is thin, and what to measure before the build.
Workplace Four design choices that change office work
Even under conditions counted as acceptable, air quality takes 5 to 10 per cent off performance. Speech disrupts memory in the open plan, light shifts sleep and circadian timing and the view evidence stays thin.