Profiling office workers’ comfort-related adaptive actions: a latent class analysis

Occupant-centric building design is not only intended to provide a comfortable working environment but also needs to ensure that buildings are flexible and capable of adapting to continuous (e.g., outdoor/indoor environment) and occasional (e.g. tenant, purpose of usage, renovation/retrofitting) changes. It is difficult and unrealistic to integrate every single individual's preference into a single design, as heterogeneity in preferences exists among individuals. An alternative approach is to group individuals into occupant profiles, based on shared characteristics and preferences. A sophisticated occupant profile requires input from multi-disciplines in order to address the dynamic and complex nature of occupant behaviour. This study aims to understand the preferences of office employees for using comfort-related adaptive controls in office environments. Data were collected using a mixed-methods survey approach among 643 office employees. A multinomial logit model and latent class analysis were used to identify appropriate segment profiles. A latent class model with three classes was identified, these classes are labelled as: Strong reactors, Context sensitives, and Minimalists. Known influential factors (e.g., socio-demographics, attitudinal factors) were then examined as potential predictors of class membership. Only occupation, current office size, and the conscientiousness personality trait emerged as statistically significant. The generated profiles reveal occupants' trade-offs for comfort adaptive controls under hypothetical multimodal discomfort scenarios in office setting. These insights can inform early-stage design by helping building practitioners create more flexible, responsive, and energy-efficient buildings. • Dutch office workers: Strong reactors, Context sensitives, and Minimalists. • Occupation, office size, and conscientiousness trait shape adaptive actions. • Model-based clustering captures stochastic, multimodal occupant adaptive action in offices. • Profiles capture trade-offs for multimodal discomfort in office environments.