Comfort in Affordable Housing: Methodological Model for Hygrothermal, Lighting and Acoustics Diagnosis

Abstract

Architecture transforms and generates spaces that are almost always inhabitable, unless you are talking about funerary architecture or monuments. Those objects or inhabitable spaces are under an inherent and primeval compulsion to meet the physical, physiological and psychological needs of human beings. Therefore, people who are willingly responsible for generating and transforming habitable spaces must address these needs with professionalism when projecting and realizing them. Some of the needs of human beings are the need for natural and artificial lighting, ventilation, controlled humidity and temperature, and noise levels located within the healthy range. When these requirements are met, people experience a feeling of comfort and well-being. This article is the synthesis of a research performed as part of the MSc in Construction at the National University of Colombia. The research aimed to learn about some comfort issues according to the lighting, acoustics and hygrothermal parameters of low-cost housing in Bogota, based on a methodological model proposed to analyze the situation of such parameters.