Successful Application of the Framework for Building Occupant Research

Building on the previous methodological foundations, this chapter presents how to successfully employ the developed framework and the validated model to carry out Virtual Reality-based research. This will provide trustworthy evidence about the human dimension in indoor built environments allowing the researcher to make general conclusions and further support building design practices and theories. As the fundamental aim underpinning this book revolves around the potential of adopting Virtual Reality technology to detect the influence of indoor environmental characteristics on humans, special attention is given to the exploration of several stimuli in multi-domain applications. At first, two cross-effect study types with variations of thermal and acoustical stimuli are presented (Sects. 6.1 and 6.2), investigating for completeness the same-modality effect of those conditions. Secondly, Sect. 6.3 presents a combined-effect study type in which the effect of multiple stimuli in combination on individuals’ responses (i.e., visual and acoustical dimensions), was assessed focusing on a salutogenic design approach.