Data-driven prioritization of visual–thermal comfort hotspots: an integrated approach to highperformance office buildings

Office buildings control the indoor environment through complex fenestration, shading, and façade systems, as well as energy-intensive cooling and heating systems. However, current standards often overlook the local thermal effects of solar radiation, leading to inaccurate comfort assessments near windows. Some challenging Open-plan offices, which have a deep floor plan, which means that the area closest to the windows has different environmental conditions to other parts of the office. The difference in conditions implies the need to identify a precise predicted-zone to identify the most suitable users' positions within the working environment, both in terms of thermal comfort and daylight. The methodology relies on a comprehensive simulation framework. This paper, through the statistical analysis of extensive simulation-generated data using Spearman's correlation coefficient and the influence of major external factors (climatic characteristics), followed by an interpolation technique, aims to formulate the definition of a dimensional standardization zone in the office building, called ''sensitive zone'' as a method framework, where discomfort conditions occur. Comprehensively, a sensitive-zone can be defined as an area where the interaction of daylight and thermal comfort under the influence of direct sunlight is important for designers to achieve an efficient design in offices. To achieve a comprehensive standard formula applicable at all latitudes, three locations (Kuala Lumpur, Tehran, and Stockholm) as basic-locations and 10 locations as validation-locations are selected. The results showed the interpolation (sensitive-zone) varied depending on the latitude and climate condition (the difference around 6 meters). The results showed that the sensitive zone depth is found to range from approximately 1.7 meters in equatorial regions to 7.5 meters in high-latitude locations.