Physical Building Attributes and Place Performance of Green-Certified Buildings in Lagos State, Nigeria
Abstract
The growing adoption of green-certified buildings has increased the need to evaluate not only their environmental efficiency but also their capacity to function as comfortable, accessible and user-responsive places. This study assessed the relationship between physical building attributes and place performance in selected LEED- and EDGE-certified buildings in Lagos State, Nigeria. Anchored on Post-Occupancy Evaluation theory, the study adopted a quantitative case study design involving 1,004 valid responses from users of nine operational green-certified buildings. Physical building attributes were measured across material quality, energy efficiency, water efficiency, waste management, site/environmental sustainability, indoor environmental quality, and safety/maintenance conditions, while place performance was measured using a composite index covering comfort, accessibility, functionality, environmental quality, productivity, social interaction, privacy, and satisfaction-related indicators. Reliability analysis showed strong internal consistency for the Place Performance Index (Cronbach’s alpha=0.876) and the overall instrument (alpha=0.855). Pearson correlation analysis revealed that indoor environmental quality had the strongest positive relationship with place performance (r=0.837, p<0.001), followed by safety and maintenance (r=0.611, p<0.001), material attributes (r=0.534, p<0.001), energy efficiency (r=0.392, p<0.001), and site/environmental sustainability (r=0.388, p<0.001). Multiple regression analysis showed that the model significantly predicted place performance, F(7,996)=594.035, p<0.001, explaining 80.7% of the variance. Indoor environmental quality emerged as the strongest predictor. The study concludes that sustained place performance in green-certified buildings depends not only on certification status but also on indoor environmental quality, effective maintenance, material performance, energy reliability, and context-sensitive site planning.
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