Abstract

Windows in a classroom are particularly necessary to ventilate the room, provide fresh air to maintain the indoor air quality and thermal comfort, and provide natural light and an outside view. Several health issues related to the inappropriate use of windows in school classrooms have been reported, such as distracting student concentration; affecting learning performances; and causing headaches, asthma, cough, and eye irritation, also known as the symptoms of sick building syndrome. Therefore, the type of windows used in school classrooms must be analyzed to inquire whether the window type appropriately achieves good indoor air quality, thermal comfort, natural light, and access to an outside view. Thus, this study aims to identify the typology of the windows used in public elementary schools in Indonesia. This study employed the qualitative method via field observations on the fifty-eight school classrooms of forty-four chosen public elementary schools in Indonesia that use natural cross ventilation. Three types of windows were used in the selected classrooms, namely, casement top hung, casement side hung, and louver types. All the window types come with additional permanent ventilation, which is the wooden horizontal louver on the upper side. The windows located on the corridor sidewall and the opposite side are generally at the height of 1.0 to 1.4 m above the floor level. Most of the school classrooms use the same type of window on both sides of the wall: the casement top hung (24) and the louver window (12). One school classroom uses only permanent ventilation at the height of more than 2 m from the floor on both sides of the wall. Other school classrooms use different window types on each side of the wall. The results are necessary for further investigation to ensure that the performance of a window type achieves a healthy indoor environment in public elementary school classrooms in Indonesia.