EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTS OF THERMAL COMFORT ON STUDENTS' PRODUCTIVITY IN THE DESIGN OF THE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AT FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY MINNA, NIGER STATE.

The thermal environment of learning spaces has a close relationship with students learning, performance, and health. Architecture students spend a good part of their day in school working and learning, so it becomes essential to provide them with a comfortable learning environment, to ensure that they can perform at their best. Increasing temperatures in Minna, especially during the dry season, have resulted in a decline in the thermal conditions of the architectural learning spaces at Federal University of Technology Minna and several studies have found that inadequate ventilation and poor thermal conditions affect student performance and productivity. Thus, the aim of this research is aimed at investigating the effects of thermal comfort on student’s productivity towards achieving a thermally comfortable school design dedicated to the architectural students of federal university of technology Minna, Niger state. The objective is to evaluate the effects of thermal Comfort on the architectural student, to also determine the efficiency of the design strategies in existing Learning spaces allocated to the architecture students, to identify suitable design strategies for achieving thermal comfort in the design of a school of architecture in Minna, Niger State. For the purpose of this research work, primary data were collected through the use questionnaire, field measurement, and secondary data was collected through case studies and observation. From the study, the relationship between thermal comfort and productivity of the tested students was attained through the questionnaires, the thermal conditions of the learning spaces were neither satisfactory or satisfactory. From the field measurement it was ascertained that the thermal environment of the learning spaces were below the ASHRAE Standard 55-2020 recommendation. Based on this, the research recommends innovative passive design strategies for improving the thermal conditions of the learning spaces and opportunity for potential energy saving. Keywords: Thermal Comfort; Natural Ventilation; Productivity; Studios; School of Architecture Passive Design Strategies;