I did some searching and only came up with the following book:

Van der Laan, H. (1983). Architectonic space: fifteen lessons on the disposition of the human habitat. Brill.

This is really an interesting question. I can imagine that there are many variables that would influence the livability of an indoor space. First off, I think the concept of "livability" may not be directly measured, so you may need to treat it as a latent variable and create some sort of survey to measure items that may point to this. For example, I can imagine that some people may only require a couch and end table to make a space livable, while others may require natural sunlight, a large open area, and quiet. Thus, two people may have  completely different definitions of "livable indoor space".

You would create a survey with a variety of different questions that touch upon the various aspects, and then perform a factor analysis to determine which of the questions are most correlated with this unmeasured construct called "indoor livability".

This isn't my discipline, but it certainly is a very intriguing idea!

Ariel 

Thanks Ariel for your prompt and enlightening answer.

I will try to get Van der laan's book. (I hope I can find a digital version online)

I agree with you that livability is an intangible concept. It is quite interesting how you have suggested the use of Factor Analysis to uncover the latent dimensions that forms the livability concept as understood by the end-users. I have used factor analysis earlier a couple of times but not as you have suggested. 

I was thinking of using a less structured method to elicit the components of livability... maybe semi-structured interviews, consensus building workshop or etc.

My questions is then (regardless of the method of elicitation whether being questioner or any other method): is there any theory that has practical methods which provides a hierarchical structure of what I have to ask about? in other words, what are the categories of criteria that I need to include in my survey instrument? once the categories are provided by a founded theory, i can develop the individual criteria within each category based on my research needs.

Chaham

There are many references for you to read on creating survey questions. Most will tell you to start by getting content experts to review questions that you have developed (or have them assist you in the development), and then hone the list down to a reasonable number. In your case, I assume you would want input from psychologists, sociologists, architects, and other content experts.

Hmm.  I suggest that spaces are only livable according to the user.  This means that a space once livable could become unlivable.  Interesting question...a great question, actually.  !!

Interesting Susan... what are you saying is that "livability" is not constant! it is rather a temporal perception and depends on many internal/external and tangle/intangible factors (if I understood your point correctly). 

This makes the quantification process is even more complex!

This is why a comprehensive survey is necessary to uncover this latent variable you are calling "livability". I can imagine there are some people that will consider a jail cell "livable space" while obviously most people will not. The question is how does a person perceive that space as livable while others don't. That's the latent construct we're looking for!

Chaham, yes, you are correct.  The environment itself may have fixed components; but the user changes over time.  So, perhaps we should look at how resilient a particular environment is.  For example, lighting, temperature, clutter...all of these are changeable to render the space appropriate.  Furniture, too, may be able to be moved.  So, we have to define what is changeable and what is not.  Modular walls...or fixed space.  Windows that in the morning are delightful but become either too dark or too hot in the afternoon (hot house effect).   And, I suggest that you do am mixed-methodology study to look at where the objective and subjective align and where they are in conflict.

Yes indeed Ariel....thanx

Susan.... interesting split....so we have here two groups of variables...first physical (either modifiable or not) such as windows, furniture, paint color, space size, etc.... and another group of subjective variables which addresses user's perception of how the physical features render the space livable from user's point of view....the correlation between these two group results in the latent variable that Ariel describes i.e. "livability".

First, the quality 'liveable' seems to me to be poorly defined in the academic literature, and so would be likely to be interpreted by a lay population in a number of different ways. It is not as through in any survey you would be able to give a single succinct descriptor of the term and so any data that you retrieve in this way is likely to be non-comparable. 

Next, let me try a definition for practical purposes. A space is liveable if the affordances it offers can be appropriated to support the life of some individual, group or community.

Here I need to say what I mean by "support the life of.." I would refer to Maslow's hierarchy, but more specifically to Doyal and Gough's extension to a theory of human need. They argue that the most fundamental human right is to autonomy, and any physical, social or economic condition that restricts that right reduces human life. Thus for example (mine), the UK's public housing projects of the 60's and 70's were designed to be so complex and maze like that they reduce people's ability to know where they are and make these areas virtually inaccessible to any resident's extended network or friends and kin, effectively cutting them off from freedom of association. This makes them 'unliveable', at least in terms of the social autonomy dimension. This kind of factor is related to the spatial layout of the housing project, and is open to analysis (see Bill Hillier's work on space syntax, for example). 

Doyal and Gough describe other fundamental needs, and argue powerfully that these are absolute and not cultural relatives - the need for shelter and sustenance for example, or for education and economic access. These all relate to 'liveability'. Consider the way that the residential housing market values proximity to good schools or to employment or retail. These are locational affordances of the urban landscape but can be seen to attach to any specific building.

Hello Alan... it is my pleasure to have you answered my question... I have studied many of your papers during the work I did using Space Syntax on hospital ward design and preference for privacy.

I am familiar with Maslow's work but not with Doyal and Gough's...I will have a look.....

It seems as if the components of "livability" is population-specific and need to be elicited from them ...and then a measurement of these components could be devised based on the type of each component. and i agree this is likely to be none-comparable.

The research domain of what is universal and what is specific is fascinating....It is interesting how you mentioned Doyal and Gough's argument for universal needs.... in one of my space syntax-based work I found universal preference for locational privacy in hospital ward across culture, age, and gender....on the other hand, previous experience of space showed significant differences for locations of privacy.  please have a look at the paper:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242348647_On_locational_preferences_for_privacy_in_hospital_wards

Chaham

Article On locational preferences for privacy in hospital wards

Very interesting discussion. Would the livability be different between generations? what about culture? social class?

Those are very important questions and indeed they worth the exploration.

I would adopt Christopher Alexander's living structure to measure livability of space including indoor spaces. The living structure is governed by two fundamental laws - scaling law and Tobler's law - that are complementary each. Scaling law says that there should be far more smalls than larges, whereas Tobler's law states that more or less similar things tend to be nearby or related.

Presentation Scaling Law and Tobler's Law for Characterizing Asymmetry in Geography

Based on Alexander's theory, we have developed a mathematical model of wholeness (living structure) that can help address (1) why a space is living, and (2) how much living the space has. It is also called beautimeter:

Article Wholeness as a Hierarchical Graph to Capture the Nature of Space

In order to make space more alive or living, one must follow two design principles - differentiation and adaptation - that are in line with these two laws:

Presentation Geospatial Big Data and Living Structure For better Understa...

For those who are interested in Alexander's theory or design thoughts, we are editing a special issue, so we would love to hear from you:

Poster CALL FOR PAPERS: New Applications and Development of Christo...

We are currently working on the ALEXANDER project, in order to develop computer algorithms for creating living structure for urban design:

https://www.researchgate.net/project/ALEXANDER-Automated-generation-of-living-structure-for-biophilic-urban-design?_sg=GnHGzLnP5xIJZxZe58l-Px_SdmPMqCiBtbliimZk6KoQvK55YbEWHDgeGonU-dR5tA6AiJNtiXaTOzCS7jVZJrOzxhb0vRoXX1Jg

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/373/1753At the risk of self promotion - take a look at a recent paper by Scott Turner and I http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/373/1753

This includes Scott's cunning notion of an aesthetic driving the reconstruction by termites of their damaged mound. He holds that the super organism of the hermit colony adapts its nest to achieve 'comfortable' conditions for their physiology. We ho on to argue that humans do something similar, but that the driving force for us is more 'cognitive comfort' than physiological. I have a feeling that this might relate to what you call livability.

Thank you very much Alan Penn ... it sounds related indeed.. I will read with interest.

Bin Jiang thanks for the references.. i have now a lot of reading to do :)