Publications
Publications
- The Bridge
Healthy Buildings in 2070
By: John D. Macomber and Joseph G. Allen
Abstract
Fifty years seems a very long time in the future for most industries. Not so in buildings and real estate; built structures routinely last decades if not hundreds of years, as long as they are economically competitive. Any discussion of the 50-year future has to consider existing stock as well as what’s being built new.
New Public Awareness
Some things do change. Four factors have recently emerged in the public awareness and will shape how the public and the industry consider healthy buildings: 1. People now have a vivid idea of what “public health” means in light of the COVID-19 pandemic—the impacts of which are both more obvious and more immediately deadly than those of particulates or plastics.
2. Indoor air quality is clearly part of this equation. Until now, for the most part when people talked about air pollution they were referring to smog or other contaminants in outdoor air. But most people spend 90 percent of their time indoors (Allen and Macomber 2020a). Indoor air quality matters for health in general—as became clear during the pandemic—and levels of CO2, particulates, and volatile organic compounds directly affect human cognition as well (Allen et al. 2016).
3. Sensors and big data are personal and ubiquitous. A few years ago, a specialty hygienist had to be consulted to measure a few representative samples of air quality. Now dozens of inexpensive personal air quality monitors are available to give homeowners, renters, factory workers, or theatergoers real-time continuous readouts of air quality. These can be shared online and aggregated into reports that the public and others can use (Allen and Macomber 2020a).
4. Numerous physical perils threaten buildings, power grids, subways, and roads, such as riverine flooding, drought, sea level rise, wildfire, …and pandemic. Every one of these makes it harder to keep a building and its occupants healthy.
There are foundations to a healthy building, health performance indicators that can be measured and shared, and a hierarchy of controls to keep occupants in good health.
New Public Awareness
Some things do change. Four factors have recently emerged in the public awareness and will shape how the public and the industry consider healthy buildings: 1. People now have a vivid idea of what “public health” means in light of the COVID-19 pandemic—the impacts of which are both more obvious and more immediately deadly than those of particulates or plastics.
2. Indoor air quality is clearly part of this equation. Until now, for the most part when people talked about air pollution they were referring to smog or other contaminants in outdoor air. But most people spend 90 percent of their time indoors (Allen and Macomber 2020a). Indoor air quality matters for health in general—as became clear during the pandemic—and levels of CO2, particulates, and volatile organic compounds directly affect human cognition as well (Allen et al. 2016).
3. Sensors and big data are personal and ubiquitous. A few years ago, a specialty hygienist had to be consulted to measure a few representative samples of air quality. Now dozens of inexpensive personal air quality monitors are available to give homeowners, renters, factory workers, or theatergoers real-time continuous readouts of air quality. These can be shared online and aggregated into reports that the public and others can use (Allen and Macomber 2020a).
4. Numerous physical perils threaten buildings, power grids, subways, and roads, such as riverine flooding, drought, sea level rise, wildfire, …and pandemic. Every one of these makes it harder to keep a building and its occupants healthy.
There are foundations to a healthy building, health performance indicators that can be measured and shared, and a hierarchy of controls to keep occupants in good health.
Keywords
Health ＆ Wellness; Real Estate; Architectural Innovation; Public Health; Health; Buildings and Facilities; Well-being
Citation
Macomber, John D., and Joseph G. Allen. "Healthy Buildings in 2070." The Bridge 50, no. S (Winter 2020): 11–14. (Special 50th Anniversary Issue edited by Ronald M. Latanision.)