Sustainable and Healthy Built Environment health/healthy built environment

Abstract

Definition of the SubjectWhile sustainable design is focused on reducing the environmental footprint, the resources consumed, and the waste produced, it is also critically linked to our health. Design decision making for sustainability -- land use, building massing and enclosure, lighting systems, mechanical systems, interior systems, building operation and management -- can not only reduce our environmental footprint, it can and must enhance our visual, aural, dermal, musculoskeletal, circulatory, respiratory, reproductive, and mental health. The challenge is to explore the linkages between critical design decisions, from land use to material and system design to building maintenance and operations, to critical health outcomes. Based on years of gathering emerging laboratory, field, and epidemiological case studies, the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon Univ ...