Healthy Housing Environment in Sustainable Design

Abstract

The 21st century is a century of contradictions: great opportunities but also great hazards. The situation in which the humankind has found itself in the 21st century requires urgently that the need for sustainable development in its spatial, social, environmental and economic aspects is fully appreciated. The quality of housing environment, in which the young grow and the elderly spend most of their time, should meet the expectations and needs of contemporary man. This paper aims to investigate how the issues of growing life expectancy, the desire to spend it in good health and the trend for healthy lifestyle are addressed in the principles of sustainable development and what methods should be adopted for creating healthy housing environment promoting physical health, emotional wellbeing and social coherence. The subject of health in the context of housing environment was addressed at the conference in Vancouver on human settlements. The World Health Organisation listed several definitions of concepts related to human health. The Cologne Recommendations contained a statement that physical surroundings, just as the dwelling place itself, are the condition of well-being, they can promote social integration and positively influence children’s mental development, but – if inappropriate – they may be the reason for poor concentration and memory, anxiety and difficulties in fostering inter-human relations. Abundant research on the influence of greenery, water and natural landscape on recovering from stress and intellectual fatigue shows that the role these factors play is absolutely invaluable. Research carried out by Ipsos MORI company for RIBA provides certain guidelines as to people’s invariable and variable needs, which, although indirectly, give some information also in the context of the healthy housing environment. It is then legitimate to ask a question about the extent to which the goals, tasks and methods of sustainable development and sustainable design satisfy the needs and expectations related to designing a housing environment that could be called healthy. There are numerous lists of principles and methods of assessing the sustainability of individual structures, whole complexes or areas. Author suggests three basic features that should characterise a housing environment so that it could be called sustainable: it should be economical, pro-social and beautiful. Correct and effective combination of all aspects in sustainable design requires assiduous efforts in several areas: education and awareness-building among designers, officials and users as well as adequate policy and promotion of solutions, which will encourage shaping a healthy housing environment in the urban scale.