Healthy Buildings Research Articles

Integration of Indoor Air Quality Prediction into Healthy Building Design

Healthy building design is an emerging field of architecture and building engineering. Indoor air quality (IAQ) is an inevitable factor that should be considered in healthy building design due to its demonstrated links with human health and well-being. This paper proposes to integrate IAQ prediction into healthy building design by developing a simulation toolbox, termed i-IAQ, using MATLAB App Designer. Within the i-IAQ, users can input information of building layout and wall-openings and select air pollutant sources from the database. As an output, the toolbox simulates indoor levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), inhalable particles (PM10), fine particles (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3) during the occupied periods. Based on the simulation results, the toolbox also offers diagnosis and recommendations to improve the design. The accuracy of the toolbox was validated by a case study in an apartment where physical measurements of air pollutants took place. The results suggest that designers can integrate the i-IAQ toolbox in building design, so that the potential IAQ issues can be resolved at the early design stage at a low cost. The paper outcomes have the potential to pave a way towards more holistic healthy building design, and novel and cost-effective IAQ management.

The Importance of Building Design and Its Contribution to Human Health

The purpose of this research is to find out how important it is for a building that has a healthy building approach or concept that will have a positive impact on the users of the building itself. To support the research, we use the method of collecting data from several journals found related to the research title. The results of this study indicate that every design of a building must pay attention to the element of thermal comfort from each room, the concept of healing environment, pay attention to the use of materials, and must also apply the concept of sustainable architecture. In this study, things that must be considered are what the concept of thermal comfort is good for the health of the building users themselves, the concept of healing environment, the use of materials, and also the concept of sustainable architecture. It can be concluded that the building is said to be healthy if all the discussion criteria can be implemented properly. Users of the building itself, of course, not only feel the comfort of the building that is used, but can indirectly have a positive impact on the health of the users themselves, and can also survive in a fairly long period of time.

Latrines Problem, Defecation Behavior, and Implementation of GERBANG JASA in Murtajih Village, Pamekasan, Indonesia

Unhealthy latrines and defecation behaviors are associated with a higher diarrhea and stunting incidence. The authors developed Healthy Latrine Building Program (GERAKAN BANGUN JAMBAN SEHAT), which is was abbreviated as Gerbang Jasa, to improve latrine problems and long-term effort to prevent stunting. This study aimed to describe the latrine problems and implementation of Gerbang Jasa in Murtajih Village, Pamekasan., Indonesia This research was a descriptive study and involved all families with unhealthy or sharing latrines in Telaga Sari and Pao Gading, Murtajih. We assessed the knowledge and family characteristics through a questionnaire and collected children’s height and age under five years. Thirty families were included in this study, 16 from Pao Gading and 14 from the Telaga Sari. Half of them used unhealthy latrine (cemplung) and the others shared latrines, 59% of farmer occupation and most of them had income under Rp.1.000.000,00. Meanwhile, 12 children under five years from their family was not stunted. During our movement, the authors got funds Rp 18.261.000,00 and successfully built 63,3% latrines with sept tank, 16,7% of latrines only and all the unhealthy latrines were closed by subject. Farmer occupation, family income under Rp 1.000.000,00 were the most cause of latrines problems. Meanwhile, Gerbang jasa could improve latrines problem in Murtajih Village, Pamekasan.

Advancing human health, safety, and well-being with healthy buildings

Advancing human health, safety, and well-being with healthy buildings

Prototyping an IoT-based system for monitoring building indoor environment

PurposeThis study aims to develop an architectural prototype of a Cyber-Physical System (CPS), as well as lay a technological foundation for future smart housing with improved health and well-being outcomes for its occupants.Design/methodology/approachThis study deploys smart sensors to monitor the key environmental parameters of a house. Using Internet of Things technology, a prototype of a CPS has been developed for capturing the environmental conditions over time. A case study involving a property in New Zealand was undertaken to validate the prototype.FindingsThe study proposes a monitoring platform, enabled by the CPS and smart sensing devices, that collects, shares, stores, analyses and visualises indoor environment data. The reliability and accuracy of the monitoring system were enhanced by comparing the activity of house occupants with sensor data.Research limitations/implicationsDue to limited time, the prototype was tested in one house for a period of one month. Air quality was not considered in this study. However, the work suggests that such an approach provides an effective solution for government organisations and housing agencies to collect information for the purpose of assessing building thermal performance.Originality/valueThis research proposes a new lens consisting of a home environment monitoring application with health and well-being implications. It could also be used to inform the future design of healthy homes and buildings, both in New Zealand and internationally.

Song Recommendation Using Facenet Emotion Technology

Abstract: In today’s technological revolving era, everyday new types of technologies are being discovered. Various types of technologies, devices, softwares etc. are being introduced daily. According to the experts the facial expression is derived from the internal biological motions of the muscles that lie under the skin. It also deprives the emotional state of the person. But, in this world where communication has become an important thing, the facial expression is the mean of the non-verbal communication, by which we can understand the current behaviour of the person without even uttering single word. For recognition of an individual’s mood, the system uses Facial Expression Recognition (FER) concept and depending on the recognized mood, song is played. This program removes the time-consuming and the hard work of manually searching and playing the songs from internet or any other sources. So, we introduced an application that suggests the songs based on the facial expression or emotions. This application will use the camera feature of any device to read the facial expression of the user and then define a song accordingly. Furthermore, this application will have an additional feature of offline functionality. These are the modules that our application will function on. Our application will imply on various algorithms and packages and application interfaces. We can precisely say our application will use Python package of Tensor Flow (TF) for the facial expression. In this way, the proposed system will contribute towards the healthy emotion building of the humans and will technologically evolve the existing music recommendation system in a new wholesome way. Index terms: Facial Expression Recognition, Python Package, Tensor Flow, API, BBOX

A Review on Research and Development of Healthy Building in China

Healthy buildings are a deep-level development of green buildings, which can effectively help relieve stress and improve occupants’ physical and mental health. In addition, they are is likely to play an important role in preventing the spread of respiratory infectious diseases. Therefore, healthy buildings have attracted worldwide attention. This article reviews the research and development of healthy buildings in China. First, it briefly introduces the definition of healthy buildings, the key elements of evaluation standards, energy conservation measures and new technology applications for healthy buildings, and lessons learned from the global outbreak of SARS-CoV-2. Secondly, it presents the milestones of healthy building development and healthy building projects in China, and the benefits of healthy buildings were also discussed. Finally, the differences in the evaluation systems of healthy buildings between China and other countries were analyzed, the problems of the current policy system of healthy buildings in China were identified, and suggestions for future development were provided.

THE IMPACT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF HEALTHY BUILDING

ABSTRACT Sustainable development is the balance between environmental protection, social equity and economic development to meet the needs of the present generation without affecting the future generation to meet their own needs. Within the built environment, sustainable development concepts include the materials used to build and a maintain building, the energy and water meant to run a building, and the ability to provide a healthy environment for the occupants. Over the last decade, researchers have shown that the built environment plays a significant role on human health. About 20 hours a day is spent indoors regardless of the structure typology. This perspective highlights the domains in which sustainable development through sustainable construction features and characteristics can impact occupants’ health and wellbeing. We aim to outline the relationship between sustainable development and healthy building to inform future practices in the creation of healthy environments. It is evident that buildings can have both negative and positive impacts on occupants’ health. Within the four walls, buildings influence the air we breathe, the water we drink, the quality of light and many other design features that contribute to occupant health. It is significant for the design process and the construction progress to have a fundamental aim that is focused on making buildings healthy for both working and living in. In addition, the collaboration and involvement of all actors (architects, facility managers, contractors, building scientists, researchers and code officials) is critical in the application and implementation of solutions in order to establish guidelines that could be a step forward for the construction of healthy buildings.

ЭКОЛОГИЯ ЗДАНИЙ. АНАЛИЗ И МЕТОДЫ ПРОЕКТИРОВАНИЯ ЗДАНИЙ

Design issues related to indoor air quality and “sustainable architecture” are considered. However, they have generally not been established on a reliable analytical basis. The emphasis here is on the study of analytical methods and sources for the development of recommendations for the rational design of healthy buildings. Also, this article discusses both internal conditions, especially indoor air quality problems, and general environmental problems. It discusses the assessment of the impact of buildings on the environment as a whole. It also analyzes the available data to determine the norms of important parameters of buildings and analyzes the main studies of the impact of buildings on the health of residents. The analysis presented here is intended to help building designers prioritize alternative design options that minimize harmful effects on the internal and general environment.

Impacts of life satisfaction, job satisfaction and the Big Five personality traits on satisfaction with the indoor environment

Providing indoor environmental quality (IEQ) that satisfies building occupants is an essential component for sustainable and healthy buildings. Existing studies mainly analyse the importance of environmental factors on occupant satisfaction, but often overlook the influence of personal factors. Here, we aim to explore the impact of personal factors like life satisfaction, job satisfaction, the Big Five personality traits, sex, and age on occupant IEQ satisfaction. We conducted a cross-sectional assessment in nine air-conditioned commercial buildings in Singapore and surveyed 1162 individuals on their satisfaction with 18 IEQ parameters. Using proportional odds ordinal logistic regression, we found that occupants with higher job and life satisfactions were, respectively, 1.3–2.3 and 1.3–2 times more likely satisfied with the 18 IEQ parameters. The odds ratios (OR) for overall environment satisfaction and job and life satisfaction were 2.1 (95% CI: 1.8–2.6) and 1.9 (95% CI: 1.6–2.3). We speculate that occupants’ satisfaction with their job and the overall environment are entwined, meaning that a better workspace could improve job satisfaction and vice versa. We observed some associations between the Big Five personality traits and some IEQ parameters, but the corresponding effects were small. Due to the substantial relationship between job and overall workspace satisfaction observed in this study, we recommend including job satisfaction questions in future post occupancy evaluations (POEs).

Ecological architecture and its impact on human behavior and human health

The research deals with the concepts of ecological and healthy buildings and their interaction with the environment, and the impact of ecological architecture on human behavior and human health, leading to environmental health. Where environmental health is closely related to environmental sciences and public health. Environmental health includes the assessment and control of environmental factors that affect health and seeks to prevent diseases and create an environment that supports health because the interaction between individuals and their surroundings is the way in which our natural environment is formed Our character as individuals. The research aims to create an environment with healthy buildings by finding a model or strategies for creating a healthy building that positively affects human health and behavior. The research deals with strategies that provide thermal moderation, reduce pollution and save energy, through the inputs and outputs between the building and the environment. The conclusions indicated the efficiency of digital technology processes represented in the processes of modification and generation in building the ecological formations of architecture and the efficiency of technology mechanisms to produce the ecological formations of environmental architecture, and reaching a model for architecture that interacts with environmental systems through the integration of a set of operational systems and activating strategies that address buildings to make them healthy, livable and interactive buildings Its environment completely, as ecological design aims to achieve a symbiotic relationship between the factory system and the ecosystem and make the landscape as an ecosystem surrounding the system designed to solve complex environmental problems to achieve individual quality of life within the large community through: Defining the role of technology represented by mechanisms that provide the necessary treatments for architecture and indicators And ways of interaction between humans and buildings, and access to the necessary strategies to provide a model for healthy architecture and apply them in practice.

Designing Post COVID-19 Buildings: Approaches for Achieving Healthy Buildings

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the accessibility, social gathering, lifestyle, and working environment to be changed to reduce the infection. Coronavirus spreads between people in several different ways. Small liquid particles (aerosols, respiratory droplets) from an infected person are transmitted through air and surfaces that are in contact with humans. Reducing transmission through modified heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and building design are potential solutions. A comprehensive review of the engineering control preventive measures to mitigate COVID-19 spread, healthy building design, and material was carried out. The current state-of-the-art engineering control preventive measures presented include ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI), bipolar ionization, vertical gardening, and indoor plants. They have potential to improve the indoor air quality. In addition, this article presents building design with materials (e.g., copper alloys, anti-microbial paintings) and smart technologies (e.g., automation, voice control, and artificial intelligence-based facial recognition) to mitigate the infections of communicable diseases.

Healthy Vertical Housing Study of Psychological Considerations

The world population is growing significantly, and the population continues to flow from the countryside to the cities. Such phenomena make vertical housing a solution to these issues even if it is not as satisfactory as other forms of accommodation. The overview indicates that some adverse psychosocial effects have been consistently associated with elevated residential environments. The research problem has been identified. The effects of vertical housing on mental health and how these psychological effects can be reduced to create healthy vertical housing lack clarity. The research starts from a general hypothesis that vertical housing has adverse effects on the mental health of residents. Thus, the need lies in knowing the reasons for this effect and how to address it through design, thus creating healthy vertical residential buildings. The research adopted the descriptive analysis method based on the vocabulary of the theoretical framework extracted from previous proposals. The Interlace project in Singapore was chosen for the practical study after obtaining the title

Next-generation energy performance certificates: End-user needs and expectations

Implementation of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) varies significantly across EU Member States in terms of scope and available information, resulting in limited reliability, compliance, market penetration or user acceptance. This paper, therefore, investigates the end-user perspectives towards future development of EPCs to support EPC schemes in the EU. Without a full insight into what end-user's demand and need, it is impossible to make accurate assessments of how EPCs will become key drivers for deep renovation, environmental impact reduction and healthy buildings. A survey with 2563 end-users of EPCs was conducted on ten innovative EPC features in five EU countries (Denmark, Greece, Portugal, Poland, and Romania), including building owners and occupants to learn about their needs and expectations. The results highlight that the features are viewed most positively if homeowners or tenants are energy conscious and energy performance is an important aspect when buying or renting property. Furthermore, the insights gathered through the analysis of the survey provide suggestions for public authorities on how EPC methodologies could be customised to support the advancement of EPC schemes. Further work includes testing and validation of methodologies that are being developed in different EU Member States as a part of the H2020 X-tendo project.

The future of IEQ in green building certifications

Although indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and human health have been on the agenda of the green building industry, a new emphasis is being placed on building features that explicitly promote the experience of occupants. However, evidence of the performance of green-certified buildings from the occupant perspective remains inconsistent, with numerous questions on how to effectively design, assess and promote ‘healthy buildings’. Focusing on the key IEQ categories of indoor air quality, thermal comfort, lighting and acoustics, this paper synthesises emerging knowledge related to IEQ and health; identifies research and practical challenges that may impede the performance of green-rated buildings; sets the foundations for researchers and green rating system developers to capture immediate and long-term opportunities; and proposes a new framework for green-certified buildings. The envisioned future of green buildings will need to be based on a thorough knowledge of the building and its users, their inter- and intra-individual variability, their spatiotemporal localisation, their activities, their history of exposures, together with a capacity of anticipation of the likelihood of future events and preparedness for them. A balanced, integrated, consideration of these factors can provide the basis for more effective green building certification systems. <em><strong>Practice relevance</strong></em> The Covid-19 pandemic has focused attention on the importance of IEQ and highlighted the limitations of prevailing practice for promoting human experience, health and wellbeing. Most critically, the good intentions of project planning are often not reflected in real-world conditions, and establishedbest practiceshave not kept pace with advances in research. This paper provides a critical synthesis of the literature on the effectiveness of green building ratings systems for human experience. It identifies limitations and practical opportunities for improvement in the design and application of rating tools. These observations present specific, actionable, opportunities to improve the design and operation of green building rating systems. Rating system developers and practitioners can use this information to better align design intentions with outcomes. Explicit consideration is needed for differences in individual preferences, spatial and temporal variabilities of IEQ factors, occupant exposure history, and other factors impacting IEQ.

Green Building in the midst of Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for healthy buildings that can protect against the virus. The healthy building feature includes good air quality and ventilation, natural lighting, and green open space. The features are embedded in a green building design. The benefit of green building on the wellness of its occupants, combined with the unfavourable pandemic situation, should have had increased the green building’s popularity. However, throughout the pandemic in Indonesia, the green building remains unpopular. This research attempts to uncover how the market demand for green building is shaped, how the situation is during the pandemic, and how this issue benefits the future development of the green building. The analysis found that the public’s knowledge is the factor that can be further utilized in developing the green building.

Literature Review: The Effects of Covid-19 Pandemic-Driven Home Behavior in Housing Preference

This literature review is aimed to identify the possible correlation between Covid-19 pandemic and housing preferences. It is known that the pandemic has impacts on human activities and this also has an indirect effect on housing selection. We used a qualitative method by reviewing 52 papers and articles related to pandemic and residential real estate from March 2020 to May 2021. The review indicates that Covid-19 pandemic has induced to the housing preferences: fear of meeting people, fear of economic recession, and ‘stay at home’ lifestyle. The pandemic increases people’s needs to control their living space, including personal safety space, house expense, and the use of home space. This review will benefit real estate developers in Indonesia as reference of lifestyle regarding healthy residential building especially in the post-pandemic future.

HIEQLab, a facility to support multi-domain human-centered research on building performance and environmental quality

Researches on building performances and environmental quality can be performed through different approaches, including dynamic numerical simulations, in-field studies, full scale test facilities and living labs. Researches performed through full scale test facilities allow carrying out studies under controlled realistic conditions, directly involving the final users. Such approach can significantly improve the scientific research on energy efficient and healthy buildings by fostering a synergistic and user-centered innovation process. Within this context, at Politecnico di Torino, the TEBE group (Technology, Energy, Building and Environment) has designed and is realizing a full-scale facility, aimed at implementing researches on building Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) and energy performance. The facility will enable multi-domain studies, including thermal, air quality, acoustic and lighting aspects, involving the final user in the research process. The paper describes the features of the facility and the challenges it was conceived to face.

Preface

All the world as well as our conference faced to the pandemic in 2021. Therefore, the 24th International Conference on Building Materials, Products and Technologies (ICBMPT 2021) had to be postponed from the usual date in June to the new date 29th September to 1st October 2021.The participants appreciated our choice to organize the conference again in the beautiful town of Telč in the Czech Republic, which is popular with many tourists, because it belongs to the cultural heritage under protection of UNECSCO.Despite the difficult situation, the organizers from the Research Institute for Building Materials collected 23 interesting papers among research workplaces in the Czech Republic and abroad. The conference brings not only interesting presentations, but also it creates a platform for scientific discussions and proposals of new mutual projects.The main topics of ICBMPT 2021 were: Inorganic binders, Composite materials, Building materials based on secondary raw materials and Technology and test methods in building industry. Also, several keynote speakers were attracted to contribute to our conference. Besides the conference program, there was a possibility to take part in the specialized workshop Healthy buildings with many interesting topics, among others asbestos treatment and biodeteriogens in building environment.We would like to thank all the participants for their valuable contribution to the conference. We would like to express our gratitude to the reviewers for their time, valuable recommendations and constructive evaluation, in order to guarantee high quality of all the papers. We are looking forward to the next conference in better times!List of Scientific committee, Editors, are available in this pdf.

Evaluation of air quality and thermal comfort in classroom

Air quality in the classroom can affect the health of students because students spend a lot of time in the classroom for learning activities. In addition to the air quality of healthy buildings, it is also related to thermal comfort. During the learning process, a comfortable learning interaction is needed, to make it easier for teachers to deliver learning materials. Therefore, this study evaluated the classrooms of SDN 10 Banda Aceh and SDN Kajhu Aceh Besar which were used as objects of research studies. This study uses a quantitative approach through measuring air quality parameters, namely CO2 (Carbon Dioxide), HCHO (Formaldehyde), and TVOC (Total Volatile Organic Compound) concentrations, while thermal comfort, namely air temperature, humidity, and wind speed using an air quality detector and hotwire anemometer. The level of air quality is evaluated based on MENKES/SK/2011 while thermal comfort is evaluated based on the Indonesian national standard SNI and adaptive thermal comfort. Based on the results of the research, the air quality in both schools still meets the MENKES/SK/2011 standard, while the level of thermal comfort in both schools is classified as uncomfortable according to SNI and adaptive thermal comfort.