Page 54 - Green Builder July-August 2019 Issue
P. 54
IAQ: Breathe Easier
Products, Research and Advice for Improving Indoor Air Quality
The New Dorm Norm
As architects rethink college constructs,
residence halls are getting healthier.
BY JAVIER ESTEBAN
N , THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION suggested
that up to 30 percent of new and renovated buildings had
excessive complaints related to indoor air quality, which was
directly related to Sick Building Syndrome. According to the
I U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), this “disorder”
describes situations in which building occupants experience acute
health and comfort eects that appear to be linked to time spent in
a building, but no specic illness or cause can be identied.
While we still see cases of Sick Building Syndrome today, we have
certainly come a long way from the less healthy buildings of the
1980s. Today, designers are focused more than ever on specifying
and constructing healthy buildings, including residence halls.
To put into perspective the importance of this issue: According
to the EPA, the average American spends up to 87 percent of their
time indoors, inside buildings. Everyone lives and breathes in man-
made spaces with a certain amount of ltered fresh air, surrounded
by products with high levels of chemicals. That’s certainly true of
residence halls.
So, what is a healthy building—or more specifically—what CREDIT: A.J. MEXICO FLICKR
constitutes a healthy residence hall?
There are many denitions, but in general, a healthy residence hall
is architecturally designed to promote physical activity and healthy Lobbying for change. Creating a wide and welcoming staircase with lots
habits, while using healthy materials and building systems to provide of natural light gives students a place to hang out, and encourages
a healthy environment. exercise from using the stairs instead of an elevator.
addition to the traditional campus bus. The opportunities to create
Getting going with some get-up-and-go among students an active campus are innite, but it requires the common vision of
Buildings can promote student physical activity through spaces that all stakeholders.
encourage exercise, such as a prominently located main staircase. By Integrated building signage can be used not only as a waynding
creating a wide and welcoming staircase with lots of natural light tool, but also as motivation and information about healthy habits.
where students can also hang out (commonly called the “community For example, signage can inform students how many calories they
stair”), students will often use it for at least the rst three oors. burn by climbing one ight of stairs, while small signs can provide
Another strategy is locating elevators in a secondary place mile markers on campus walks.
behind the staircase, to encourage students to use the stairs. Special This interrelates with promoting healthy habits. Research shows
consideration must be taken to not to segregate students who are in that creating additional vistas to the landscape and active spaces
wheelchairs or visually impaired. motivates people to move.
The Active Design Guidelines published by New York’s Color and lighting are also very important in setting the “mood”
departments of Design and Construction, Health and Mental Hygiene, of the building. Lively colors induce movement, together with
Transportation, and City Planning includes multiple strategies that living walls thriving with vegetation; all are part of the concept of
can be used for site planning, as well as the exterior and interior of biophilia—an innate tendency in humans to seek connections with
a building to promote exercise. This is especially important in the nature and other forms of life. The intent with these initiatives is
context of a “mini city” such as a university campus, where means of not necessarily for students to start exercising in the building, but
transportation include bicycles, skateboards and electric scooters, in rather to make the users more active in their daily routines by, using
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