The way that buildings have been designed and constructed has changed rapidly in recent years, driven to a significant extent by the need to meet challenges of climate change and energy costs, but also to reduce costs and respond to changes in tenure and demographics such as ageing populations. There is concern that smaller buildings, with reduced natural infiltration, increased insulation and limited ventilation, in addition to increasing sources of chemicals and moisture in buildings could be having a significant detrimental impact on indoor air quality (IAQ). The question arising from this is what the health impacts of this might be. A successful application was made to the AHRC to establish the Health Effects of Modern Airtight Construction (HEMAC) network which brought together public health and building professionals with architects and their clients to identify shared research questions and develop ways of addressing these issues, with an overall aim of supporting the design of healthy, low energy homes. The HEMAC network bridged the gap between these fields, using a trans-disciplinary dialogue driven by architectural design to identify relationships, risks and opportunities between design of housing and public health in the 21st century.
The network has gathered together a wider range of knowledge and expertise and has produced a number of research proposals, but it became clear during the workshops that there is a significant gap in knowledge and awareness of the issues of ventilation, IAQ and health within the design communities, landlords, and building occupants.
The aim of this follow-on project therefore is collate the knowledge generated by the network and translate this into information that can be used by a number of different audiences. These include end users of buildings via occupant guides, but also engagement with patient groups that are particularly affected by these issues. The project will produce design guidance and CPD information for use by architects and clients that identify good practice for designing for good IAQ in terms of ventilation and source control. It will also facilitate workshop sessions with policy makers to identify legislative and policy needs.