To create the healthiest buildings, designers must be intentional about their choices from the onset, Professor of Architecture Ihab Elzeyadi told Engineering News-Record for the story “Achieving Healthful Mental Mise en Place Through Design.”
“There are many things that go into the design that need to be incorporated early on,” he said. “For example, natural ventilation. The idea, if you are going to have operable windows or shafts, have major implications to the form of the building."
Elzeyadi is also director of the High Performance Environments Lab (HiPE), which develops tools and technologies for the design and assessments of high performance environments and the green building industry. The HiPE lab tests proposed new standards to increase Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) performance, and then influences the industry to adopt improved standards.
“We are testing these standards constantly, and we are also coming up with other things that the standards might have overlooked,” said Elzeyadi. Designing for cognitive performance and stress reduction, he says, are just as important to consider for well-being in buildings.