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Local Health: Building Scale

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Healthy Urbanism

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Abstract

Buildings are the primary human habitat and their health impacts can be far-reaching across time and space. Homes, workplaces, schools and other buildings can be designed not only as refuges from harsh weather, noise and other environmental harms but also as places that support social interaction and ontological security. This chapter introduces several ways of conceptualising healthy buildings before a detailed exploration of the planning and design goals in the outer ring of the THRIVES framework: acoustic and thermal comfort, affordability, tenure security, lighting and space. The Nightingale Housing model from Australia is provided as an example of sustainable and healthy housing that aims to meet the needs of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Emerging topics in healthy building design are discussed, such as how sleep is influenced by lighting, noise and thermal comfort.

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Pineo, H. (2022). Local Health: Building Scale. In: Healthy Urbanism. Planning, Environment, Cities. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9647-3_7

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