Blaine Brownell - The Pandemic Effect: Ninety Experts on Immunizing the Built Environment

Chapel of Healing, see

Biochromic Window, see

Nearby Nature, see

Urban Sun, see

Glass Walls, Glass Ceilings, see

Reforestation from Within, see

Natural Healing, see

Redesigning Schools, see

Atelier FCJZ, see

Home.Earth, see

We Need Our Parks, see

Multisensory Wayfinding, see

Quiet Zone, see

Covid Confessionals, see

In-Car Care, see

This book is dedicated to the memory of Richard Ingersoll, who shaped my understanding of the societal influences of architectureand to all the others who were victims of the coronavirus pandemic.

T he novel coronavirus pandemic that emerged in late 2019 resulted in a significant death toll and disrupted human activities worldwide, leading to consequential changes in healthcare, work, retail, school, entertainment, and daily life. The global crisis caused by COVID-19, the illness propagated by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, was not only medical but also existential. In addition to prompting advances in public health, the pandemic motivated reconsiderations of the status quo, resulting in unprecedented shifts in commerce, telecommunications, mobility, policy, employment, education, and culture. Yet, despite a societal upheaval of such magnitude, the ensuing public conversation regarding the coronavirus and its potential solutions has failed to bring adequate attention to a subject of fundamental importance: the built environment.

In the US and similarly industrialized countries, people spend 8090 percent of their time indoors. When considering the broader built environmentthe area developed for human habitation outside of the wildthis figure approaches 100 percent. Physical context plays a significant role in transmitting infectious diseasethe cause of approximately one-third of annual deaths worldwide. Yet, there is insufficient awareness about the influences of architecture, infrastructure, and the constructed landscape in spreading illness. Scientists have noted the lack of critical data related to human mobility and interpersonal contacts within the built environment. Beyond isolated laboratory studies of specific physical influences on virus transmission, there is a dearth of analysis regarding the impacts of building attributes and spatial settings of various scales. As the authors of a 2021 National Library of Medicine study argue, The built environment deserves immediate attention to produce place-specific strategies to prevent the further spread of coronavirus.

Throughout history, when adequate attention has been paid to the influence of constructed spaces on disease, the knowledge has inspired measurable enhancements in buildings and cities. Improvements in sanitation and living conditions, for example, have contributed significantly toward curbing infectious diseases in human populations. In the field of public health, the domain of environmental health emerged in the nineteenth century as the study of the relationships between individual health and the environment. Originally termed the Sanitary Revolution based on a series of strategies to control communicable diseases exacerbated by unclean conditions, the environmental health movement inspired proposals to reshape the medical field to address prevention adequately in the twentieth century. The built environment was influenced in-kind: according to Beatriz Colomina, modern architecture developed many of its characteristic qualities in direct response to tuberculosis, the dominant medical obsession of its time.

Yet despite the measurable improvements sanitation systems have brought to our buildings and cities, a widening gap currently exists between environmental health knowledge and its application. In the built environments of more economically developed countries, comfort and convenience are now prioritized over health. Buildings with inoperable windows ensure indoor temperature and humidity control while shutting out fresh air. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems prioritize establishing an ideal interior climate over eradicating harmful chemicals and pathogens. An emphasis on cost reduction has resulted in the proliferation of cheap building products composed of detrimental synthetic substances. A predisposition against physical exertion privileges elevators and escalators over stairs and ramps. The car is widely preferred for mobility over the bicycle or public transportation. And the most significant example of prioritizing convenience over health is global warmingthe deterioration of our planetary climate due to thoughtlessly produced greenhouse gas emissions.

Ironically, the Sanitary Revolution facilitated todays life of convenience by diminishing the threat of environmentally transmitted illness. Widespread hygiene standards in more developed parts of the globe are now taken for granted. And yet, the emphasis on sanitization has gone too far. Chemical disinfectants and antimicrobial coatings have unintentionally led to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens that pose a severe health threat, particularly in hospitals. Hermetically encapsulated interiors diminish occupant access to fresh air and daylight while increasing the prevalence of sick building syndrome. A dislike for the unruly and unpredictable hazards of wild landscapes has led to the proliferation of the manicured, monocultural lawn.