A revised and updated edition of the landmark work the New York Times lauded as “a call to action for every developer, building owner, shareholder, chief executive, manager, teacher, worker and parent to start demanding healthy buildings with cleaner indoor air.”
The world was brought to a standstill by a virus that spreads almost exclusively indoors, revealing a simple but long-ignored truth: your building can make you sick–or keep you well. Updated with the latest research conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, the new edition of Healthy Buildings provides evidence-based strategies for making buildings the first line of defense against airborne disease.
Joe Allen and John Macomber dispel the myth that we have to choose between energy-efficient buildings and good indoor air quality. We can—and must—have both. At the center of the great convergence of the green, smart, and safe building movements, healthy buildings are key to business success and vital to the push for more sustainable urbanization that will shape our future.
This book should be essential reading for all who commission, design, manage, and use buildings — indeed anyone who is interested in a healthy environment.
If we’ve learned anything from the coronavirus pandemic, it’s that clean indoor air is essential to healthy living. But it’s not just about getting rid of viral particles. Dr. Allen has led research showing that poor indoor air quality dulls your brain, dampening creativity and cognitive function… This book is a call to action […] to start demanding healthy buildings with cleaner indoor air.
Allen and Macomber want to establish national standards, and they make a series of precise and persuasive recommendations for everything from insulation and window shades to water filters and vacuum cleaners.
This exposé of the widespread under-ventilation and pollution inside modern buildings arrived just as shared indoor space became truly deadly. Though there’s now light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel, these insights and guidelines for improving indoor air quality should play a huge role in post-pandemic reforms.
[A] lucid and passionate outline of why now is the time to acknowledge the huge and unrealized potential for buildings to make a positive contribution to the health and performance of their inhabitants, the economy, society and the planet.
[This] detailed, important study is welcomed by architect Norman Foster. But it speaks to everyone.
Healthy Buildings is both hugely important and a great read. By the end it not only completely persuaded me that improving the health of our buildings is a fabulous economic opportunity and something that could change the lives of millions of people—it gave me a very good sense of where to start.
Healthy Buildings urges us to shift to a ‘health-first’ mindset in relation to our built environment. Its unique insights help close the knowledge gap around healthy buildings, reveal their important role in global sustainability, and provide practical guidance for our homes, offices, and schools.
The engaging conversational style of this comprehensive book makes it an ideal read for any busy building owner or executive who wants to learn about the new science of healthy buildings.
In this new era of ESG responsibility, every CEO must consider our built environment to fully meet stakeholder expectations. Allen and Macomber’s multidisciplinary, accessible approach unlocks the secret to future human health and productivity in the very buildings in which we live and work.
Workplaces need fresh air, not foosball tables and coffee bars.
As employees return to offices, the authors suggest a framework companies can deploy to keep people safe without crippling their businesses and our economy, as well as a series of indicators to measure their progress.
Indoor life has its dangers, too, but building-design specialists have big plans for us.
Upgrading buildings’ ventilation, filtration and other factors would not only decrease COVID transmission but also improve health and cognitive performance in general.
Any C-suite executive looking to lure workers back into the office has likely spent more time thinking about indoor air quality and ventilation over the past year-and-a-half than at any other point in their pre-pandemic life.
A growing coalition of epidemiologists and aerosol scientists say that improved ventilation could be a powerful tool against the coronavirus — if businesses are willing to invest the money.
Harvard professor Joseph Allen says there’s one safety measure offices can’t overlook. Healthy workspaces rely primarily on the air employees breathe, and research going back years before the pandemic shows that improvements in air ventilation and air quality lead to increased cognitive function and work productivity.
A better solution, for Covid and other ailments: improved ventilation — bringing more outside air into buildings and better circulating air. And filtration — cleaning the indoor air. Many, if not enough, schools and businesses have adopted them. And they work in all kinds of buildings, from homeless shelters to high-rises.
It’s the first time such a standard has been created at the national level.
Deepak Chopra and Harvard’s Joseph Allen helped shape this 60-story tower.
While we tend to worry about inhaling viral particles like the coronavirus, new research shows the air quality at work may have subtle effects on cognitive function.
The pandemic taught us the benefits of ventilation in stopping the spread of the virus. But keeping our indoor air clean has plenty of other benefits
For Joseph Allen, the pandemic has made the connection between indoor air quality and human health clearer than ever.
Two-plus years into the Covid-19 pandemic, you probably know the basics of protection: vaccines, boosters, proper handwashing and masks. But one of the most powerful tools against the coronavirus is one that experts believe is just starting to get the attention it deserves: ventilation.