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WHY DESIGN MATTERS TO PUBLIC HEALTH

It may be difficult for the layman to appreciate how design can affect health. North Americans spend 90% of their time indoors so a healthier built environment has a huge impact on personal and public health.  Each time a building or home is designed, there are decisions made by architects that can result in healthier workplaces or homes. As urban environments proliferate, access by foot to public transit becomes more important. Designing a building so that occupants walk more to different offices instead of taking elevators or escalators, making sure that structures provide access to ample fresh air and daylight – these are all ways in which design can influence the health of America.  Architects are uniquely qualified to holistically design your built environment to improve personal and public health.

This month in New York City, the American Institute of Architects took part in the annual Clinton Global Initiative conference September 23-25, an ambitious meeting put together each year by the former president as a forum for exploring urgent public policy issues. This year, the conference’s theme was “Designing for Impact.” The theme is appropriate, for as schools begin the new academic year, educating the public about how design can influence public health is the thrust of a decade-long commitment by my trade association, the AIA, which we announced at the meeting.

That commitment involves an effort to provide design and technology solutions that will help cities across the country prepare for challenges faced on public health, sustainability, and resiliency to natural disasters. AIA EVP and Chief Executive Robert Ivy, FAIA, announced the commitment to more than 1,000 global leaders at the gathering, stating that it represents “an all-out effort to demonstrate the link between how buildings are designed and the health of the people who occupy them. For too long, our profession has paid only lip service to this issue. Now we will bring the force of design to bear in the public health arena and debate.”

Communities around the world are concerned with livability and quality of life issues, including health, safety, using natural resources efficiently, economic opportunity, and resilience. The built environment is a key factor, and its design can make a significant difference. Thriving communities are ones with design frameworks that support walkable communities, access to light, nature and nurturing food, as well as healthy buildings that support the needs and functions of the community. With buildings accounting for a significant percentage of the world’s energy use, resource-efficient design strategies are critical to our future well-being.

Architects are trained to use design thinking that synthesizes fragmented parts into a coherent whole, to integrate a variety of needs and voices, to creatively solve problems in a practical way, and to bring ideas alive. With this perspective, architects play a pivotal role in supporting the well-being of our cities and communities, and working with community stakeholders, as well as those from other professions (such as medicine, business, agriculture, engineering), meaningful solutions unfold.

Communities around the world are concerned with livability and quality of life issues, including health, safety, efficient use of natural resources, economic opportunity, and resilience. The built environment is a key factor, and its design can make a significant difference. Thriving communities are ones with design frameworks that support walkable communities, access to light, nature and nurturing food, as well as healthy buildings that support the needs and functions of the community. With buildings accounting for a significant percentage of the world’s energy use, resource-efficient design strategies are critical to our future well-being.

Architects are trained to use design thinking that synthesizes fragmented parts into a coherent whole, to integrate a variety of needs and voices, to creatively solve problems in a practical way, and to bring ideas alive. With this perspective, architects play a pivotal role in supporting the well-being of our cities and communities, and working with community stakeholders, as well as those from other professions (such as medicine, business, agriculture, engineering), meaningful solutions unfold.

The commitment by my association, the AIA, involves both monetary and “in-kind’ contributions and features, but it begins initially with the first-ever Decade of Design research grants by the AIA and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) awarded to three schools of architecture:

• Texas A&M University  – Evaluating Health Benefits of Livable Communities: An effort to measure the health impacts of walkable communities, validated with an empirical study of a leading-edge Neighborhood Development project in Austin.

• University of Arkansas – Fayetteville 2030: Creating Food City Scenario Plan: The study of planning possibilities and design solutions for creating a local food infrastructure while accommodating a quickly growing population.

• University of New Mexico – Establishing Interdisciplinary Health-Architecture Curriculum: Pilot program to develop a framework for implementing a three-year interdisciplinary program for addressing health issues in local neighborhoods.

These research projects launch the AIA’s long-term commitment to advance public health through design in the United States and beyond. As communities across the globe face increasingly complex challenges to their quality of life, we will work with the ACSA as well as other partners within the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) to find innovative solutions.

Joe Smith is executive director of AIA-Component.