Take a Breath in Your Office and Improve Your Health
We need modern, healthy buildings with natural ventilation
Buildings are often just optimized for one thing: energy efficiency. What a shame! My regular readers know that I advocate systems thinking. A problem is often influenced by more than one factor and a building is no exception.
So if we just focus on energy savings in a building, it will be shut tight and the indoor air quality will suffer tremendously. Result: an unhealthy building. We can do better. And the inspiration can come from Cradle to Cradle and Circular Economy as well as Blue Economy and biomimicry.
Let’s look at some facts:
- In the western world, we spend approximately 90% of our time inside a building, where the concentration of some pollutants are often 2-5 times higher than typical outdoor levels (source: https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/indoor-air-quality)
- Indoor concentrations of some pollutants have increased in recent decades due to factors like energy-efficient building construction and increased use of synthetic building materials, furnishings, personal care products, pesticides and household cleaners (source: https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/indoor-air-quality)
- Costs of a building are divided as follows: 1% energy costs, 9% general building costs, 90% personnel costs. Conclusion: 1.1% less sickness leave will pay the energy bill! (Source: Redlich MD, Dr. C.A. et al (1997): ‘Sick Building Syndrome’, London The Lancet 5–4–1997)
- A bad indoor climate can lead to productivity loss of € 3,600 per employee per year in the Netherlands (Source: https://www.gezondheidsnet.nl/stress-en-burn-out/ziek-door-het-sick-building-syndroom)
- Moving to a healthy building leads to 42% less sick building related health issues (Source: Palacios J., Eichholtz P. & Nils K. (2019) ‘Moving to Productivity: The Benefits of Healthy Buildings’ Promotion research School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University 6–5–2019)
Elements of a healthy building
So what’s important? What’s a healthy building? In the Healthy Building Network (cooperation of Dutch and German SMEs, government and university) that I participate in, we have come up with five essential elements to consider for a healthy, sustainable building.
- Indoor air quality
- Indoor climate (temperature, moist)
- Sound and acoustics
- Light and daylight
- Look and feel
The more natural the first six elements, the healthier a person that lives, works and learns in such a building. In a healthy building, non-toxic materials are being used, there is natural ventilation and air and water are purified with e.g. plants and halophyte filters.
The building will be positioned in such a way that sun and shadow are caught in the best way, using as little as possible energy. My own background is Blue Economy and permaculture and I advocate using abundantly available materials, such as bamboo, in smaller, more human scale, affordable buildings.
However, there are many possible avenues that have one thing in common to ensure the building is a healthy one: it all starts with natural ventilation! No more energy-wasting air conditioning. No more sick building syndrome…
Termite hills in the desert
In this article, I want to show you that the indoor air quality ánd the energy efficiency of a building will increase significantly if a very simple system of natural ventilation is used inside a building.
The first buildings with natural ventilation were inspired by termite hills in the desert. People noticed that termite hills are very constant in their temperature. Although they are often located in deserts where the outside temperature can be 50 degrees during the day and freezing at night.
Termites collect a fungus that only survives and thrives at 31 degrees Celsius. So the ants design their hills in such a way that the temperature will always be 31 degrees inside. Who says man is the smartest creature in nature? We have invented air-conditioners and heaters that use a lot of energy and need maintenance and filter-change to achieve the same result.
My conclusion: ants are much smarter than human beings. Well, some architects thought that too, so they applied their own varieties of termite ventilation.
Anders Nyquist
One of the first architects to apply termite ventilation in his prize-winning buildings is Anders Nyquist, the founder of Eco Cycle Design in Sweden. He’s well-known for the Laggarberg School and the Green Zone, both in Sweden.
But his sustainable designs are applied all over the world. I greatly admire this architect. In the short film below he explains his work. Did you know that indoor air quality is often very bad in schools? And did you know that the area up to one meter high, where our children sit and learn, is far worse? How can these little brains learn and grow, I wonder?
Well, Anders did something about it! And I would love it if all parents who read this, will go tomorrow to the schools of their children demanding a healthy building.
This is the kind of revolution we need. This is the kind of innovation that will inspire 16-year old Greta Thunberg and her peers to become the innovators of the future.
Law of physics: hot air rises
Termite ventilation is created by a relatively simple design. Air will be cooled just by being led through the soil where temperatures are lower, will come into the building via the floor and will then be warmed by a solar chimney. Enter a law of physics: hot air rises. So the air will take its natural flow, create ventilation and will be released via chimneys, just like in termite hills.
In a TEDx Delft talk, Ben Bronsema, an expert on air-conditioning, explains his method of natural ventilation, giving some insight on how it can work technically.
Venlo, healthy buildings city
In the area where I live and work: Venlo, in the south of the Netherlands, near the German border, several healthy buildings have been built already and a few more are being planned. Our city hall is an example (see documentary below), primary school De Zuidstroom has a healthy building and Hotel Van der Valk is being renovated now as a healthy building.
Some more healthy buildings are being planned and I really hope the trend continues. The business case of healthy buildings is very clear: if you include maintenance in the ‘Total Costs of Ownership’, positive cash flow can already be generated in the second year after being built.
And if you also include the rest of the value of the materials and health benefits of employees into the business case, you will have created a win-win-win for people, planet and prosperity. That’s the right way to look at financing innovation, financing health, financing long term benefits for all!
Call to action
I really hope this article inspires many of my readers to take action. These kinds of innovations deserve large scale applications. We need buildings that are healthy for our families, citizens, employees, and children. And as you can see, it is possible.
I call upon all architects, builders, investors, CEOs, government officials, teachers, and others. Now is the time to build or renovate and move to a healthy building with natural ventilation.
If you want to connect, please find me on LinkedIn or somewhere in nature filling my lungs with healthy, clean air…
