ABSTRACT
Since the Ancient Greek "master builders" the authors have been obsessed with how people experience buildings, and with good reason: they have a huge impact on how they feel. One of the positives to come out of the awful events of 2020 is that they greatly accelerated the conversation around healthy buildings. Suddenly, the general public began talking about issues like air quality, personal space and the impact of being at home by themselves in a way that our industry had never previously seen. Even in normal, "non-pandemic" life, they spend more than 80% of our time in buildings by most estimations, and these buildings can affect our mood both positively and negatively. The quality of the places in which they live, work and study therefore impacts our happiness and by association our mental wellbeing significantly.
