“What if you plan your buildings and neighborhoods with health and climate risks in mind, just as a company uses financial data to guide decisions?” Liz York raises this question in sales for the next city, leaning against the findings of Adele Horton and Carlos Castillo Salgado’s new book, Architectural Epidemiology.
Just as doctors may diagnose patients based on symptoms and environmental exposure, the Horton and Castilo Salgado framework helps designers, developers and policy makers diagnose place health.
This process uses location-based data on health and climate to inform customized development strategies. In the South Bronx, one of New York City’s most environmentally-intensive areas, affordable housing developments “were taking an indoor-focused strategy to improve air quality for residents.” “With no regulatory leverage to reduce nearby traffic or emissions, the project team instead designed a protective shell: high-performance building envelopes, mechanical exhaust and ventilation systems, low-VOC materials, and smoking cessation policies. These features directly address local respiratory and cardiovascular risk data and provide clean air.”
Other large projects have the opportunity to become part of a broader Health Equity initiative. In East London’s Hackney Borough, a project called Gillet Square, dates back to the 1980s, has transformed the former parking lot and surrounding area into a square surrounded by workspaces, and a retailer that is prioritized for local businesses and cultural groups. “Importantly, these design moves addressed immediate and long-term public health concerns identified within the architectural epidemiology framework: exposure to air pollution, thermal vulnerability, mental health stressors and pedestrian safety risks.”
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