YOUR HEALTH AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Its principle concern is the balance between nature, the built world and man. More precisely, it examines the interaction between all living things, their natural and built environments, particularly the impact of buildings on the health and well being of people.

Building Biology stives to holistically integrate human constructions with ecology and in this respect it sits within a Gaian sensibility of all life being in a symbiotic relationship with the Earth: a series of feedbacks and flows of a self regulating eco-system.

Building Biology springs from a positive conviction of this integration of building, environment and man. However, out of this comes a critique of the standards of the present day building industry which remains formidable: a catalogue of illness and poor health derived from building materials and constructional processes which are out of tune with our biological and psychological well being

We so often live and work in buildings containing plastics, toxic treated timber, toxic paints and glues, air that is too dry or too damp, poor ventilation and within an electric stress climate.

As a result indoor environments are created where the pollution levels are 20 times more toxic than outdoors leading to allergies, headaches, sick building syndromes and even cancers.

The use of natural and preferably local materials i.e. materials with little man made alteration to their natural state like timber, hemp blocks, earth walls and sheeps wool. This has much to do with the low level of embodied energy involved in their manufacture but also in the inherent qualities of natural materials.

Consideration should be given to colour, harmony and proportion in form and space. An understanding of proportioning systems and mans relationship with them is important in design and, when so much of green architecture is to do with building envelope, it is more important to remember that joy in form and space are equal concerns.

Finally, building biology looks at sustainable community structures, based on the above principles transposed to larger scale. It champions eco-villages as potential self-regulating eco-systems benefiting from the economies of scale that a community can offer without so many of the disadvantages that cities can bring with them.

The use of renewable energy sources, of waste recycling including composting and reed bed systems are all investigated with the intent of achieving a holistic integration of man and environment.

We on average spend up to 90% of our time in doors! Those of us that work in stress inducing environments should atleast be able to enjoy the home as a healthy and restorative refuge.

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