The latest trends in the building industry go beyond water and energy efficient to improve our daily lives.
Everyone knows that their doctors play an essential role in their health. However, building managers can also play an equal role to guarantee your safety and health.
But how do they do this? It starts from a startling stat that 90 percent of all Americans spend their time indoors. But what we breathe indoors is over two time’s toxic than what we breathe outside. All this is due to poor ventilation, an off-gassing toxic chemical from furniture to carpeting.
The green building movement has expanded from small houses through to luxury apartment homes. It creates focus on reducing energy and water use to a holistic approach on how the specific building affects people living in them.
In the building, health is the new sustainability. The goal is to make our building environment safer and healthy for people.
These efforts include increasing activity levels of house occupants and improving indoor air quality. The architects strive to reduce noise, enhance the quality of water, maximize light and regulate overall temperature.
The resultant benefits are worth the effort. Numerous studies show that healthy buildings increases employee productivity, reduces illnesses and offers fantastic workplace satisfaction.
The following are key drivers to a healthy luxury building movement.
The Air We Breathe
The dominant response to the energy crisis in the 1970’s was to seal up all our buildings. The purpose was to reduce cooling and heating loads. However, stagnant air was the unintended consequence.
As a result, most houses are under-ventilated despite years of scientific research suggesting that it should be done otherwise.
Most building developers aim for minimum acceptable standards, not optimal ventilation rates. But not anymore!
Luxury apartment developers are improving on ventilation capacity of every home. Doing so helps enhance cognitive function among home dwellers.
But how does ventilation improve your health? Scientific research shows that rising carbon dioxide and humidity levels make people feel tired and stuffy.
More Natural Light
Historically, among the biggest complaint by most occupants revolves around lighting. Some claim that it’s dark as a tomb. Others find harsh fluorescents blasting.
Architects and designers are making better use of all the natural light. Such tasks include dimmers, timers, and lighting. It not only helps save energy but also makes occupants happier and productive.
Some luxury apartment developers use lighting designs that link to daily body cycles in response to outdoor light. For instance, a blue-enriched light during the day resembles daylight and is known to improve the quality of sleep at night. The same can be attained by using the best bulb design.
Building for Resilience
Most luxury homes are built to cope with natural calamities and threats emanating from changing climatic conditions.
Such may include moving critical systems and functions outside the flood zones.
Developers are also ensuring that their homes are safe for all occupants after losing power. Such include the installation of windows that can be operated manually in an emergency.
