Healthy Materials for Human Wellbeing by MaterialDriven
We are more and more aware of the impact that materials are having on our environment, taking care to understand key parameters such as the carbon footprint, recyclability, and embodied energy before these are selected and specified for projects. But if we look even further, we should also strive to improve the impact that these materials have on human health and wellbeing. The practice of incorporating and institutionalizing the potential human health impacts of building products into architectural design has yet to become a common practice.
Architects, designers, constructors, and contractors, still remain at large in the dark about the composition and chemical make-up of materials, and their effects on our health. By empowering practitioners to better understand the materials and products they use, reduced health impacts can be achieved for all of those implicated in the process: building occupants, those constructing the buildings, the workers manufacturing the materials, and the ones reusing and disposing of the material.
Society generally spends most of the day indoors, where the concentration of pollutants is between two and five times greater than the levels encountered outdoors, according to the EPA. Therefore, shifting the architectural and building industry toward less toxic materials is essential to ensure healthy future generations. By incorporating materials that improve air quality, have no red-listed chemicals, or that introduce natural elements into our homes we can radically transform our spaces to be safe and healthy.
MaterialDriven's curation attempts to explore what makes a material healthy and present which healthy materials are commercially available as well as those in development, while exposing those chemicals and components that should be avoided. We will also introduce the range of certifications and labels that help architects, designers and constructors makes better, healthier, choices when specifying materials for their projects.
materialdriven.com
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