Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance And Productivity

A New York Times Favorite Book Of The Year For Healthy Livinga Fortune Best Book Of The Yearan Aia New York Book Of The Yearthis Book Should Be Essential Reading For All Who Commission, Design, Manage, And Use Buildingsindeed Anyone Who Is Interested In A Healthy Environment.Norman Fosteras Schools And Businesses Around The World Consider When And How To Reopen Their Doors To Fight Covid19, The Director Of Harvards Healthy Buildings Program And Harvard Business Schools Leading Expert On Urban Resilience Reveal What You Can Do To Harness The Power Of Your Offices, Homes, And Schools To Protect Your Healthand Boost Every Aspect Of Your Performance And Wellbeing.Ever Feel Tired During A Meeting? Thats Because Most Conference Rooms Are Not Bringing In Enough Fresh Air. When That Door Opens, It Literally Breathes Life Back Into The Room. But There Is A Lot More Acting On Your Body That You Cant Feel Or See. From Our Offices And Homes To Schools, Hospitals, And Restaurants, The Indoor Spaces Where We Work, Learn, Play, Eat, And Heal Have An Outsized Impact On Our Performance And Wellbeing. They Affect Our Creativity, Focus, And Problemsolving Ability And Can Make Us Sickjeopardizing Our Future And Dragging Down Profits In The Process.Charismatic Pioneers Of The Healthy Building Movement Who Have Paired Up To Combine The Cuttingedge Science Of Harvards School Of Public Health With The Financial Knowhow Of The Harvard Business School, Joseph Allen And John Macomber Make A Compelling Case In This Urgently Needed Book For Why Every Business And Home Owner Should Make Certain Relatively Lowcost Investments A Top Priority. Grounded In Exposure And Risk Science And Relevant To Anyone Newly Concerned About How Their Surroundings Impact Their Health, Healthy Buildings Can Help You Evaluate The Impact Of Small, Easily Controllable Environmental Fluctuations On Your Immediate Wellbeing And Longterm Reproductive And Lung Health. It Shows How Our Indoor Environment Can Have A Dramatic Impact On A Whole Host Of Higher Order Cognitive Functionsincluding Things Like Concentration, Strategic Thinking, Troubleshooting, And Decisionmaking. Study After Study Has Found That Your Performance Will Dramatically Improve If You Are Working In Optimal Conditions (With High Rates Of Ventilation, Few Damaging Persistent Chemicals, And Optimal Humidity, Lighting And Noise Control). So What Would It Take To Turn That Knowledge Into Action?Cutting Through The Jargon To Explain Complex Processes In Simple And Compelling Language, Allen And Macomber Show How Buildings Can Both Expose You To And Protect You From Disease. They Reveal The 9 Foundations Of A Healthy Building, Share Insider Tips, And Show How Tracking What They Call Health Performance Indicators With Smart Technology Can Boost A Companys Performance And Create Economic Value. With Decades Of Practice In Protecting Worker Health, They Offer A Clear Way Forward Right Now, And Show Us What Comes Next In A Postcovid World. While The Green Building Movement Introduced Important New Efficiencies, Its Time To Look Beyond The Four Wallsplacing The Decisions We Make Around Buildings Into The Larger Conversation Around Development And Health, And Prioritizing The Most Important And Vulnerable Asset Of Any Building: Its People.