The creation of beautiful, natural and healthy spaces for people is a unique art. It draws on ancient and modern wisdom to create opportunities for the design of inspiring spaces in our home and working environments.

It is vital that we have an awareness of natural and healthy design considering that most people increasing spend a majority of their time indoors. As well, the conditioning of indoor spaces creates an artificial environment that can have little to no relation to the outdoor conditions and enhances the separation from our natural world. This internal environment can also be very unhealthy due to the various pollutants that it contains and is being introduced by the designer and users unsuspectingly. There are a number of studies that explore the quality of indoor air and raise that it can be up to 5x worse inside than when you are outdoors. This is of concern to me and as an architect and designer of built spaces, feel an inherent responsibility that we need to foster an awareness and education towards healthier spaces to designers and the general public.

Having studied a Masters of Architecture at Queensland University of Technology (Q.U.T.) in Brisbane, one of the sixteen universities offering this course in Australia, we learnt about Passive Solar Design principles in the earlier years of the course. I previously studied another Bachelor of Design degree (3D), which also included a ‘green’ design subject relating more towards an individual product or item within the built environment.

In Architecture school, the Passive Solar Design principles taught related to understanding, observing and translating the elements of natural light, air, breezes, rain, humidity, heat, shade and seasonal changes of the site and using these basic parameters for good building design. Beautiful responses to these conditions in the local environment are exemplified in the buildings created by some of our well-known Australian Architects like Glenn Murkett and Gabrielle Poole.

To explore these passive design factors further:

• LIGHT- allowing for the paths of the natural sun and moonlight to penetrate, illuminate, frame, highlight and help regulate the body’s natural circadian rhythms (sleep cycles).
• AIR/ BREEZES- capturing, directing and quality of fresh air and cooling breezes through a space to enhance thermal comfort levels and wellbeing.
• HEAT/SHADE- the ability for building materials and their designed assembly to block, absorb, transmute, reflect, radiate, heat and cool an internal environment
• HUMIDITY- the high or low content of moisture in the air and its qualities of dryness or moistness that it then brings to deal with in the internal environment.
• SEASONALITY- the awareness of the greater environment and response to the cycles of nature over the year, flexibility, durability and maintenance of the building materials and spaces.

There is however a need for more, to build upon these good passive design principles to deal with many new, modern day health problems that have quietly filtered into our homes and workplaces. These are through the multitude of chemicals in building material glues, sealants, finishes and subsequent off-gassing; more enclosed/sealed designs for ‘energy-efficiency’ and trend to the ‘right’ to have air-conditioned spaces everywhere (home, car, school, workplace, shops etc) and modern technological appliances (WiFi, mobile & cordless phones, ipads and smart devices, microwaves etc) and the dangerous electromagnetic radiation fields that we live in that have standards set way lower than the global standard.

This concerns me especially in relation to children as there has been no adjustment to the Australian standard set around 1990 which was before the introduction of smart phones, ipads, WiFi and other devices. As well, there is no standard for the safe use of these technologies for children, (other than the same one set out in 1990 on a male adult) and no knowledge, education or ‘safe protocols’ for their use in most Australian schools. This is very dangerous as the youngest and most vulnerable are now being exposed from an early age at school with a 6-hour exposure to elecromagnetic radiation fields through WiFi in their classrooms and their smart devices (as required by the school) without realising. There is a staggering amount of recent research that shows the increase in cancers and allergies and it is concerning that limited design changes to buildings are occurring. This type of ‘non-ionising’ radiation was also upgraded to ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’ and being a ‘risk to causing cancer’ on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) list in February 2017. Some countries like the Council of Europe, have issued a ban on WiFi in schools and recommends a wired connection. Many others have exposure limits 100 to 10,000 times less than Australia including: China, Russia, Hungary, Israel, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Bulgaria and Poland.

It is time to ensure that health for the body, peace for the spirit and harmony with the environment become part of the criteria for modern Australian building and design.

There are many ancient techniques and tools that can assist us in the pursuit of healthier building design in this modern age. These include exploring and re-learning such wisdom about natural, re-newable and sustainable materials like: hemp, clay + lime renders, appropriately sourced timbers, bamboo, cork, earth (rammed earth; mud bricks; earth floors), stone, natural/ citrus oil finishes; Feng Shui (designing in harmony with universal energies) and Geomancy (a tool that helps discern and influence the health of the ‘spirit’ of an area and its impact on human health).

As well, building on this knowledge are modern developments with better materials (ie: no/ low V.O.C. -Volatile Organic Compounds paints and sealants; recycled content materials) better material sourcing, use and life cycle practices reviewed by some industry bodies (ie: Ecospecifier; Green Building Council of Australia- GBCA; eTool); eco certification & labelling processes to highlight best practice designs when budgets allow (ie: ‘WELL’ Building Standard, Greenstar; GECA) to the introduction of new disciplines like Building Biology (specialising in identifying if a building is making you sick).

As architects and designers, we need to evolve the design of modern spaces to suit these new conditions we are presented with. It is only natural that this be towards the healthier design of spaces to enhance the wellbeing of the people inhabiting them. Improving one’s diet and lifestyle alone without a holistic review of the health of your built environment, where you spend most of your time will not provide sustainable, long-term results. The design of healthy and natural spaces is emerging as a critical factor of one’s health and wellbeing and discourse needs to be opened up to review this with the architects and designers of built spaces in Australia.