Healthy Buildings and Post-Pandemic Planning and Design - REGULAR

Healthy Buildings and Post-Pandemic Planning and Design

This webinar is part of the RAIC 2022 Virtual Conference on Architecture, now available to stream!

Topics: Design, COVID-19

Length: 1.5 hours | What's Included: Video, Quiz, and Certificate of Completion 

The current COVID-19 pandemic caused society to shelter in place, only to find that our shelters may not be as secure and safe as expected – physiologically and psychologically. Current buildings utilize legacy designs, systems and techniques; and have largely remained unchanged despite health and environmental concerns such as IAQ, radiation, pathogen, poisons, toxins, and socio-psychological factors. Health is the new wealth, and accumulating real estate capital has proven to be futile if they are unhealthy. How could and should future buildings be healthier? The current pandemic has caused us to limit occupancies in buildings and the legacy designs have proven inadequate to sustain healthy living and activities. There is no globally accepted definition for Healthy Buildings. This session will report on current efforts to define Healthy Buildings and how architects can contribute towards a new post-pandemic future.

Learning Objectives:

By the completion of this session, participants will be able to:

• Identify current issues impacting the health and wellbeing of occupants in Canadian buildings; 
• Define what is Healthy Building in the Canadian context; 
• Discuss what are the desired principles for a Healthy Building; 
• Apply Healthy Building principles and concepts into design, systems and materials selection and methods of construction of Canadian buildings. 

Subject Matter Expert:

Yew-Thong Leong is Associate Professor at Ryerson University, Founding Executive Director of the Centre for Healthy Housing, and Managing Director of ssg architecture inc. A graduate of the Pratt Institute, NYC, he has taught and practiced concurrently for over 3 decades. He has designed clinical and research labs in the life sciences, healthcare and long-term care facilities and specialized housing.