4.
Documents in this section illustrate strategies and best practices for designing with human and environmental health in mind, by using protocols developed exclusively by the Healthy Materials Lab at Parsons.
Set Goals
Healthier Materials & Sustainable Buildings | C3: Healthier Materials Design & Specification
FIRST PRINCIPLES
10 PRINCIPLES FOR ACHIEVING HEALTHIER DESIGNS Designing with health in mind is complicated. With so many variables, how do you begin approaching healthier design? These principles can act as a starting point, explaining key elements that can help you be most effective in achieving your health goals.
1. Start Considering Material Health Early
Consider ways to direct the design toward healthier options. Before you start exploring specific products, research broader material categories so you know where to focus later on.
2. Include All Teams, Stakeholders, and Contractors in the Process
Start discussing material health early. Make sure the entire team is familiar with the health goals and will help to implement them throughout the length of the project.
3. Engage the Users or Occupants Before, During, and After Construction A building is only as healthy as the people who use it.
4. Specify Both Proprietary Products and Health Criteria to Avoid Substitutions
Including health criteria in your specifications will help to reinforce your goals, and to ensure that the construction team won’t substitute healthy materials with less healthy alternatives.
5. Simplify the Materials Palette
Avoid unnecessary materials that could potentially introduce hazards. Ask yourself “do I need this?” or “can the material remain unfinished?” The healthiest product is often no product at all.
6. Know What to Avoid
Some unhealthy materials are not necessary and are not worth considering. Avoiding these will let you focus your effort on researching the health of more nuanced material categories.
7. Consider How Design Intentions Impact Material Decisions
How do visual, aesthetic, and performance-based considerations further narrow your field of healthier options?
8. Detail to Avoid Adhesives and Sealants Wherever Possible
Not only are adhesives commonly high in toxic chemicals, but using mechanical joinery makes it easier to disassemble materials at the end of their usage, allowing them to be reused or recycled.
9. Detail to Prevent Mold and Pest Infestation
Incorporate Integrated Pest Management (IPM) principles and moisture-control measures into the design process.
10. The Building Is Not Done When Construction Is Complete, It Is Born
Consider a building’s performance through its occupation and maintenance. Upfront design decisions will have effects in the building’s long-term life. Citations Amatruda, John, and Suzanne Drake. “First Principles.” Presentation for Healthy Materials Lab online course, New York, NY. 2018.
Healthy Materials Lab, 2018
Spring 2019
Healthier Materials & Sustainable Buildings | C4: Executing a Healthier Project
Set Goals
OBSTACLES & STRATEGIES 5 MAJOR OBSTACLES IN ACHIEVING HEALTHIER DESIGNS
Prioritizing the importance of health as well as factors like budget and schedule can be an unfamiliar process. Below are a few of the primary obstacles that you may face, as well as strategies to help overcome them.
1
OBSTACLE: RESEARCH TIME Challenge: The research required to find healthier material options can be incredibly challenging Strategy: Make a road map for product evaluation that standardizes data collection.
2
OBSTACLE: MATERIAL ADDITIVES Challenge: So called “natural,” “simple,” and “pure” materials often contain the additives, sealants, and finishes to enhance their performance properties. Strategy: Embrace the aesthetic and properties of natural, unfinished materials, and use them when possible.
3
OBSTACLE: PRIORITIES Challenge: Clients often prioritize budget and schedule over interior environments. Strategy: Explain quantifiable benefits (like fewer sick days, more productivity, and better performance). Challenge: Clients that aren’t fully on board with health goals Strategy: Take a positive approach. Discuss the benefits of a healthier building instead of the problems you can solve. Strategy: Categorize goals by their feasibility, and focus on the products that require more research time and not more money.
4
OBSTACLE: PROCUREMENT Challenge: Healthier materials can be harder to get than less healthy alternatives. Strategy: Identify your highest impact materials. Examine this list for any materials that may be difficult to procure, and bring these to the attention of the contractor as early as possible so they can get them to the site. Challenge: Many contractors are not yet familiar with prioritizing health goals. Strategy: Sit down with your contractor and subcontractors at the outset of the project and make your goals clear. Challenge: When the pressures of construction are high, contractors typically default to the most straightforward material options, which are not usually the healthiest ones. Strategy: A meeting early on in which you review materials procurement, protocols, and potential roadblocks an help ensure that contractors aren’t scrambling later on in the project.
Citations Dorf, Aaron, and Dennis Rijikhoff. “Major Obstacles in Practice Today.” Presentation for Healthy Materials Lab online course, New York, NY. 2018.
Healthy Materials Lab, 2018
Healthier Materials & Sustainable Buildings | C4: Executing a Healthier Project
Construct
RISK AND LIABILITY
REFERENCE: AIA WHITE PAPER: MATERIALS TRANSPARENCY & RISK FOR ARCHITECTS: AN INTRODUCTION TO ADVANCING PROFESSIONAL ETHICS WHILE MANAGING PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY RISKS INTRODUCTION, QUOTED FROM THE AIA The information revolution is changing societal and professional dynamics; information that was once considered confidential or simply hard to find is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. As a result, what might once have seemed like an unrealistic expectation—that suppliers should share information about the ingredients in their products—has been turned on its head. Now the question is more often, “Why shouldn’t suppliers share all product information?” and “What can I do with this information now that I have it?” This white paper covers: the evolving landscape of transparency in product contents the opportunity these changes represent for architects to help expose and thereby reduce hazardous substances, and to position themselves to serve their clients proactively • the actual and perceived risk of added exposure to legal liability that comes with that opportunity • strategies for communicating with clients, modifying contract documents, and collaborating with technical experts to manage the risks involved. • •
Within the realm of product content transparency, this White Paper aims to provide the context and background needed to engage intelligently with basic legal and practice questions. But it does not aspire to educate the reader on how to interpret an ingredient disclosure document, nor how to assess the impact of the hazard warnings that such a document might contain. As architects should explain to their clients, such interpretations and assessments should be performed by qualified material scientists, toxicologists, or industrial hygienists, according to the Materials & Risk Task Group of AIA’s Materials Knowledge Working Group.
LINK TO WHITE PAPER https://www.aia.org/resources/7956-materials-transparency-and-risk-for-architect
Citations Malin, Nadav and Candace Pearson. Materials Transparency & Risk for Architects: An Introduction to Advancing Professional Ethics While Managing Professional Liability Risks. Washington DC: AIA. 2016.
Healthy Materials Lab, 2018
Healthier Materials & Sustainable Buildings | C3: Healthier Materials Design & Specification Set Goals
BEST PRACTICES
Adapted from The Collaborative for High Performance School’s “Best Practices Manual”
DESIGNING PROJECTS BASED ON HIGH PERFORMANCE SCHOOLS
The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) works to foster well-designed, operated, and maintained school facilities. In their Best Practices Manual (BPM), CHPS provides guidelines for achieving high performance school designs. As with other guidelines and standards, the criteria for high performance schools can act as a model for achieving healthy, sustainable projects of any type.
Design with the whole building in mind. Optimize
Set goals early.
Protect indoor air quality. Eliminate and
Optimize acoustics.
Install high performance lighting and controls. Using
Protect indoor air quality. Optimize
Choose materials wisely. Consider the ma-
Conserve water.
Commission the school. A commissioning
Use sustainable construction practices. Minimize
performance and cost by involving all disciplines in planning.
control sources of contamination and provide adequate ventilation.
effective and less electric lighting can save a lot of energy.
Control and reduce water runoff from the site, consume fresh water efficiently, and recover and reuse gray water.
Use efficient portable classrooms. Though popular due to their low intial cost, some compromise health and money with low-quality designs.
Citations Collaborative for High Performance Schools. “Volume I: Planning” in Best Practices Manual. 2006. “What We Do.” Collaborative for High Performance Schools, https://chps.net/what-we-do.
Healthy Materials Lab, 2018
Outline design goals with the entire team as early as possible, no later than the programming phase.
Consider acoustics during design, particularly in designing the building envelope and locating HVAC systems.
performance and consider ease of control.
agent will assess the project to ensure that building systems are operating as they are meant to.
Train the staff and maintain the building. Maintenance and operations play a key role in a building’s continued health.
Choose and develop the site wisely.
Consider possible hazards, orientation, and ecosystem preservation.
Incorporate daylighting.
Daylit spaces can lead to higher occupant performance and reduced energy costs.
terials’ potential effects on the indoor air quality as well as environmental impact.
C&D waste and protect IAQ and the site during construction.
For more information, see Volume I: Planning of the CHPS Best Practices Manual.