ITS EDUCATION ASIA ARTICLE

Considering impact of building materials

By Danny Harrington, MD ITS Education Asia

The Parson’s School of design has a cutting edge department called the Healthy Materials Lab. Recognizing that materials release chemicals and we take in much more than previously realized, the school hopes to help designers for the future have a better understanding of designing health into the very fabric of the built environment. Not only is it the right thing to do (or put another way, now we know materials harm us it cannot be morally right to build with them and laws need to catch up) but it makes sense from a holistic viewpoint on the working of social groupings. Even if you want to take a very transactional and economic lense, more harm means more illness, more healthcase costs and less productivity and so on.