The set of parameters — CO₂, PM2.5, volatile organic compounds, relative humidity — that determine whether the air in a home supports or degrades the health of its occupants.
Definition
A poorly ventilated luxury home pushes past 1,400 ppm of CO₂ in a bedroom with the door closed: worse sleep and morning fatigue with no obvious cause.
Design acts on three fronts: mechanical ventilation with filtration, low-emission materials and adhesives, and sensors that let you verify the result in real use.
Related entities
Biophilic design: A design strategy that reintroduces natural patterns — light, planting, living materials, water, views — into built space to improve the wellbeing of the people who use it. (Linked · Shared pages · Cross-mentioned)
WELL Building Standard: A certification system that assesses how a building affects human health across ten concepts: air, water, nourishment, light, movement, thermal comfort, sound, materials, mind and community. (Linked · Shared pages)
Natural materials: Stone, solid timber, lime, linen, wool and brass: mineral or plant-based materials that age into patina instead of degrading. (Linked · Shared pages)
Passivhaus: An international ultra-low-energy building standard based on continuous insulation, airtightness, absence of thermal bridges and heat-recovery ventilation. (Linked · Shared pages · Cross-mentioned)
Energy retrofit: Work on an existing building to cut its energy demand and emissions: envelope, windows, heat-recovery ventilation and electrification of building services. (Linked · Shared pages · Cross-mentioned)
Architectural acoustics: The discipline that controls how sound behaves inside a space: reverberation, speech intelligibility, isolation between rooms and background noise from services. (Shared pages)