Health Issues and Your Home Design

When I ask people about how their home environment may be affecting their health, most folks give me an inquisitive and confused or uncertain look or response – I don’t understand the question, can you clarify? Some people interpret this question to be related to their interpersonal relationship with family members. Others focus only on some more common historical household ailments such as mold, lead, and asbestos. Through this blog post, I am hoping to expand the awareness of how the design of your home may be impacting different aspects of your health.

To begin with, the environmental conditions of the home are formed by the design of the house. Environmental conditions provide all of the natural elements that you might experience on a daily basis, such as sunlight, heat, air, sounds, visual beauty, moisture, etc. Each of these environmental elements connects with your body through the senses and interpretations of the physical information occurs through the mind. Your physiological and psychological state of being is directly influenced by your environment at all times.

Health conditions range greatly and include different symptoms, root causes, and treatments or remedies. Integrative medicine combines eastern traditional approaches (such as acupuncture, homeopathic herbal treatments, meditation, and mindfulness, etc.) with western medicine techniques (such as chemical doses, radiology diagnostics, surgeries, etc.). Holistic health practices will include aspects of both eastern and western approaches in combination with other lifestyle shifts – such as your own rituals and daily practices of diet, exercise, rest, and other activities. Holistic health practice will also include addressing aspects of your environment that may be aggravating or further challenging your health.

The interrelationships between health and the design of your home are intricate and can be analyzed from either starting point. You can begin with your health and identify what symptoms you are experiencing. Health issues might include mobility and physical health, emotional and mental well-being, stress levels, energy and alertness levels, circadian rhythm and sleep quality, focus and concentration abilities, asthmatic and allergy symptoms, and more. Each of these issues can be alleviated or improved through aspects of home or workspace design.

Mobility and physical health can be improved through appropriate ergonomics of furnishings and space planning of rooms, appliances, and fixtures. Emotional and mental well-being can be improved through the aesthetics of your live and workspaces to connect your senses in a more peaceful and calming way. This might include integration of nature and biophilic design, decluttered environments and minimal aesthetic, grounding elements with earthen colors and textures, dampened acoustics for softer sounds, and other design elements based on the specific mental conditions that need to be mediated. Having a bathtub in a peaceful setting with Epsom salts alleviates physical stress and relaxes the mind. Each of these strategies will help alleviate mental stress as well. 

Energy and alertness challenges can be improved with appropriate thermal conditions and adequate daylight. These challenges also connect to sleep quality and circadian rhythm, which can be improved with appropriate natural daylighting in the home and workspace in combination with appropriate darkness and quiet environment in the bedroom at night. Passive solar design strategies will aid the thermal quality of the home throughout the year while also keeping utility bills down. Daylight design strategies need to be customized to the geographic location and climate conditions as these are heavily dependent on seasonal light levels and orientation of fenestration. Acoustics of the design can be addressed through material selection and spatial geometries as well as wall and floor system design, incorporating appropriating sound dampening insulation to prevent noise transfer from space to space throughout the house.

Focus and concentration abilities can be improved with clarity in the design of spaces based on the intended task or activity. For workspaces, maintaining a decluttered and minimal environment with appropriate light levels and minimizing unwanted noise, vibrations, or other visual distractions will help immensely for focus and concentration. The ability to focus and concentrate is sometimes connected to the quality of sleep as well, which was addressed earlier.

Asthmatic and allergy symptoms are closely associated with the microbiome, or the localized space you spend time that has its own characteristics of microbes and particles. Indoor and outdoor spaces have very different microbiomes. The outdoor environment of green spaces is shown to provide the healthiest microbiome for humans, generally speaking, though certain people have sensitivities to pollens and seasonal allergies. The outdoor environment of urban spaces can sometimes be challenged by the concentration levels of particulate matter and problematic air quality laden with carbon dioxides and nitrogen oxides.

The indoor environment has its own challenges with dust particles and other chemicals that may be off-gassing from furnishings, paints, materials, and products over time. The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are commonly found in indoor air are very problematic for lung health. Other indoor contaminants may be sourced from mold and mildew when there is water damage of materials in the home. If you are experiencing headaches and fatigue, or frequent sneezing, there may be a localized air quality issue in your home or workspace. Designing with healthy materials and integrating adequate natural and mechanical ventilation are the best strategies for improving asthmatic and allergy symptoms.

However, the way the interior is detailed can influence the amount of dust that can collect on different surfaces and crevasses and the overall ease of cleanability and maintenance. Using minimal and modern design aesthetic on the interior spaces eliminates the use of detailed moldings and trim and reduces the amounts of small cracks and ledges that dust can collect upon. Otherwise, having very regular and rigorous cleaning routines with healthy cleaning products will improve the indoor air quality. Considerations should also be given to the linens and bedding to ensure hypoallergenic products.

Your personal daily rituals, habits, and practices also inform your health and well-being. The design of your live and workspaces can be choreographed and spatialized in ways to encourage particular activities and flows throughout your daily routines. Morning and evening routines help improve your wake-up and wind-down in an intentional way for the body and mind. Identifying quiet spaces in your home for these morning and evening routines of meditation, gratitude, reading, and drinking tea will benefit these practices. Incorporating an entry hall, enclosed porch, mudroom, or vestibule at your home’s entrance will encourage household members to have a place to remove shoes before going into the home. This will help reduce contaminants, fungi, and microbes that are unhealthy and are easily tracked around with bottoms of shoes.

These are just some basic examples of how to begin to think about the connections between the design of your home environments to your health and well-being. There are many others that can be revealed and discussed. In addition, customized design solutions to assist recovery or treatment stages of certain illnesses can be very beneficial to the overall timeframe and quality of healing that takes place. Ultimately, incorporating holistic health considerations within the design of your home and workspaces can provide you with long-term, sustainable environments for health and well-being. Changes in your home design go beyond diagnostic ailments and treatments to provide a stable and beautiful environment that encourages and supports a healthy and happy life.

If you have any questions about how the design of your home may be affecting your health and well-being, reach out to AIDA, LLC today for a consultation.You can always find more information and healthy home resources at Aletheia Ida Design and Architecture, LLC (AIDA, LLC) at www.aletheiaida.com.