Sustaining health and well-being in the built environment

Public health is strongly interconnected with the physical, social, and economic environment, and with people's needs, preferences, and behaviours. Physical factors affect human health and well-being (e.g., temperature, light, sound, air), as much as spatial qualities (e.g., physical activity, active communities), and feelings of safety and security (e.g., mental health, restoration). The design, operation and maintenance of the built environment can reduce health threats to inhabitants, allowing them to flourish and thrive. Yet, although human factors are starting to be implemented in building criteria and rating tools (e.g., Flourish Wheel, WELL Building Standard, etc.), comprehensive frameworks are needed to combine metrics and methods, and systematically evaluate health and well-being in buildings. This can allow to recommend guidelines and interventions that policy-makers can adopt to improve standards in the building stock, including housing that is today a crucial public health priority. This research critically consolidates existing metrics and methods to benchmark health and well-being in built spaces and proposes, through a wide interdisciplinary perspective, a robust and practical set of tools to support human experience and outcomes within the built environment. The study first elaborates on the common definitions of health and well-being in buildings. Through a systematic review, using the PRISMA and PICOC approaches, health and well-being metrics and methods are then identified. A framework and post-occupancy evaluation protocol are then developed, to be implemented within an interactive tool. The protocol can be used as a toolkit to, holistically, measure and benchmark health and well-being in buildings in use. The tool brings the evaluation toolkit together and provides recommendations. This study wishes to offer a valuable contribution towards securing public health, improving the qualities of the habitats that sustain a large part of our daily life. KEY MESSAGES: • Physical environment affect human health and well-being through physical factors, spatial qualities, and feelings of safety and security. • Measuring and benchmarking health and well-being in buildings and providing recommendations contribute to securing public health of the inhabitants, and improving the qualities of the habitats.