11.E. Workshop: Healthy Buildings: interdisciplinary perspectives

The Workshop titled “Healthy Buildings: interdisciplinary perspectives” - proposed and developed by the three EUPHA Section: Urban Public Health (URB), Public Mental Health (MEN) and Environmental Health (ENV) - is aimed to foster the dialogue between designers (architects and urban planners), Public Health experts (operators, professionals and epidemiologists), policy/decision makers and buildings’ users, to establish a multidisciplinary approach for understanding together how to create and manage healthy living indoor environments (both housing and complex constructions/public buildings). The Workshops mainly address both the “Climate emergency / Environment and health / Urban health” and the “Mental health” EPH23 conference topics. The Workshops purpose is to explore the relationship between housing conditions, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Mental Health implications on human well-being. In fact, time spent at home and in the indoor environment increased due to the recent COVID-19 lockdown period, and social-sanitary emergencies are expected to grow due to the urbanization phenomenon. Thus, the role of the physical environment in which we live, study, and work, has become of crucial importance, as the literature has recently highlighted. The Workshops program include inputs which they argue current experiences, emerging practices and scientific outcomes related to the Urban Health discipline. From Sustainable Development Goals framework, in “Urban environment, unhealthy buildings as a root of inequalities and importance of SDGs”, to Indoor Environmental Quality implications, in “Can housing conditions and features affect well-being? A review through Indoor Environmental Quality aspects and Mental Health implications”. From experience-based works related to specific functions, in “Can the built environment impact on the health and well-being of people with dementia? Evidence from Literature and Stakeholders Involvement”, to Indoor Air Quality emerging issue, in “Buildings, air quality and mental health conditions: a review of intervention studies”. KEY MESSAGES: • Explore the relationship between housing conditions, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Mental Health implications on users well-being. • Establish a multidisciplinary approach for understanding together how to create and manage healthy living indoor environments (both housing and complex constructions/public buildings).