Towards a Healthy City #2
The Building Scale
A collaboration between UNStudio and ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory
Image Credit: graphicsdunia4you / shutterstock
Date: Friday, 28 February 2020
Time: 18.30
Place: ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory, Christinenstr. 18–19, 10119 Berlin
Introduction
This second part in a series of interdisciplinary lab talks looked into concepts of health and wellbeing at the building scale. Since we are spending 80% of our time indoors, our health is at stake in the built environment. Designers, technical experts, public policymakers and employers need to ask themselves how their proposals and organisations can incentivise healthier lifestyles, which may have different meanings for different people – contributing to the physical, mental and social wellbeing of building occupants.
During this lab talk, we discussed how environments can be shaped, while also taking into account the needs of minorities, the ‘unhealthy’ and disadvantaged. How can architecture prevent discomfort, disease and accidents, as well as stress, loneliness and generally poor mental health? How should we interpret user-data for reliable and useful insights into sustainable building operations, economical maintenance and healthy indoor climate, in a responsible manner? This discussion included a look at all building types, with a particular focus on learning- and workspaces and new ‘campus’ models.
Karen Lee’s book Fit Cities. My Quest to Improve the World’s Health and Wellness – Including Yours is available online at buecher.de.
Programme
Welcome
Hans-Jürgen Commerell Director, ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory, Berlin 00:00–02:51
Machteld Kors Director Communications, UNStudio Amsterdam 02:51–07:33
Video © Reframe
Programme
Lectures
Karen Lee Associate Professor of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, University of Alberta and author of the book Fit Cities, Edmonton 00:00:00–00:25:28
Trevor Keeling Associate, BuroHappold Engineering, London 00:25:28–00:42:29
Mazda Adli Psychiatrist and Stress Researcher, Fliedner Clinic/ Charité Berlin 00:42:29–01:01:19
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Programme
Discussion, moderated by
Karen Lee Associate Professor of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, University of Alberta and author of the book Fit Cities, Edmonton
Peers
Christiane Sauer Professor for Material and Design, Weißensee Academy of Art, Berlin
Ariane Stracke Senior Architect and Associate, UNStudio, Amsterdam
Jeff Povlo Managing Director, SCAPE, Amsterdam
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Background
The interdisciplinary Towards a healthy city lab talk series will look at the built environment as a whole as factor for health production and optimisation. The project aims to find out how to enable a healthier living environment, while taking into account implications and challenges of connecting communities, spaces, policies and technology to improve the living conditions and health of the cities’ citizens. Much as the discourse around construction, engineering, the urban fabric and the building envelope is focused on a scientifically quantifiable notion of performance, the parameters by which we tend to measure health are limited by such a ‘rational’ approach. Thus, multidisciplinary strategies are used in this series to negotiate what is needed for human comfort and health.
In collaboration with UN studio.
