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Allergen
Free Housing
for the 21st Century Senate Suite, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow Thursday, May 16th 2002 9.30am - 1.00pm | ||||||||||||||||||
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A vitally important seminar for policy makers, housing specialists, clients and architects - involved in health & welfare, housing design, access, procurement and remediation. The Seminar is sponsored by BAXI, www.baxi.co.uk | ||||||||||||||||||
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One in 25 adults and one in 7 children in the UK currently suffers from asthma. Recent research indicates that, in Scotland, the occurrence of childhood asthma has risen by 7% in the last 3 years. Yet much of this might be avoidable by available and affordable improvements in design, specification and ventilation of homes. This seminar will include a discussion of building materials and their impact on health, investigate the role of the built environment in creating allergic reactions, present evidence from an investigation of allergy sufferers in their own homes, and look at practical measures for problem avoidance. |
The project partners are concerned to promote a better understanding of the role of buildings in allergy and to ensure that appropriate attention is given in housing design to breathing related disability, as with other forms of disability. Action on the subject is timely, because of the significant rise in asthma and because of ongoing discussions about how changes to the Building Regulations might promote sustainable construction & sustainable development. A number of past reviews have suggested that radical changes to the scope of the Regulations might be required if the health of occupants and the environment is to be secured & improved. The problem can no longer be ignored. | |||||||||||||||||
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Gaia Architects, Gaia Research & the University of Strathclyde's Built Environment Research Group - CEDAR, are collaborating on research into the design of affordable Low Allergy Housing. The research relates to the design of low allergy houses by Gaia Architects for a housing cooperative client. The design, presently out to tender, includes 5 houses with dynamic insulation and 5 with Baxi whole house ventilation. An affordable low allergy housing specification would be a major contribution to improved health and well-being for the large, and increasing, number of highly disadvantaged people with housing related allergies and asthma. The work builds on many initiatives by Gaia Architects to promote healthy materials, buildings & communities as principal aspects of sustainable development. By looking at new-build it also builds on the extensive research undertaken by CEDAR into allergy & asthma in existing housing. The aim is an improved quality of life for all asthma and allergy sufferers, and their carers. In design terms it means avoiding where possible known and suspected building related allergens and minimising the conditions in which they can have an adverse impact.
The research project has the support of the Department of Trade & Industry, through its Partners in Innovation Scheme, and the RIBA, through a research award to Barbara Chapman of Gaia Architects. The seminar is sponsored by Baxi. | ||||||||||||||||||
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