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Designing healthy homes

Ewart, I. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9502-2338 (2014) Designing healthy homes. In: International Conference of Construction in a Changing World, 4-7 May 2014, Sri Lanka, pp. 587-598.

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Abstract/Summary

Recent research into the relationship between health and housing is dominated by two recurring themes: first, the influence of deprivation and poor housing conditions on measures of health (e.g. POST 2011; Thompson et al. 2009; Easterbrook 2002), and secondly the political and technological agendas that are shaping notions of healthcare at home (Steventon et al. 2012; Harris 2010). Both themes draw attention to the home as a place of sickness and care but ignore much of the socio-cultural literature on the notion of the home as a place of meaningful spaces and practices (e.g. Cieraad 2010; Daniels 2010; Manzo 2003; Easthope 2004). Investigating the links between the home and practices of wellbeing requires a more holistic understanding of how the home contributes to healthy living, beyond issues of sickness and care, to see how space is used, what practices are created and maintained and how they can be set into socio-cultural contexts. In the words of the World Health Organization, being healthy is “a state of complete physical, mental and Social wellbeing, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO 1946:2). In line with that definition, this paper advocates the need to look more closely at issues of health and wellbeing inside the home, and considers ways that we might usefully investigate the domestic environment with a view to promoting health in the widest sense as a fundamental driver for the design of the homes of the future.

Item Type:Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Refereed:Yes
Divisions:Science > School of the Built Environment > Organisation, People and Technology group
ID Code:79747

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