Silver lining: Lessons to learn 2
WE are in the second week of an enhanced community quarantine that now includes the rest of Luzon. I hope you are all healthy and safe in your own homes. As the days pass under strict quarantine, our vulnerabilities and challenges are further revealed. Substantial lessons and well- founded perceptions from different sectors regarding our readiness and response to the Covid- 19 health emergency increase.
Last week, I shared with you how proper urban planning is essential in promoting public health and in managing health emergencies. Today, I want to explain how good design and architecture can also heal and increase occupants’ well- being.
For us architects, interior designers, urban planners and engineers, the health consequences that the built environment has on people’s health have become more pronounced. As early as 400 BC, the Greek physician Hippocrates, who is deemed to be one of the most remarkable figures in the history of medicine, believed that poor physical environments contribute to the spread of disease and other illnesses. Now that we are required to practice social distancing, the extra space we might have in our homes that serve as the best kind of deterrent to the virus is a valuable resource not every family in the Philippines has. Metro Manila alone is filled with densely populated areas. Many households share very little space among several family members without proper ventilation and adequate light, which is not ideal for social distancing. Many do not even have access to basic resources like clean running water, clean toilets and wash areas, so regular hand WASHING IS ALSO DIFfiCULT TO FOLLOW.
Evidence-based design
Evidence- based design pertains to arriving at design decisions that promote health and wellbeing by using scientific evidence. Healthcare environments can be designed to be more effective if scientific research is applied. For example, there was a study on the length of stay of patients in an ICU. Patients staying in a room with and without a window were compared. Results showed that patients who stayed in a room with a window recovered much faster and were discharged more quickly.
Healing elements of architecture
Florence Nightingale, the pioneer of modern nursing, wrote in her in 1859: “Direct sunlight, not only daylight, is necessary for speedy recovery . . . All hospital buildings in this climate should be erected so that as great a surface as possible should receive direct sunlight.” She was an advocate of the curative and purifying properties of sunlight. The healing effects of exposure to daylight was further proven by a study in the that showed how depressed patients recovered faster with regular exposure to morning light.
Le Corbusier, the precursor of modern architecture and one of