Towards new methods and ways to create healthy and comfortable buildings

Many ways, tools and concepts have been developed to determine performance indicators and criteria for healthy and comfortable buildings, focusing in general on the prevention of health and comfort problems. Perhaps the most important observation in these ways, tools and concepts is the fact that because dose-response relations in general are incomplete, most indicators do not seem to be useful. A second observation is the fact that interactions occurring at different levels (at human level, parameters of the indoor environment and at building level) are not taken into account. Moreover, the time-frame taken is often static (at a certain point in time) and not dynamic. Comparing static performance indicators with a dynamic process (being exposed in a building) will therefore most likely result in a non-valid outcome. And last but not least it is observed that the perception of positive stimuli are in general not considered. There is a need for a different or at least an adapted approach towards evaluation of health and comfort of occupants in the indoor environment: an integrative multi-disciplinary approach taking account of positive and negative stimuli and concerned with "real" needs of people. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.