When people hear that I’m a Building Biologist the first question is often “What’s a Building Biologist?” I say something like “A Building Biologist is someone who looks at a built space - whether it’s a home, school or place of work and assesses it for everything that directly affects the health of the people who spend time there. This includes things like building materials, electromagnetic fields, air and water quality.” In short, a Building Biologist is a House Doctor and Building Biology leads the way in the field of holistic home health, offering a systematic and reliable approach to making spaces safe and nurturing.
Building Biology (or Baubiologie) was started in Germany during the post-World War II reconstruction. The German government built many homes with cement because the material was readily available, making building homes on a mass scale quick and easy. After several years, they found that many of the inhabitants were no longer using the homes. They were sleeping and living outside because the cement structures were making them sick. A multidisciplinary team of architects, doctors and engineers was organized to study the unusual illness patterns. The studies they produced found that the rapid construction of the buildings gave the materials insufficient time to off-gas various volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Additionally, they found a variety of problems with the hastily installed electrical systems. They concluded that post war building construction materials and techniques were associated with toxicity and ill-health for some occupants and the term “sick building syndrome” was coined.
Building Biology continued to develop in Europe for more then 30 years when Helmut Ziehe first brought it to North America in 1983. Environmental guidelines and measurement protocols were established to help create homes and buildings that supported the health of the occupants. Engineers, environmental technicians and doctors used scientific studies to develop today’s Building Biology Evaluation Guidelines for Sleeping Areas and established their Guiding Principle: Any risk reduction is worth aiming for. Nature is the ultimate standard. These guidelines focused on the bedroom where people typically spend a third of their lives and creating a healthy surrounding environment during sleep when most of the body’s healing and rejuvenation takes place. A good night’s sleep is essential to daily mental and physical performance as well as long term health. By today’s standards, the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests up to 30% of new and remodeled buildings worldwide may be the cause of “sick building syndrome” and complaints related to poor indoor air quality.
Now you might be asking, how are Building Biologists different from a home inspector, a LEED or Energy Star inspector or anyone else helping you with maintaining and updating your home? Building Biology takes a holistic approach based on 25 Principles that steer decision making.
The 25 Building Biology Principles
Source: Building Biology Institute
Site and Community Design
1. Verify that the site is free of naturally occurring and man-made health hazards.
2. Place dwellings so occupants are undisturbed by sources of man-made air, soil, water, noise and electro-pollution.
3. Place dwellings in well-planned communities that provide ample access to fresh air, sunshine and nature.
4. Plan homes and developments considering the needs of community, families and individuals of all ages.
Occupant Health and Well-Being
5. Use natural and unadulterated building materials.
6. Allow natural self-regulation of indoor air humidity using hygroscopic (humidity buffering) building materials.
7. Assure low total moisture content and rapid desiccation of wet construction processes in new buildings.
8. Design for a climatically appropriate balance between thermal insulation and thermal storage capacity.
9. Plan for climatically appropriate surface and air temperature.
10. Provide for ample ventilation.
11. Use appropriate thermal radiation strategies for heating buildings including passive solar wherever viable.
12. Provide an abundance of well-balanced natural light and illumination while using color in accordance with nature.
13. Provide adequate acoustical protection from harmful noise and vibration.
14. Utilize non-toxic building materials that have neutral or pleasant natural scents.
15. Use appropriate water and moisture exclusion techniques to prevent interior growth of fungi, bacteria, dust and allergens.
16. Assure best possible water quality by applying purification technologies if required.
17. Utilize physiological and ergonomic knowledge in interior and furniture design.
18. Consider proportion, harmonic measure, order and shape in design.
Natural and Man-Made Electromagnetic Radiation Safety
19. Minimize indoor interference with vital cosmic and terrestrial radiation.
20. Minimize man-made power system and radio frequency radiation exposure generated from within the building and from outside sources.
21. Avoid use of building materials that have elevated radioactivity levels.
Environmental Protection, Social Responsibility and Energy Efficiency
22. Construction materials production and building processes shall provide for health and social well-being in every phase of the building’s life cycle.
23. Avoid the use of building materials that deplete irreplaceable natural resources or are being harvested in an unsustainable manner.
24. Minimize energy consumption throughout the life of the building utilizing climate-based and energy efficient design, energy and water saving technologies and renewable energy.
25. Consider the embodied energy and environmental life cycle costs when choosing all materials used in construction.
These guidelines help to assure a dwelling is life-enhancing for all its inhabitants and not detrimental to its builders, with as little disruption to the environment as possible. They apply to new construction as well as to renovations.
Has Building Biology piqued your interest? I’d love to hear from you!