Salutogenese – Das Jahrbuch der KIT-Fakultät für Architektur 2021

Good design or an emotional design?
Luciana Alanis
Nicolás Carbonare
Isabel Miño-Rodriguez
Romina Rissetto
Prof. Andreas Wagner
Climate change significantly influences several aspects of
indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and, consequently, exacerbates
health issues. As the world’s climate changes, poor
indoor environment risks include but are not limited to
more frequent high indoor temperature, more frequent outdoor
heat waves, changes in indoor air pollutant levels, and
increased indoor dampness and mould. Furthermore, it
is estimated that the population spend around 90% of their
time inside buildings. Thus, the importance and current
challenge faced by architectural designers is to promote
healthy and pleasant environments through efficient use of
available resources to improve occupants’ wellbeing, both
at the city level as discussed by Peter Zeile (See page 46–57)
or building level as presented in this article.
Architectural design defines the essential building
component; hence, the quality of the indoor environment
is highly dependent on those decisions. For instance, largewindowed
buildings allow pleasant views and interaction
with the surrounding context but also increase the risk of
poor thermal comfort (e.g. cold or warm environments),
reduced visual comfort (e.g. glare), and poor acoustic comfort.
Besides, occupants might operate these windows to
restore comfort in different ways based on personal preferences,
daily routine, or habits and as a response to contextual
elements and spatial characteristics.
Human perception and behaviour in the indoor
environment result from the complex interaction of different,
recurring, and combined multidomain effects involving
thermal, visual, olfactory, and acoustics stimuli. Envisioning
architecture as an instrument to promote health from a
58 Diskurs