Even before the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent stay at home orders, arguments for wellness-driven interior design were commonplace, anchored in the estimation that most Americans spend about 90 percent of their time indoors and that indoor air is typically two to five times more polluted than outdoor air. Now with so many people working, learning, and socializing from home, it is safe to assume that some people living in urban areas are spending 98 to 100 percent of their time indoors.
In order to balance this confinement, ease of access to quality public, green spaces have become critical to managing mental health. And although cities are attempting to reopen the public realm safely, this pandemic has clearly highlighted the importance of healthy interior environments for all, especially low-income Black and Latinx communities that have been historically underserved in both public and private spheres.
According to the World Health Organization, the built environment accounts for 19 percent of factors that affect our health and well-being (almost equal in the impact of genetics which accounts for 20 percent). Leaders in exposomics and environmental psychology further underline the impact of our environments on our health, cognitively, psychologically, and physically. Lately, “wellness” has taken on a heightened meaning for everyone on the planet. And along with the urgency of maintaining good health, there is a resurgence of the value of connecting with nature and having access to daylight.
Aside from those fortunate enough to have a second home in the countryside or those whose jobs mandate their physical presence, the majority of the urban population is spending most of its days in apartments, in a non-varying space, with only occasional direct contact with the outdoors and often limited access to daylight. Due to this extended indoor stay, we are lacking the variability of environmental stimulus, normally afforded by daily movement throughout our cities. We are also exposed, over longer periods of time, to harmful chemicals emitted from the substances and materials that surround us.
We know that the rates of COVID-19 are rising disproportionately for people living in low-income neighborhoods and in public housing. We also know that there are severe negative impacts on people’s health when they are continuously exposed to air pollution because they live in places adjacent to power plants, factories, bus depots, highways, and other sources of pollution. (Importantly, though, we know many affordable housing developments are built in close proximity to these locations.)
However, the less discussed source of air pollution is from inside our homes. Indoor air pollutants come from a variety of sources including typical building materials, biological contaminants such as mold and bacteria, gases, and heavy metals. The public housing stock in New York City, home to 1 in 15 New Yorkers, is in an alarming state of disrepair due to deferred maintenance and lack of funding. Residents of low-income housing developments are forced to live in unacceptable conditions with mold due to leaks, inadequate ventilation, and lack of temperature control due to outdated electrical wiring compounded with underperforming facade systems.