A Review of Sustainable Design Strategies for Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) in Public Buildings

Abstract

Sustainable design strategies focus on architectural design considerations which assures the welfare, in addition to cohabitation of inanimate elements, and existing creatures that constitute the ecosystem. Sustainable architecture for public spaces, in addition to energy efficiency and zero greenhouse gas emission, needs to adopt approaches that lessen the effect of communicable diseases. Often, the primarily focus of architects is the aesthetics of buildings, there is no cognizant method for sustainable infection prevention and control mostly in the planning/production phase of public buildings. The paper aims to assess and identify how the public space can be safer in a pandemic from the vantage point of built environment professionals with the view of evolving strategies for policymakers with emphasis on the duties of the architect in mitigating the spread of viruses. The steps taken were to assess the relationship amongst environmental space and infectious diseases and propose practical steps to limit infection prevention and control (IPC) in public buildings. The paper is based on works of literature and consultations. The paper concluded that design approaches perform a substantial part in prevention and control of infections in public spaces, as well as healthcare facilities. Hence, sustainable design strategies may well be a remedy for mitigating the spread of coronavirus in public buildings.

Methods for infection prevention in the built environment—a mini-review

“…COVID-19 has shown that more attention should be paid to the role of indoor environments in infection prevention, especially in public buildings. Being a current topic, infection prevention in indoor environments has been approached in some recent reports discussing healthy architecture, antimicrobial surfaces, and air purification strategies (Dietz et al, 2020;Udomiaye et al, 2020;Shepley et al, 2021;Alhusban and Alhusban, 2022;Amran et al, 2022;Navaratnam et al, 2022;Tokazhanov et al, 2022;Udomiaye et al, 2022;Yong and Calautit, 2023). The articles provide useful recommendations on how to prevent the spread of infections, in particular COVID-19, through air and contact surfaces.…”

“…Green building has gained much attention to achieve energy efficiency and low greenhouse gas emissions in construction (Doan et al, 2017;Udomiaye et al, 2022). However, few design and engineering-based measures have been employed to limit infection transmissions in public buildings, excluding healthcare facilities (Morawska et al, 2021).…”

“…Spatial planning can support adequate ventilation, especially when utilizing natural ventilation, by avoiding closed-end corridors, lobbies, and waiting areas. In areas of abundant sunlight, adequate windows can allow daylight to reach the indoor space decreasing the spread of pathogens (Udomiaye et al, 2022).…”

A comprehensive indoor hygiene concept for infection prevention and control within built environments

“…Building design decisions are extremely important because they lay the foundation for a hygienic building by, for instance, affecting the movement of people several years into the future. During the design and construction phases, hygiene-related choices are made in architectural, internal facility, premise plumbing system, and HVAC design and when preparing the building's maintenance guidelines (Dietz et al, 2020;Udomiaye et al, 2020;Megahed and Ghoneim, 2021;Amran et al, 2022;Udomiaye et al, 2022). Thus, the actors involved in every stage of a building's life cycle need to be aware of how they can contribute to creating hygienic buildings.…”