Using nature as a standard provides the foundation for analyzing biological, chemical and electromagnetic exposures in your home or office. Despite their clear benefits, advancements in science and technology have produced emerging threats to our health and quality of life. It is now more important to look at our inside environments more critically than previously. The following foundations establish the basis for understanding how to create a healthy environment.

• Precautionary Principle and Risk Assessment
• 25 Principles of Building Biology®
• The Breathing Home

The precautionary principle is an approach to risk management that states if an action or policy has a suspected risk to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus the action will cause harm, the burden falls on those taking action. Risk assessment measures the value of risk related to a situation. In the US this translates to determining the maximum exposure limit before a symptom is noticed. Reducing known exposures to the lowest possible level is the focus.

Established in the 1960’s by Anton Schneider, Ph.D. the principles pre-date the green movement considering human health and ecology. Embodied energy, thermal capacity, biodegradable materials, pollution and electromagnetic are considerations for healthy homes.

1. Site buildings on geologically undisturbed land.
2. Residential homes are best located away from industrial centers and main traffic routes
3. Housing shall be developed in a decentralized and loose manner interlaced with sufficient green space.
4. Housing and developments shall be personalized, in harmony with nature, fit for human habitation and family oriented.
5. Use natural and unadulterated building materials.
6. Use wall, floor, and ceiling materials that allow air diffusion and are hygroscopic.
7. Indoor air humidity shall be regulated naturally.
8. Filter and neutralize air pollutants.
9. An appropriate balance of thermal insulation and heat retention is needed.
10. The air and surface temperatures of a given room need to be optimized.
11. Use radiant heat and as much passive solar heat as possible for the heating system.
12. The total moisture content of a new building shall be low and dry out quickly.
13. A building shall have a pleasant or neutral smell.
14. Light, lighting, and color shall be in harmony with natural conditions.
15. Protective measures against noise pollution as well as infrasonic and ultrasonic vibrations need to be human oriented.
16. Use building materials with little or preferably no radioactivity.
17. Maintain the natural balance of atmospheric electricity and ion concentration.
18. The Earth’s natural magnetic field shall not be altered or distorted.
19. Eliminate or reduce man-made electromagnetic radiation (EMR) as much as possible.
20. Cosmic and terrestrial radiation is essential and shall be interfered with as little as possible.
21. Interior and furniture design shall be based upon physiological findings.
22. Harmonic measures, proportions, and shapes need to be taken into consideration.
23. Produce, install, and dispose of building materials in a way that does not contribute to environmental pollution and high energy costs.
24. Building activities shall not contribute to the exploitation of non-renewable and rare resources.
25. Building activities shall not cause a rise in social and medical costs.

Your house is an organism affecting your health. A Breathing Home provides the basic understanding for how Air, Water, Matter and Energy move throughout the house. The major tenet of a Healthy Home is the “third skin” commonly known as the building envelope. Your house is an organism affecting your health. The effects of the architecture, materials and occupants within a house change the conditions dramatically.

Before modern building, houses or shelters were built from natural materials and with natural processes. These shelters did not hinder the natural cycles described above, but rather were part of them. With new technology, the increased desire for comfort has changed this. Technology went in the direction of synthetic and other troublesome building materials. These products caused problems for humans, both because the houses were made so tight good air circulation could not be achieved and many of the products released harmful chemicals (called out-gassing, or off-gassing). In addition, moisture was often trapped in the tight houses, fostering the growth of molds, mildews, and bacteria. Unhealthy interactions of air, water, matter, and energy have caused our houses have become unbalanced.

Air: Humans and animals remove oxygen from the air by breathing. Plants use the carbon dioxide they give off to make more oxygen.

Water: Through the cycle of evaporation, cloud formation, rain, and then a return to groundwater or some body of water, water itself is purified and energized.

Matter: Organic forms (plants and animals) ingest inorganic matter (minerals from the earth). When the organic forms die, inorganic matter is returned to the earth.

Energy: The sun’s energy is stored by nature in wood, in plants, in oil and natural gas or converted directly into another energy form. When burned, the energy is released. Some forms of energy are renewable, such as wood and solar energy, and some are being used up, such as oil and natural gas.

Foundation principles, risk assessment and the breathing home comprise the Building Biology® ideology. With a focus toward optimal indoor conditions, many houses and buildings in the US are not built on these premises. Building failures are more easily identified when approached from an ecolocial perspective. The comprehensive ideology allows for adaptive problem identification and solution provision as modern building continues to change.

Reference: Institute for Building Biology and Ecology, Natural Homes and Building 101 and Natural Health Building Remodeling Seminar