Healthy Interior Designs - Designing healthy interiors with lessons learned from a pandemic
The School of Interior Design at Toronto Metropolitan University
collaborated with The Institute for Pandemics to offer sessions at the
Healthy Interior Design symposium.
Online Symposium
October 27 & 28, 2023
The two-day symposium brought together interior designers, scientists, engineers, visualization designers, and public health experts to discuss indoor infectious disease transmission.
Institute for Pandemics members David Fisman and Jeffrey Siegel each presented sessions on viral transmission in indoor spaces and how interior designers can take steps to support better air quality.
In-person Workshop
October 29, 2023
Toronto Metropolitan University
During the workshop, students, faculty and practitioners worked together to solve hypothetical interior design problems using knowledge gained from the symposium presentations. The results will be used to develop a manual for interior designers that outlines strategies for reducing indoor transmission of infectious diseases.
About the Symposium
The interior was identified as the site of high transmission during COVID-19, resulting in a global shut-down. Breathing, talking, singing, sneezing and coughing became the focus of attention as pathways of viral transmission in the interior. Daily routines were interrupted and brought to a halt while waiting for guidance from health agencies. Procedures and protocols were implemented in order to decrease the spread of infection, most relevant in indoor spaces where personal spheres intersected more frequently with one another.
The pandemic revealed an overdue need to be proactive in reconfiguring interiors for yearly flu viruses, cold seasons and unexpected health risks in order to reduce transmission between co-workers, household members and society as a whole. Temporary solutions sprang up in interiors, but solutions that are robust and seasonal while simultaneously enhancing spaces for function and usability are needed. Interior designers give shape to a multitude of occupancy types such as education, healthcare, housing, workspaces, commercial, and recreational, playing a critical role in imagining how interiors can be designed to mitigate the spread of viruses.
With the interior as the site of convergence, this two-day symposium and one-day workshop brought together twelve presenters and six moderators representing interior designers, scientists, engineers, epidemiologists, visualization designers, and public health experts whose work investigates infectious disease transmission made more imminent when confined indoors. Session topics informed designers and anyone with an interest in shaping healthy interiors to understand how infectious respiratory particles are transmitted from the body, how far particles travel, pathways into respiratory systems, infectious surfaces known as fomites, how to protect the individual and community, and what steps can be taken to mitigate transmission. Following the two-day symposium was a one-day workshop with teams consisting of interior designers, academics and students to integrate the content from the symposium into design problems to produce strategies that reimagine healthier interiors.