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What if the very standards designed to keep us comfortable in buildings are actually making us unhealthy? This provocative question lies at the heart of groundbreaking research from Delft University of Technology.

It challenges the fundamental assumptions that have guided building science for decades. Even when our buildings meet all current standards for temperature, lighting, acoustics, and air quality—and even when occupants report feeling comfortable—the fact remains that spending 90% of our lives indoors may be harming our health.

The problem stems from our reliance on simplistic "single dose-response" models that isolate individual stressors like CO2 or temperature. These models fail on three fronts: they prioritise preventing short-term discomfort over promoting long-term health, they ignore how environmental factors interact with each other, and they're based on an "average person" who doesn't actually exist. The thermal comfort example is particularly striking—our pursuit of thermally neutral environments might be contributing to obesity by never challenging our bodies to regulate their own temperature.

Professor Bluyssen advocates for a shift toward "situation modeling"—a holistic approach that considers the entire context of environment, individual, and activity. Her field studies reveal just how diverse our environmental preferences are, even within shared spaces like classrooms. When a teacher opens a window, it might please some students while making others miserable by letting in traffic noise.

The path forward isn't about finding magic numbers for ventilation rates or perfect temperatures. It's about creating flexible, adaptive spaces that accommodate our diverse needs and give us greater control over our environments. Though this approach is more complex, it represents our best chance at designing indoor spaces that truly support human health and wellbeing rather than merely preventing immediate discomfort.

The need to go beyond the comfort-based dose-related indicators in our
IEQ-guidelines

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