Architectural Factors for Infection and Disease Control

This edited collection explores disease transmission and the ways that the designed environment has promoted or limited its spread. It discusses the many design factors that can be used for infection and disease control through lenses of history, public health, building technology, design, and education.

This book calls on designers to consider the role of the built environment as the primary source of bacterial, viral, and fungal transfers through fomites, ventilation systems, and overcrowding and spatial organization. Through 19 original contributions, it provides an array of perspectives to understand how the designed environment may offer a reprieve from disease. The authors build a historical foundation of infection and disease, using examples ranging from lazarettos to leprosy centers to show how the ability to control infection and disease has long been a concern for humanity. The book goes on to discuss disease propagation, putting forth a variety of ideas to control the transmission of pathogens, including environmental design strategies, pedestrian dynamics, and open space. Its final chapters serve as a prospective way forward, focusing on COVID-19 and the built environment in a post-pandemic world.

Written for students and academics of architecture, design, and urban planning, this book ignites creative action on the ways to design our built environment differently and more holistically.

Please note that research on COVID-19 has exponentially grown since this volume was written in October 2020. References cited reflect the evolving nature of research studies at that time.

AnnaMarie Bliss is a lecturer in Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign teaching design studios, foundational design principles, history and theory, and research methods for environmental designers. Her scholarship concentrates on health and well-being in design. Dr. Bliss is also the founder and principal of Bliss Historic Preservation and Consulting, a historic preservation architecture firm. Her research and practice projects address the socio-spatial and haptic aspects of preservation design triggering changes in the environmental perception of users and how health sciences play a role in design development. Dr. Bliss has been awarded national and international recognitions for her work including the Alpha Rho Chi Medal of Honor, the P.E.O Scholar Award, and the King Medal for Excellence and the 2020 Dissertation Award from the Architectural Research Centers Consortium.

Dak Kopec is an architectural psychologist and associate professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dak has authored several books and is credited with researching, developing, and administering the first low-residency graduate program focused on designs for human health at the Boston Architectural College. He has also served as a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii with a joint position in schools’ architecture and medicine. In 2017, he won IDEC’s Community Service Award for the design of a group home for people with developmental disabilities and early-onset dementia. Today, Dak is calling upon his diverse educational background in health sciences, psychology, and architecture to promote interdisciplinary and person-centered design.