Sick Building Syndrome from an Architectural Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of a building is to meet its users’ needs. Therefore, the functional properties of the building should meet all needs arising from biological, psychological and social structure of its users. Buildings fulfill these functions with their physical (dimensional and formal features, visual features, auditory features, tactile features and atmospheric features) and social (living in groups, obeying norms, socialization processes) indoor environment. Architects, determine the characteristics and needs of the building users, design buildings, orient other designers, give the manufacturing decisions, control the construction, select the building products, establish relations with supervisors and organize all groups of people through construction. With the decisions architect makes during all stages, he/she is responsible for the positive or negative interactions between user and building itself. In other words he/she is the responsible one for the sick building. If there are symptoms when user is in specific building and if the symptoms are vanished when user departs from specific building, those specific buildings are called sick buildings. The symptoms are irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, and skin, headaches, cough, wheezing, nausea and dizziness, etc. When architects cannot adequately fulfill all tasks of design, unsuccessful tasks may lead to Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). To solve the problems of SBS, architects need a model to apply all through design, construction and maintenance stages. The model for SBS formation caused by negative effects of indoor environment features will be given in this chapter.