As a freelance science journalist, Emily Anthes reads a lot of scientific studies. A few years ago, she started noticing more and more scientists writing about a very specific topic: microbes in houses. “In a single house, they were finding thousands of different species of microbes, and that just kind of blew my mind,” she says. “But it also opened my eyes to a new way of looking at indoor spaces.”
In her new book, The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness, Anthes dives into the design and impact of the built world. From those microbes that influence the air quality in our homes to hospital rooms that improve recovery time to housing designed to predict when an elderly person may fall, it’s a wide-ranging exploration of the design and science behind the indoor spaces where we spend most of our time.
She spoke with Fast Company about how the pandemic has changed the way many people look at the indoors, and about how buildings and spaces are being designed to meet the needs of more diverse users.
Fast Company: You wrote this book before the pandemic forced people to start spending a lot more time in their homes. How do you think all this time indoors is affecting people?
Emily Anthes: At a more meta level, I think it has made people much more interested in and attuned to their indoor environments and curious about the questions of how these environments matter. It’s maybe prompted people to realize that these spaces can have a big impact on how we feel on a day-to-day basis. To drill down to more specific affects, I think it depends hugely on what kind of space you’re sheltering in place in. We know things like daylight and nature are really important for both our minds and our bodies, so hopefully people are spending lots of time in spaces that are sunny and either have houseplants or views of natural landscape. And if that’s the case, they can probably stave off some of the worst effects of being inside all the time, though I know not everyone has that luxury.
FC: You write about the creation of evidence-based design and a classic study of gallbladder patients who recovered more quickly because their hospital rooms looked out on trees instead of a brick wall. How widely has evidence-based design spread in hospitals?
EA: Hospitals are sort of the birthplace of evidence-based design, and maybe for predictable reasons. It’s a place where patient outcomes really matter. So that’s where a lot of this research got started, and it has spread fairly widely in hospitals, at least in American hospitals and some of the Westernized nations. You see a lot more hospitals now doing things like providing single patient rooms, which we know is one of the best things you can do for patient outcomes, and providing views of the natural world. A lot of hospital lobbies now are drenched in daylight and have all sorts of plants; they have meditation rooms and zen gardens. Some of these principles have been less widely applied outside of hospitals, and that’s sort of the next frontier, for offices or retail spaces or other types of buildings: How can we design them with a good evidence base to improve occupant health and well-being?
FC: During the pandemic, there have been countless examples of COVID-19-related design tweaks and proposals claiming to make spaces healthier. Since our understanding of current conditions seems to be changing daily, and the science is always evolving, how can researchers and designers react without being too reactive?