Heat, Health, and the Built Environment

Taubman College faculty are working to document, co-produce, and mobilize knowledge that strengthens the testing and implementation of different design and policy interventions aimed at reducing the impacts from the interactions between heat and the built environment on health and wellbeing outcomes. 

The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme heat and heat waves has serious ramifications for health globally, and across low, middle and high-middle-income countries. Residents, especially in precarious neighborhoods and homes, can face severe health risks due to extreme indoor heat, with limited access to effective building adaptation and cooling strategies. At the same time, residents, housing advocacy groups, municipal and government agencies, and local builders often seek guidance to support assisted-self-help housing with effective passive cooling strategies. 

Taubman College faculty from both architecture and urban and regional planning work on research and implementation approaches that are highly interdisciplinary, integrative, and with faculty in public health, the social sciences, civil and environmental engineering, social work, and medicine. Faculty work in partnership with local communities, governments, research experts, technical advisory bodies, and NGOs across multiple regions to collect data about building structures, policy, health indicators, climate trajectories, and community goals and experiences. Faculty use these data to assess the effectiveness of design approaches, public policies, thermal comfort, health outcomes, building types, building materials, and the feasibility, viability, and desirability of different adaptation strategies. In many cases, policy analysis, building simulations, current and future climate trends, participatory design outcomes, and constructions and implementation guidelines are brought together to help identify and prioritize interventions that can have significant impacts on the community and individual wellbeing, health, and self-efficacy. 

Working with global research partners, Taubman College faculty mobilize these insights towards larger-scale trials, policy, and for community use and adoption. Many of these evidence-based approaches provide governments, housing advocates, residents, and organizations with actionable insights for improving building interventions globally.