Occupant health in buildings: Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the opinions of building professionals and implications on research.

The objectives of this study are to investigate building professionals' experience, awareness, and interest in occupant health in buildings, and to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their opinions, as well as to compare the research on occupant health in buildings to professionals' opinions. To address these objectives, a mixed research methodology, including a thorough review of the literature (NL = 190) and an online survey (NS = 274), was utilized. In general, there is an increasing research interest in occupant health and a heightened interest in health-related projects, among professionals, following the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, among the nine different building attributes examined, indoor air quality was the most researched building attribute with a focus on occupant health and was also presumed to be the most important by the professionals. Professionals considered fatigue and musculoskeletal pain to be the most important physical well-being issues, and stress, anxiety, and depression to be the most important mental well-being issues that need to be the focus of design, construction, and operation of buildings to support and promote occupant health, while eye-related symptoms and loss of concentration were the most researched physical and mental well-being symptoms in the literature, respectively. Finally, professionals indicated that COVID-19 pandemic had significant effect on their perspectives regarding buildings' impact on occupant health and they believed future building design, construction and operation will focus more on occupant health because of the pandemic experience.

Ten questions concerning occupant health in buildings during normal operations and extreme events including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, people spent on average around 90% of their time indoors. Now more than ever, with work-from-home orders in place, it is crucial that we radically rethink the design and operation of buildings. Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) directly affects the comfort and well-being of occupants. When IEQ is compromised, occupants are at increased risk for many diseases that are exacerbated by both social and economic forces. In the U.S. alone, the annual cost attributed to sick building syndrome in commercial workplaces is estimated to be between $10 billion to $70 billion. It is imperative to understand how parameters that drive IEQ can be designed properly and how buildings can be operated to provide ideal IEQ to safeguard health. While IEQ is a fertile area of scholarship, there is a pressing need for a systematic understanding of how IEQ factors impact occupant health. During extreme events, such as a global pandemic, designers, facility managers, and occupants need pragmatic guidance on reducing health risks in buildings. This paper answers ten questions that explore the effects of buildings on the health of occupants. The study establishes a foundation for future work and provides insights for new research directions and discoveries.