Residential Dwelling

Turunen and colleagues researched links between green and blue spaces and quality-of-life.  More specifically: “associations of the amounts of residential green and blue spaces within 1 km radius around the respondent’s home (based on the Urban Atlas 2012), green and blue views from home and green space visits with self-reported use of psychotropic (anxiolytics, hypnotics and antidepressants), antihypertensive and asthma medication were examined. . . . Amounts of residential green and blue spaces or green and blue views from home were not associated with medications.

Bergefurt and colleagues studied the experiences of people working from home, finding that work-at-home experiences were much like those in the workplace.  The investigators determined that “Previous research showed that office workers are mainly distracted by noise, influencing their mental health. . . . at home, employees were distracted by noise and when having a small desk. Those with a dedicated workroom were less distracted. . . .

Marco determined that storage options meaningfully impact residential experiences.  She found that “The stuff that inhabitants own is largely overlooked in current debates on housing policy and design. Yet, householders can have their quality of life, well-being, and happiness negatively affected by the ‘stuff’ they keep in their homes. . . . Th[is] study concludes that the design of future homes could better support inhabitants’ quality of life and well-being if space for storage was better understood.

How much are different sorts of views worth?  Crompton and Nicholls report that “Twenty-seven empirical studies were identified that empirically estimated the impact on property values of views of open space. The review differentiated between street level and high-rise building views. Among the 17 street-level view studies, only five found substantial premiums which ranged from 4.9% to 9.29%, while four others reported either a small increase in value or mixed results. Five studies reported low-elevation views had no impact.

Grant and colleagues investigated falls in care homes by elderly (mean age 81 +/- 12 years old) residents.  They report that some test locations “had solid-state lighting installed throughout the facility that changed in intensity and spectrum to increase short-wavelength (blue light) exposure during the day (6 am–6 pm) and decrease it overnight (6 pm–6 am). The control sites retained standard lighting with no change in intensity or spectrum throughout the day. The number of falls aggregated from medical records were assessed over an approximately 24-month interval. . .

Francesconi and colleagues studied links between environmental conditions and child development.  They found that “neighbourhood disorder was associated with emotional symptoms and conduct problems at age 3 and with the trajectory of cognitive ability from ages 3 to 11. . . . Neighbourhood disorder is broadly taken to refer to observed or perceived physical and social features of neighbourhoods that may signal the breakdown of order and social control, and that can undermine the quality of life. In our study, it was assessed by . . .