Residential Dwelling

Shepherd,  Selvey, Earon, and Wiking report on the physical design of homes where people are happy.  They share that they learned via case studies of row house communities in Denmark and in the United Kingdom that “The key drivers to happiness [resident wellbeing]: balancing the private and the communal; personalising the physical layout; sensing nature; experiencing local identity; and engaging in the decision-making process. The five key drivers guided the development of ten spatial and policy recommendations for public and private developers, architects, and communities to help them desi

Figueiro and Pedler review important issues related to circadian lighting.  They make wellbeing-enhancing suggestions: “Open the window shades in your home or office but be careful to avoid creating glare. . . . When sitting by a window, try to face it. . . . If you cannot work facing a window, add extra table or floor lamps next to your work area.  A do-it-yourself (DIY) circadian lighting device is another option. If you have access to windows, make sure the shades are open and that you are facing the window. . . .

Research by Huang and colleagues indicates serious negative effects of hearing traffic noise, which supports adding soundproofing materials to walls.  The team shares that “Road traffic noise was estimated at baseline residential address using the common noise assessment method model. Incident hypertension was ascertained through linkage with medical records. . . .

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. . . .