INT 322 SMB

The  indoor environmental quality   PowerPoint covers two things that are easy to overlook .   A coustics and indoor air both affect the health, safety, and welfare of the people inside a building. The scripture for the week, Leviticus 14:33-48, describes a house with a harmful condition that is inspected, has affected materials removed, and is then re-evaluated. Indoor air quality was the part that connected most to our job as designers. It is affected by many factors, including the HVAC system, interior materials, furniture, fixtures, and equipment, moisture in the building, volatile organic compounds, and pollutants like mold, radon, and cigarette smoke. That makes our material choices part of the air people breathe. Poor air quality can cause symptoms ranging from irritated eyes to dizziness, fatigue, and asthma. Sick Build ing Syndrome, Building Related Illness, and Legionnaire’s disease showed that these problems can be serious and not just uncomfortable. Specify...

Plumbing is a system most people never think about until something goes wrong, but interior designers still have to think about every aspect of it because it decides where rooms can go and how they work. Plumbing is what brings water in and takes waste out. The part I had not thought about in detail was the three kinds of water. Potable water is safe to drink, gray water comes from sinks, bathtubs, and washing machines, and black water is waste water that contains sewage. Seeing them separated made it clear that not all used water has to be treated as waste. Where the waste goes was also new to me. Buildings connected to a municipal system send it to a sewer treatment plant, while others use a septic tank or even wetlands. The Living Building Challenge Water Petal and the Loom House case study showed that a building can be designed to handle its own water responsibly instead of just using it up. Toilets are the single largest use of water inside a building, so they are the best pl...