Health Building Diagnostic 2021: an unprecedented survey at the heart of the building and its stakeholders

As a preamble to the 10 years of the DÉFIS BÂTIMENT SANTÉ colloquium, the Bâtiment Santé Plus organizer conducted a survey of professionals in the sector on health issues in the building industry. In partnership with the National Council of the Order of Architects and with the support of Ademe and the Architecture Department of the Ministry of Culture, this study was entrusted to the ENSAI Junior Consultant * in spring 2021 and made it possible to collect responses from 320 building stakeholders (including 30% architects, 25% design offices and around 10% project owners).

On July 6, 2021, the CHALLENGES BÂTIMENT SANTÉ conference will put these results into perspective with projects and solutions from the entire sector.

In tune with current events and the reality of the building industry today, this survey allowed us to identify the major trends of the moment. What place do we give to health in what is built and in what is being built? What do their actors say? ...

The investigation reveals flaws, while noting significant progress. Among the major trends to note:

Awareness of the importance of health is accelerating among all the protagonists of the act of building

• The integration of health in projects and product design is the priority concern for 55% of all categories of actors with the exception of project owners / investors / property owners.
• This health concern began before 2000 for 25% of them and is accelerating since 41% of participants have integrated, since 2015, the health aspect in all their projects.
• In the building industry, the four main health criteria retained by all participants are, by far, indoor air quality for 86,3% of them. Then, orientation, sunshine, light (65,6%) and thermal comfort (65%) are ranked almost equal in second position, followed by acoustics (39,4%). For 82,5% of architects orientation, sunshine, light is the first factor taken into account and place access to an outdoor space and nature in fourth position before acoustics.

The health crisis has changed the way health is taken into account in buildings

• Almost 40% of the actors questioned say they are convinced of this, but the "COVID effect" mainly concerns 67,7% of project owners, investors, real estate companies. The quality of indoor air and the adaptation of buildings to new uses are strongly emphasized. The popular solutions for reducing the airborne transmission of contagious infections remain low-tech. For the participants, the proliferation of "purifiers" does not seem to answer the problems encountered.

Some key players are not sufficiently informed or trained in the health issues of the building

• While 66% of architects and 73% of environmental design offices who took part in the survey are trained in the health impacts of buildings, public and private project management, which defines the objectives of a project, is much less with only 48% awareness of the consideration of health in buildings.
• It is mainly continuing education that enabled 38% of participants to integrate health into their efforts.

To integrate the circular economy in the building, a great need for information

• Among the families of materials, biobased are currently the most used in projects by 62,5% of respondents.
• Eco-designed and recycled materials concern a little over 40% of all players.
• Reuse and reuse are used three times less than bio-based materials. It should be noted that 18,4% of respondents are not concerned by any of these materials.
• 93% of the building stakeholders surveyed have a need for health information on the different families of re-use products.

Consult the online survey: click here

Consult the 10-year program of HEALTH BUILDING CHALLENGES - "Circular economy, health in the loop": click here

* National School of Statistics and Information Analysis