Indoor Environmental Quality is about more than just air quality. Daylight and views are just a few of the things we consider when designing new homes. Specialized CEO Jeremy Hudson highlights some of the steps we took to bolster IEQ at Brick Avenue Lofts and offers simple steps to improve indoor environmental quality in your home, office, or home/office.
AIR IT OUT
Ventilation is vitally important to indoor air quality, and most buildings don’t have the level of fresh air ventilation that we have at Brick Avenue Lofts. If you don’t have a Fresh Air button, run exhaust fans in the kitchen and bathroom to remove moisture and pollutants, and open windows when the weather is nice.
SEE THE LIGHT
We learned from Happy Cities research that natural daylight and darkness cycles are so important to human health. We used extra-large windows at Brick Avenue Lofts to maximize natural light, and we installed blackout shades in the bedrooms to enhance restful sleep.
KEEP IT CLEAN
VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) are associated with poor air quality and poor health. We’ve taken the effort to avoid VOCs in paints, building materials, and cleaning products in Specialized properties, and you can improve the air you breathe by avoiding them, too. Hint: if a product says to use it in a well ventilated area, take it to heart. Be sure to open windows and run exhaust fans when you must use a product with high VOCs.
BRING OUTSIDE IN
Researchers found that views of nature can lift mood and lessen the experience of pain in hospital patients. The good news is even a houseplant can help bring the benefits of nature into your home. Jeremy loves palms, ferns, and the modern upright lines of Sansevieria (“mother-in-law tongue”) to bring a little green to any space.