Designing healthy interiors with lessons learned from a pandemic

Interior spaces gained attention during the pandemic as waves of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders responded to the increase of infection rates across the globe. The protocols implemented during the pandemic were reactionary, but there is a need to understand how interiors can be reshaped to proactively prepare for yearly viruses and new health risks. With lessons learned from the pandemic, this event shares knowledge to develop design strategies to create healthy interiors.

“Given that there is an association between crowding and infection, in the post-pandemic future, we need to reflect deeply on the need for a healthy indoor environment.”

— “Indoor Transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2.” Qian, Hua, Te Miao, Li Liu, Xiaohong Zheng, Danting Luo, and Yuguo Li. Indoor Air 31, no. 3 (2021): 639–45

Online Symposium

October 27 & 28, 2023

The two-day symposium brings together interior designers, scientists, engineers, visualization designers, and public health experts to discuss indoor infectious disease transmission.

In-person Workshop

October 29, 2023

Toronto Metropolitan University

During the workshop, students, faculty and practitioners will work together to solve hypothetical interior design problems using knowledge gained from the symposium presentations.  The results will be used to develop a manual for interior designers that outlines strategies for reducing indoor transmission of infectious diseases.

Symposium videos available on YouTube

About

The interior was identified as the site of high transmission during COVID-19, resulting in a global shut-down. Breathing, talking, singing, sneezing and coughing became the focus of attention as pathways of viral transmission in the interior. Daily routines were interrupted and brought to a halt while waiting for guidance from health agencies. Procedures and protocols were implemented in order to decrease the spread of infection, most relevant in indoor spaces where personal spheres intersected more frequently with one another.

The pandemic revealed an overdue need to be proactive in reconfiguring interiors for yearly flu viruses, cold seasons and unexpected health risks in order to reduce transmission between co-workers, household members and society as a whole. Temporary solutions sprang up in interiors, but solutions that are robust and seasonal while simultaneously enhancing spaces for function and usability are needed. Interior designers give shape to a multitude of occupancy types such as education, healthcare, housing, workspaces, commercial, and recreational, playing a critical role in imagining how interiors can be designed to mitigate the spread of viruses.

With the interior as the site of convergence, this two-day symposium and one-day workshop brings together twelve presenters and six moderators representing interior designers, scientists, engineers, epidemiologists, visualization designers, and public health experts whose work investigates infectious disease transmission made more imminent when confined indoors. Session topics will inform designers and anyone with an interest in shaping healthy interiors to understand how infectious respiratory particles are transmitted from the body, how far particles travel, pathways into respiratory systems, infectious surfaces known as fomites, how to protect the individual and community, and what steps can be taken to mitigate transmission. Following the two-day symposium is a one-day workshop with teams consisting of interior designers, academics and students to integrate the content from the symposium into design problems to produce strategies that reimagine healthier interiors.

The symposium and workshop are free and open to the public. Registration is required through Eventbrite. Please note, there is limited registration to participate in the workshop.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • This symposium is for professional practitioners, scholarly researchers and students from interior design, architecture, engineering, sciences and related disciplines. Session topics will be of interest to collaborators that shape the interior environment through community-based organizations, not-for-profit organizations, public health sector, public policy makers, health and safety officers, building facility managers, stakeholders across building and construction industries, and end users with vested interests in shaping and occupying healthy interiors.

  • No. The symposium is free and open to the public and available online, but registration is required. Please sign up for news updates and to receive the Eventbrite link in the coming weeks.

  • The in-person workshop is free but has limited enrolment. Please sign up for news updates and to receive the Eventbrite link in the coming weeks with the option to participate in the workshop. If the workshop is full, you will be placed on a waitlist.

  • Yes. All the symposium recordings can be found at the Healthy Interior Design YouTube channel @healthy-interior-design

Meet the Organizing Team

Lois Weinthal

(she/her) | Professor | School of Interior Design

Mia Pearce

(she/her) | Research Assistant | School of Interior Design

Jiayi Pan

(she/her) | Research Assistant | School of Interior Design

Alice Huang

(she/her) | Moderator | School of Interior Design Alumna

Dina Badawi

(she/her) | Research Assistant | School of Interior Design

Kateryna Franchuk

(she/her) | Research Assistant | School of Interior Design

Sam Sabzevari

(he/him) | Research Assistant | Department of Architectural Science