Recent research focuses on the concept of well-being, aiming to systematize it and obtain design guidelines. In latest years, various building certification systems have arisen, which, although used for ex post evaluations, contain, specularly, design guidelines. In a first phase the concept of well-being was intended on a global scale, linked to the pitfalls of pollution and consumption of resources, so design guidelines and control systems developed within the construction industry to ensure the conservation of the environment and therefore the “well-being” and “health” of human communities. Having therefore developed certification systems measuring and evaluating the performance of buildings in relation to their impact on the environment and its resources, we are now faced with a shift of attention on a smaller scale, linked to the performance that buildings offer not so much with respect to the environment as to the people who live in them. This chapter explores the concepts behind such systems and the relationship between building certification systems and people's well-being.
TopThe Concepts Of Quality Of Life, Comfort, Well-Being
The concept of Quality of life (QoL) has been discussed in several disciplines over time. The majority of authors define the concept as the individual’s perception of their personal situation in their own life in the physical, social, mental and spiritual dimensions (Sara Pinto et al., 2016). The first studies emerged in the 1930s, and significantly grew in the post-war period.
The World Health Organization Quality of Life Group defines it as the “individuals’ perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns”. In this definition a person’s all conditions are considered, including beliefs, environment and culture: QoL is therefore a very subjective concept, and it has been particularly studied in the nursing field. In Peplau’s theory, (Forchuk 1993), QoL is a synonym for well-being or psychological health, but Leininger (1970) believes that the concept of QoL is culturally constructed.
The term “comfort”, in a linguistic dictionary, is a synonym of “well-being” (Oxford dictionaries 2016) and it has always been a central concern and concept in architecture.
Referring to a general condition of health, Kolcaba defines comfort as “the immediate state of being strengthened by having the needs for relief, ease, and transcendence addressed in the four contexts of holistic human experience: physical, psychospiritual, sociocultural, and environmental” (Kolcaba 2003). Ida Jean Orlando (Marriner-Tomey and Alligood 2006) defines comfort as a response to human needs, while Sister Callista Roy (Roy 1976) stressed the importance of psychological comfort and Hildegard Peplau stated that comfort is a fundamental human need associated with food, rest, sleep and communication.