Designing and Building with Healthier Materials
Discover the impact of building materials on human health and the environment, and learn how to make healthier material choices.
Duration
3 weeksWeekly study
3 hours
Designing and Building with Healthier Materials
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Explore your role in creating a healthier built environment
The built environment is all around us, and we are constantly exposed to chemicals through the materials we wear, eat, or live in.
On this three-week course, you’ll investigate the impacts of building materials on our health and surroundings.
You’ll delve into your role as an occupant, designer, or advocate to help you gain knowledge on how you can champion for a healthier built environment.
Unpack the use of industrial chemicals in building materials
You’ll explore the potential effects that chemicals in materials have on our health to help you better understand the communities and populations that are most vulnerable.
With this knowledge, you’ll learn how to evaluate building materials based on human health outcomes, and explore how healthier design approaches can benefit occupants.
Explore healthy and sustainable building materials
You’ll delve into what makes a healthier building material as you explore healthier design approaches and how this contributes to sustainability.
Next, you’ll uncover the role of the occupant and those working on a design project in creating healthier built environments. This will help you understand the strategies needed to implement healthier materials into the built environment.
Learn from the specialists at Parsons School of Design
Having gained knowledge of the strategies and guiding principles for designers, you’ll explore the future of healthier building practices.
Guided by the experts at Parsons School of Design’s Healthy Materials Lab, you’ll finish the course with the knowledge of how healthier buildings benefit both people and planet, and how to advocate for healthier materials in the built environment.
Syllabus
Week 1
Healthier Materials and Human Health
Welcome to the Course!
Welcome to Week 1! It's time to find out what you'll learn about this week. You'll also have the chance to meet your instructors and introduce yourself to your fellow learners.
What Are Healthier Materials?
In this activity, we will take a look at why it’s important for us to consider using healthier materials. We’ll see how materials affect us, and due to that, why we should advocate for healthier materials use.
The Relationship Between Building Materials and Human Health
In this activity, we’ll put risk into context. We’ll consider how the life cycle of materials impacts people. We’ll then look at how designers, and you, can work with communities.
Impacts of Industrial Chemicals on Human Health
In this activity, we will look at how chemicals get into our bodies, and what happens once they’re there. We’ll then take a look at some common chemicals you may come into contact with.
Week 1 Wrap up
Here’s your chance to reflect on what you’ve learned so far in Week 1 of Designing and Building with Healthier Materials.
Week 2
Healthier Materials and Building Practices
Week 2 Introduction
Welcome to Week 2! Let’s take a look at what you can expect to learn about this week.
Chemistry’s Relevance to Building Materials and Human Health
In this activity, we’ll take a look at why chemistry is relevant to building materials and how it influences human health. We’ll see some risks to the global community and consider the toxicology of building materials.
Industrial Chemicals Associated with Building Materials
In this activity, you’ll learn about chemical classification and how each class relates to materials and human health. You’ll look at some case studies to learn about hazards and building materials.
Strategies and Guiding Principles for Designers
In this activity, you will learn more about how designers make informed decisions. We’ll walk you through the education phase, goal phase, pre-search, and search phases.
Week 2 Wrap-Up
Here’s your chance to reflect on what you’ve learned so far in Week 2 of Designing and Building with Healthier Materials.
Week 3
Healthier Materials and Sustainability
Week 3 Introduction
Welcome to Week 3! This is the final week of Designing and Building with Healthier Materials. Let’s see what you can expect to learn this week.
Healthier Design Approaches
Learn about healthier design approaches.
The Role of Occupants
In this activity, you will learn what happens when a project is turned over to occupants, and what their role is in building health. We’ll consider some hidden hazards.
Envisioning Healthier Built Environments
In this activity, you’ll do some visioning for healthier built environments. We’ll consider the new generation and how we can use the past as inspiration for the future.
Course Wrap-Up
Here’s your chance to reflect on what you’ve learned in Designing and Building with Healthier Materials.
Learning on this course
On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Explain the relationship between building materials and human health
- Evaluate building materials based on human health outcomes
- Assess how healthier design approaches impact occupants
- Debate what can be done to develop healthier environments
- Identify the relationship between building materials and human health
- Explore how healthier design approaches impact occupants and what can be done to develop healthier environments
Who is the course for?
This course is designed for anyone interested in health and sustainability in the built environment.
You may work in the industry or you’re simply passionate about the health of populations and the planet.
Who will you learn with?
I am co-Director of Parsons Healthy Materials Lab in New York. See our work at
healthymaterialslab.org and keep in touch at https://healthymaterialslab.org/email-signup
Catherine, has led educational programming at Parsons Healthy Materials Lab since 2015. She also teaches at Columbia GSAPP and The New School.
https://healthymaterialslab.org/email-signup
Who developed the course?
Parsons School of Design
For more than a century, Parsons School of Design has been inspired by the transformative potential of design. Today, the school’s groundbreaking academic programs carry forward that mission, making Parsons the number one design school in the U.S. and among the top three globally. At the heart of a comprehensive university — The New School — Parsons draws on a range of academic fields to deliver a uniquely interdisciplinary education enriched by the resources of its home in New York City
Learning on FutureLearn
Your learning, your rules
- Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
- Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
- Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores
Join a global classroom
- Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
- Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
- Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others
Map your progress
- As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
- Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
- Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate
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