Research indicates that the average person spends 92% of their time indoors1, so it is important that our internal environments are comfortable and enjoyable to spend time in while also not impacting upon our health requirements. This review focuses upon healthy buildings, first defining what they are before examining aspects of both healthy and unhealthy buildings, then discussing the role that timber can play within an internal environment when considering air quality.

The construction, occupancy, and exposure profiles of newer workplaces will lead to the potential for novel inhaled hazards and risks, and vigilance will be required in order to identify the occupational lung problems attributed to the workplace of tomorrow’. The health and wellbeing movement has brought about a big shift in focus within the built environment. Businesses are refocusing their sustainability agenda around healthy buildings, both for people and for the planet. There is a lot of ongoing research in this area, with buildings and their internal environment increasingly being monitored in their thousands.