Health, Sustainability, and the Built Environment

by Dak Kopec

Health, Sustainability, and the Built Environment examines the concept of sustainability as it pertains to sustaining human health. By analyzing the many ways that humans interact with the built environment, the text teaches students how to identify both the positive and negative effects that their designs can have on the health of the occupants.

Genres: Architecture, Psychology, Design, Nonfiction, Art Design, Interior Design

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Dak Kopec is an Architectural Psychologist and Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dak has authored several books used by design educators, including three editions of Environmental Psychology for Design. He has also written the novel Broken Boys Beyond Friendships, a story that details the lives of young people coming to terms with growing up in the early 1990’s.

Dr. Kopec is a two-time Polsky Prize winner, is credited with researching, developing, and administering the first low residency graduate program focused on designs for human health at the Boston Architectural College, and has been awarded honorary Fellowship to ASID (HFASID).

Dak served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Hawaii with a joint position in the schools’ architecture and medicine, was listed as a Fulbright Specialist, and subsequently served two terms as a Fulbright Reviewer. In 2017 Dak won IDEC’s Community Service Award for the design of a group home for people with developmental disabilities and early onset Dementia. Today Dak is interested in the use of design as a means to promote social equity and healthy spaces especially for LGBTQ+ youth. Community by calling upon his diverse educational background in Health Sciences, Psychology, and Architecture. He is committed to design that promotes social equality for all people.

Reviews

[Melina]

Helpful introduction to environmental psychology for non-psychology majors. Good resource.

[Rachel]

I read about half of this book on environmental psychology. It was one of the cheaper texts on the subject. It's a little out of date--the chapter on playground design didn't really discuss how injuries on playgrounds with padded materials (like woodchips/rubber) are the same as those without. I liked learning about obvious design principles, and I hadn't even though about how drapes could be a hazard to toddlers. The research didn't seem very rigorous though.

[Jennifer Rosenow]

Amazing. . .who knew there was so much psychology in everything we do, messages being relayed, cues being sent. . . just through the design of the places where we spend our time

[MaKayla]

This book really guided me on how To design for a woman with a parietal lobe stroke. Very thankful to have this book in my resources!