The president of the European Property Federation has proposed a new building standard for offices and other commercial properties, drawing from studies on how hospitals are built to manage pathogens.
The rating, called the Immune Building Standard, adapts technologies and procedures applied in hospitals to minimise bacteriological threats, in the wake of Covid-19.
It aims to implement a mandatory set of requirements in commercial built environments, focusing on health and safety.
The standard can also be applied to residential, retail, hospitality and education buildings.
Under its framework, quarantine rooms should be set up and “fully equipped” to offer a space for people that might be infected.
Rounded corners should also be introduced to minimise bacterial deposits in toilet cubicles, with crowded areas such as meeting rooms, cafeterias or breakout rooms fitted with hospital-grade air filtration systems.
Walls should also be covered with antimicrobial paint, and a logistics system should be devised for pandemic responses, including PPE and other stock materials to distribute at building level.
Buildings would be evaluated and awarded with one of three labels: strong (equalling three stars), powerful (four stars) and resilient (five stars). These are based on points received during assessment.
The assessment framework covers more than 100 recommended measures covering architectural engineering, technology, design and two levels of operational practices – “perpetual, and ready-to-action”. It is an open-source platform for global use.
The building standard was created by Liviu Tudor, founder and president of Genesis Property and president of the Brussels-based European Property Federation.
Tudor began the project in April with €1m (£900,000) investment in prototyping and testing.
He enlisted a team of 20 experts from the health, technology, real estate, architectural and engineering sectors to design the framework, consisting of research from specialist facilities in the health industry.
Tudor said: “Safety measures such as physical distancing and PPE applied in the current context within office buildings and other built environments do not hold long term viability for business and offices to operate to capacity.
“Immune will boost morale and confidence, building the trust factor between landlords and tenants and employers and employees, as they contemplate their return to workplaces.
“We hope that the Immune Building Standard, after all conclusions are drawn, will become a ‘mandatory by law’ standard in the same way the fire code is imperative for good functioning of any building.”
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