Nine COVID-combating features in a Living Building

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Do buildings that are designed with nature in mind have advantages in the fight against coronavirus? Let us count the ways.

The COVID-19 pandemic has bolstered broad concepts that green building designers have advocated for years. Among those are to design for resilience, to incorporate equity into building plans and to reduce the building sector’s contribution to climate change. There’s even something of a movement afoot to “build back better” by taking those concepts to heart.

At the same time, many if the same steps that put buildings more in balance with nature can also be effective in limiting the spread of the pathogens.

Our aim here is to detail the overlap. With examples taken from the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design at Georgia Tech, here are nine features typical of regenerative design. Click on the images for more details about each.