What is it about?
Sustainable homes support environmental, human, and economic health and vitality. Sensory sustainable homes (SSH) refer to creating a dwelling that integrates the ideas of the 3H (Healthy elements, Happiness determinants and Home requirements) concept. The study investigates SSH design that incorporates the 3H requirements into the conceptual model to enhance the occupants’ quality of life (QoL). It identifies the health elements in an SSH, the happiness determinants in SSH, and develops a conceptual framework that captures the 3H design concept. The study fits in occupants’ health needs and pleasures into the home. It boosts happiness - a sense of aesthetics, security, belonging, community, comfort, and peace. The 3H concept or SSH design results reveal that the architectural elements of a healthy home enhance happiness. Therefore, incorporating human needs and principles into a home can make the 3H design concept practical and hands-on. SSH will help save costs and improve indoor air quality. SSH will be built, operated, and maintained in ways that reduce the owner’s carbon footprint and the impact of climate change. SSH will improve well-being, minimise sadness and sickness and improve life expectancy.
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Photo by Alberto Castillo Q. on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The investigators classified these needs by architectural elements in the home. These elements/facilities create a sense of aesthetics, belongingness, security, comfort and peace that may enhance the overall happiness in such a home. However, the 3H design concept will create a sensory-sustainable neighbourhood, which will become a sensory-sustainable community. This process may eventually snowball into a happy city and a happy world. Therefore, the implication for further research would be to collect data on implementation policies of a sensory-sustainable home or 3H design model and the cost implication of designing the 3H conceptual model for all social strata across the global south countries in the regions such as Africa (Nigeria and South Africa), Latin America and the Caribbean (Brazil, Paraguay and Jamaica.), Asia (India, China and Indonesia) and Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Happiness is closely related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs’ mission is to improve the world, create a better world for all people and promote stability, well-being, and happiness, ‘leaving no one behind’.
Perspectives
Writing this article was a great delight as it has co-authors with whom I have had long-standing collaborations. I hope this article makes what people might think is a slightly abstract area like a healthy home and measuring things like health and happiness, kind of stimulating and maybe even thrilling. Because the way we spend money on health and social care is not just a problem for politicians, managers, and researchers to worry about - it is an issue that touches every single human being on this planet in one way or another. More than anything else, and if nothing else, I hope you find this article inspiring and innovative.
Dr Eghosa Noel Ekhaese
Covenant University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Sensory sustainable homes, a study of the healthy happy home (3H) conceptual design model: an explanatory qualitative study, Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, February 2025, Frontiers,
DOI: 10.3389/frsc.2025.1506672.
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