Designing a Healthy Housing Environment

This dissertation concerns general relations between an urban housing environment and the residents' health and good frame of mind and the issue of the evaluation of the quality of a housing environment in the sphere of these interrelations. There are two groups of elements of interest: natural and structural/spatial elements which strongly influence the quality of a housing environment and its evaluation. The starting point was the recognition of the superior role of the health factor in shaping a housing environment. The first block of dissertation concerns the issue of the relations between man and a housing environment and the residents' expectations with reference to their housing environment. The second block is devoted to an attempt to formulate the concept of a healthy housing environment with natural elements, a functional and spatial structure and a social interior.The third block tries to formulate basic laws, methods and activities which aim at achieving the desired equilibrium between needs, a programme and space in order to gain a healthy housing environment, its evaluation and acceptance. The fourth part includes the general conlusions.