A model proposal for sustainability process of healthy building

The basic need of a human being is to lead a healthy life. Since people spend 90% of their life indoors, the main function of a building should be providing a healthy environment for users. Healthy building meets user?s biological, psychological, social needs through its quality indicators related with the physical-social outdoor-indoor environmental characteristics. Buildings, which are designed, constructed and presented to use in health, may lose their healthiness during the using stage. The reason of this is the quality indicators? degradation or deficiency in fulfilling the changing needs due to the changes of time (ageing of the building and the user) and circumstance (function, environmental characteristics, user, characteristics of the user, rules). For the sustainability of the healthy building, the state of being healthy must be protected during its service life. Therefore, ?A Model Proposal for the Sustainability Process of Healthy Building? is created. This model consists of three main activities as ?Achieving the Healthy Building?, a precondition for sustainability; ?Sustainability Assessment of the Healthy Building?, determining the state of healthiness exists after the changes at the using stage; ?Sustainability Management of the Healthy Building?, making healthy again by taking actions if the assessment result is negative. In the activity of assessing the sustainability of the healthy building, which is achieved through a performance based study, the time and circumstance changes occurred at the using stage are determined primarily. According to the sort of change, building (identity, hardware, environment, function), user (identity, characteristics) and rules (consent, scientific knowledge) are described. By using these descriptions, the health performance goals of the building are determined. Through a post-change performance assessment, conformity of existing performance with goals is identified. According to the results, it is decided that the building has either sustained or lost its health. If the result is negative, it can be determined that because of which change, which quality indicator is deficient to what extent in fulfilling the health needs. This information provides the data of which precautions to be determined and applied for the activity of sustainability management. The model proposal for the sustainability process of the healthy building is applied by a group of specialists from building, environment and health sectors with the coordination of building biologists. Keywords: Healthy building, building biology, user?s needs, healthy building quality indicators, sustainability criteria, sustainability process of the healthy building, sustainability assessment, performance evaluation.