The COVID-19 pandemic created a renewed focus on healthy building strategies, particularly for senior living residents who spend a great portion of their time indoors, shared speakers at the 2021 EFA Expo & Conference, August 28-31, in Chattanooga, Tenn.

During the session “Creating Healthy Environments: Design Beyond COVID,” speakers Amy Carpenter, principal at SFCS Architects; Carie Shingleton, senior interior designer at SFCS Architects; and Allen McNutt, senior associate at SFCS Architects, discussed holistic design factors focused on improving the health of seniors. “While healthy environments are important to all, seniors certainly benefit greater from better indoor air quality and infectious disease control strategies due to the larger population with compromised immune systems,” said Shingleton.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, SFCS Architects sponsored a study on attitudes about senior living communities, finding that residents already living in senior living communities felt safest in that community, while those who were not currently living in a senior living community felt skeptical and nervous about the opportunity to move into a community. Inspired by the findings in its “COVID-19 Sentiment Report,” the firm collaborated with owners to find solutions to make all feel safer, from utilizing more outdoor areas longer into colder seasons than before; finding spaces within the communities that could be a flex space for visitors; demonstrating cleaning and promoting healthy building strategies to residents; and increasing communication with residents about community efforts to mitigate the transmission of disease within their community, Shingleton said.

Furthermore, she said, strategies to improve indoor air quality, inclusion of biophilic design, and new space-planning design protocols “have come to the forefront of financing priorities.”


For example, while much has been learned about COVID-19 transmission over the past year, such as research showing that COVID-19 transmission through the air poses a bigger threat than surface transmission, McNutt said evolving standards and good practices will focus on improvements in air filtration and ventilation. Added Carpenter, “We’re also looking at air flow patterns more closely, setting up the air flow such that resident rooms are under negative pressure, and locating supply and return air vents more strategically to capture exhaled air closer to the source and prevent it from washing over others, but making sure there are no areas of air stagnation,” Carpenter said.

The speakers said they’re also seeing more senior living communities embrace biophilic design elements to help bring the outdoors in, including the use of nature-based patterns such as a honeycomb patterns in artwork; natural materials such as wood and stone; earth tone colors such as greens and yellows; green walls and plants; and views to the exterior.

Another strategy gaining popularity is the use of artificial lighting to provide circadian benefits. “Lighting is one of the first things targeted by contractors and owners to reduce costs, but it can have the biggest impact for residents,” Carpenter said.

Shingleton also noted that another area where she’s seeing a great desire for change is in dining spaces, such as creating niche areas for smaller groups through the use of panels and partial-height partitions “Gone are the large open dining venues that feel more like a country club ball room,” she said.