Importance of the Built Environment to the Quality of American Life: Proceedings of the Building Research Advisory Board's 1977 Building Futures Forum

摘要

The Building Research Advisory Board (BRAB) convened its 1977 Building Futures Forum on the Importance of the Built Environment to the Quality of American Life: to call attention to the complex relationship between the man-built environment and individual and societal health and well-being; to identify issues that can be expected to have a major impact on the built environment and the building community in the years ahead; and to explore alternative approaches for improving the quality of American life through modification, development, and application of building technology. In planning the Forum, BRAB and its Technology Assessment and Utilization (TAU) group recognized that the vast majority of Americans spend the greatest portion of their lives in the built or enclosed environment (i.e., homes, offices, factories, and schools) but that most of the attention given to improving the quality of life by creating a better environment has been concentrated on the natural or outdoor environment. With this in mind, the 1977 Forum was organized to permit a broad group of specialists in many disciplines to share their expertise and to devote their energy to the development of an agenda of feasible and high-priority research and action concerning four major topics: future settlement patterns, energy utilization and building technology, health and human development, and policy demands on the building community. (ERA citation 10:022773)