Table Of ContentARCHITECTURAL FACTORS FOR
INFECTION AND DISEASE CONTROL
This edited collection explores disease transmission and the ways that the designed environment has
promoted or limited its spread. It discusses the many design factors that can be used for infection and
disease control through lenses of history, public health, building technology, design, and education.
This book calls on designers to consider the role of the built environment as the primary source
of bacterial, viral, and fungal transfers through fomites, ventilation systems, and overcrowding
and spatial organization. Through 19 original contributions, it provides an array of perspectives
to understand how the designed environment may offer a reprieve from disease. The authors
build a historical foundation of infection and disease, using examples ranging from lazarettos to
leprosy centers to show how the ability to control infection and disease has long been a concern for
humanity. The book goes on to discuss disease propagation, putting forth a variety of ideas to control
the transmission of pathogens, including environmental design strategies, pedestrian dynamics, and
open space. Its final chapters serve as a prospective way forward, focusing on COVID-19 and the
built environment in a post-pandemic world.
Written for students and academics of architecture, design, and urban planning, this book ignites
creative action on the ways to design our built environment differently and more holistically.
Please note that research on COVID-19 has exponentially grown since this volume was written
in October 2020. References cited reflect the evolving nature of research studies at that time.
AnnaMarie Bliss is a lecturer in Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
teaching design studios, foundational design principles, history and theory, and research methods
for environmental designers. Her scholarship concentrates on health and well-being in design.
Dr. Bliss is also the founder and principal of Bliss Historic Preservation and Consulting, a historic
preservation architecture firm. Her research and practice projects address the socio-spatial and haptic
aspects of preservation design triggering changes in the environmental perception of users and
how health sciences play a role in design development. Dr. Bliss has been awarded national and
international recognitions for her work including the Alpha Rho Chi Medal of Honor, the P.E.O.
Scholar Award, and the King Medal for Excellence and the 2020 Dissertation Award from the
Architectural Research Centers Consortium.
Dak Kopec is an architectural psychologist and associate professor at the University of Nevada,
Las Vegas. Dak has authored several books and is credited with researching, developing, and
administering the first low-residency graduate program focused on designs for human health at the
Boston Architectural College. He has also served as a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii
with a joint position in schools’ architecture and medicine. In 2017, he won IDEC’s Community
Service Award for the design of a group home for people with developmental disabilities and early-
onset dementia. Today, Dak is calling on his diverse educational background in health sciences,
psychology, and architecture to promote interdisciplinary and person-centered design.
ARCHITECTURAL FACTORS
FOR INFECTION AND
DISEASE CONTROL
Edited by AnnaMarie Bliss and Dak Kopec
Cover image: Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, AnnaMarie Bliss and Dak Kopec; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of AnnaMarie Bliss and Dak Kopec to be identified as the authors of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form
or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bliss, AnnaMarie, editor. | Kopec, Dak, editor.
Title: Architectural factors for infection and disease control /edited by AnnaMarie Bliss and
Dak Kopec.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022010088 | ISBN 9781032102665 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781032102672 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003214502 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Buildings—Health aspects. | Architecture—Health aspects. |
Environmental health. | Communicable diseases—Transmission—Prevention.
Classification: LCC RA566.6 .A73 2023 | DDC 613/.5—dc23/eng/20220617
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022010088
ISBN: 978-1-032-10266-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-10267-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-21450-2 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003214502
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
This book is dedicated to human’s best friends – the dogs and cats and other
nonhuman friends who have helped us all during our COVID-19 quarantine.
A special acknowledgment for our best dog friends Teddie Bliss and Rhydian
Kayzar-Kopec.
CONTENTS
List of Figures ix
List of Charts and Tables xii
Contributor Biographies xiii
Preface xviii
1 Infection and Disease Transmission: Pandemics, Epidemics, and Outbreaks 1
Dak Kopec and Marisela Thompson
2 Isolation, Quarantine, Infection Control: Architecture and Planning in
Service to Public Health 13
John Michael Currie
3 The Social Construction of Airborne Infections 30
Jessica Cassyle Carr
4 Distancing and Colonial Design: Segregated Asylums to Control Leprosy
in Suriname 43
Stephen Snelders, Henk Menke and Toine Pieters
5 Pine Forest and Sunlight: Alvar Aalto’s Paimio Sanitorium 57
Virginia Cartwright
6 Legionnaires’ Disease and Water Systems: History and Prevention 65
Michelle Brune
7 Infection Control Through Environmental Design 78
Udomiaye Emmanuel, Eze Desy Osondu, and Cheche Kalu
viii Contents
8 Infection Risk Mitigation Using Pedestrian Dynamics 93
Ashok Srinivasan and Sirish Namilae
9 Green Infrastructure for Mosquito Control 109
Phillip Zawarus
10 Emergency Department Design in Response to Pandemics: A Systematic
Literature Review 126
Hui Cai and Marzia Chowdhury
11 Environmental Role of Open Space in Infection and Disease Control 166
Maryam Ekhtiari and Neda Akbari
12 Viral and Bacterial Infection Prevention Through Intentional Design 177
Debra Harris and Denise N. Williams
13 Disease Control Within High-Traffic Areas: A Series of Mini-Case Studies 192
Rose Mary Botti-Salitsky and Lisa Bonnet DePalma
14 Retail Design in a Post-Pandemic World 210
Bhakti Sharma
15 Future Teaching Design for Pandemic Response 221
AnnaMarie Bliss
16 Architecture Without Prelates, Magistrates, and Admirals:
The R3build Pavilion 231
Charles Drozynski
17 Open Learning Spaces: Redefining School Design in a Post-Pandemic World 245
Yandi Andri Yatmo and Paramita Atmodiwirjo
18 Toward Culturally Enriched Communities – COVID-19 Implications 258
Tasoulla Hadjiyanni and Emilie Wambeke
19 Mobile Testing Facilities Inspired by Origami Science 273
Ming Hu
Index 285
FIGURES
1.1 Triage hospital field tent 7
1.2 Without a point of reference, statisticians can easily inflate or devalue the meaning
behind numbers 8
2.1 Two views Leprosaria in the United States ca. 1900–1917 17
2.2 Plan and views Lazaretto at Venice, Baltimore Lazzaretto lighthouse, and Staten
Island quarantine station ca. 1423–1914 20
2.3 London fever hospital and Provincial isolation hospital ca. 1848–1915 22
2.4 Tuberculosis hospitals in the United States ca. 1910–1915 23
2.5 Monastic hospital at Ewelme, England, ca. 1457–1460 25
2.6 View and plan of the Narrenturm, Vienna, Austria, ca. 1784 25
3.1 Sunmount Sanatorium, Santa Fe 34
3.2 Cottage exterior No. 13 37
3.3 Presbyterian sanatorium cottages 38
4.1 Map of Suriname with the capital Paramaribo and the leprosy settlements Batavia
and Bethesda 44
4.2 Schematic map of the leprosy colony Batavia 45
4.3 Batavia dwellings 47
4.4 Schematic map of the leprosy colony Bethesda 49
4.5 Leprosy asylum Bethesda 50
4.6 Leprosy colony Bethesda 51
4.7 Bethesda 52
4.8 Bethesda 53
6.1 Legionella pneumophila bacteria 66
6.2 Joseph E. McDade, PhD (left) and Charles C. Shepard, MD, of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention 68
7.1 Example of corridor nook earlier proposed and being used by some hospitals 83
7.2 Corridor width as recommended by the UKDH 84
7.3 Suggested minimum corridor width 84
7.4 Example of an open-end corridor 85
7.5 Example of the courtyard approach 85
