The health in Healthcare| designing for air

Designing for mental health: Conundrums of balancing indoor air quality on care-frameworks and Energy Use in NHS Healthcare Environments

As the NHS faces increasing demands from an ageing population, the intersection of dementia care, environmental quality, and energy efficiency has become a critical area of concern. This lecture explores how behavioural patterns, such as aggression and stress, associated with dementia interact with the built environment, particularly in relation to indoor air quality and energy use in healthcare settings.

Drawing on our recent research and case studies from NHS facilities, the session will examine how cognitive and sensory impairments influence spatial navigation, thermal comfort perception, and air quality sensitivity among dementia patients. It will highlight the challenges of balancing infection control, ventilation standards, and energy targets while maintaining environments that are psychologically and physiologically supportive.

The lecture will also address the implications of current NHS Net Zero goals and climate change, considering how energy-saving measures—such as reduced heating or mechanical ventilation—may inadvertently affect vulnerable patients. Through a multidisciplinary lens, the talk will propose design strategies and policy recommendations that align dementia-friendly principles with sustainable building performance.

Attendees will gain insights into:

• The behavioural responses of dementia patients to environmental stimuli.
• The role of indoor air quality in patient wellbeing and staff performance.
• The tensions and synergies between energy efficiency and therapeutic design in NHS buildings.

Neveen looks at architecture as a mediator for healthy and sustainable indoors and outdoors environments. With a background in architecture and urban design, she integrates her research into teaching in the design studio and environmental design lectures at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She is currently interested in the impact of built environments on mental health and well-being, and the implementation of Salutogenic theories in environmental design in hospitals and care settings. She has supervised 11 PhDs to completion and examined PhDs at over 30 universities nationally and internationally.

Neveen has over 130 original research journal articles, book chapters, refereed conference papers and books, that reflect her main teaching and research. Her research highlights the relationships between Architectural design, building and urban environmental performance simulation, and human well-being from an environmental psychology perspective.