Safety, nourishment, equilibrium, connectivity
Material human needs and physical conditions
The Make in Place Design Challenge will focus on meeting material needs while comparing the psychological effects of different approaches.
There is no denying the interrelatedness between material and nonmaterial satisfaction. In this challenge, the distinction has to do with redundancy. A working system should account for physical survival and material well-being with minimum redundancy (fewest solutions) when spending time, labor, and resources. The same system should account for psychological health with maximum redundancy to reinforce each positive experience.
The list below attempts to break down needs into their simplest form without presupposing how each should be met. For example, a heat source for cooking doesn’t necessarily call for fuel. Clothing isn’t so much a material need as it is a way of maintaining body temperature and sanitation while expressing culture, values, and aesthetics. Although a list format suggests prioritization from most to least important, it’s impossible to weigh vital assets against each other or assign a linear order. In this design approach, all needs are considered together and met simultaneously.
SAFETY
Protection from violence & disaster
Preventing harm from human forces calls for short-term barriers against — and long-term mitigation of — assault, abuse, predation, abduction, and invasion. Preventing accidental injury can extend to collisions, explosions, structural hazards, drowning, and choking. Natural hazards and disasters include animal attacks, infestation, storms, flooding, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, fires, landslides, and volcanic eruptions. Although natural disasters are unpreventable, these events can be anticipated and designed for.
Sanitation
Preventing pathogen and parasite transmission includes disinfection, food handling, water treatment, solid waste management, clothes laundering, menstrual health resources, and stormwater flow.
Medical treatment & prevention
Specialized equipment, training, and ongoing research are necessary to diagnose, treat, manage, and prevent diseases, conditions, and injuries. Medical emergencies require rapid transport. Medical waste streams require coordination.
Medical care includes emergency medicine, surgery, epidemiology, and pharmaceuticals; specialist care, such as dermatology, dentistry, optometry, and audiology; care at different stages of life, including sexual and reproductive health, pediatrics, geriatrics, rehabilitation, and palliative care; and mental health support throughout.
Nontoxic environment
Halting exposure to unsafe chemicals, gases, pollutants, particulates, heavy metals, and radiation requires the removal and remediation of existing toxicants from air, water, soil, and food, along with the prevention of new contamination.
NOURISHMENT
Potable water
Nonsaline drinking water is safe for human consumption when it is free of disease vectors, parasites, solid waste, heavy metals, pollution, and other unsafe elements. Current water purification methods include chemical treatment, distillation, filtration, bio/phytoremediation, and exposure to ultraviolet light.
Raw food sources for complete nutrition
Human nutrition requires the steady availability of safe and edible food sources for cooking, preparation, or direct consumption. A combination of plant, animal, and fungal sources can provide essential macro- and micronutrients.
Cooking & food preparation
The human diet calls for one or more sources of heat as well as vessels and utensils for cooking. Many raw food sources require sterilization through heat to be safe for human consumption. Cooking prevents the transmission of foodborne illnesses from viruses, bacteria, and parasites and can delay food spoilage. Even when food is safe to eat raw, cooking techniques increase flavor while breaking down food to make it easier to digest. Cooking can diminish nutrient availability in some foods, weighing food safety and taste against nutrient loss.
Food storage
Surplus food can be preserved and stored for later consumption, delaying spoilage and preventing food waste. Traditional preservation methods include drying, dehydration, fermentation, salting, and smoking. Foods are stored by controlling pests, temperature, humidity, light exposure, and oxygen levels.
EQUILIBRIUM
Protection from the elements
Limiting human exposure to adverse atmospheric conditions is critical in preventing short- and long-term health issues, including impact-related injuries, breathing difficulties, inflammation, skin damage, and the ability to maintain body temperature. Protection from the elements calls for physical removal from or barriers against prolonged exposure to sunlight, wind, precipitation, radiation, and particulate matter — such as mold, smoke, and pollution.
Temperature regulation
Human health thrives within a narrow range of ambient temperatures called the thermal neutral zone. Existing for more than a short time outside of this range raises the metabolic effort needed to maintain core body temperature, which can lead to hypothermia, heat stroke, and compromised immune response. In extreme circumstances, vital processes begin to shut down. The thermal neutral zone is traditionally maintained using insulating material and apparel and manipulating temperatures in the immediate/indoor environment.
Conditions for restful sleep
Human health and longevity are directly related to sleep quality. Material conditions for deep and restorative sleep include limited exposure to light and sound, comfortable surroundings with support for neutral spinal posture, and temperatures at the cooler end of the thermal neutral zone. Human systems and daily activity should allow enough uninterrupted time for four to six 90-minute sleep cycles (totaling six to nine hours for adults). When logistics allow, these cycles should correspond with natural sleep-wake times, following the human circadian biological clock.
Light & visibility
Visual perception of the surrounding environment enables people to process and interpret information about color, motion, brightness, and depth. Illumination is necessary for safety and everyday functioning. It’s integral to human biological processes, including metabolic and hormonal systems, and directly affects sleep and mood. Because even low levels can disrupt sleep, light exposure must be calibrated by intensity and color. Over-illumination may increase headaches and raise blood pressure. The intensity and direction of artificial light sources can result in light pollution.
Self-care & personal health maintenance
Daily habits and lifestyle choices contribute to health, longevity, and socialization. Routine self-care is maintenance done by an individual or caregiver that is usually distinct from professional medical treatment (allowing for some overlap). It’s necessary for all ages and conditions. Tools and resources support cleansing, deodorizing, oral care, skin and sun care, hair care, ear and sinus care, shaving, cosmetics, and grooming. Self-care accounts for exercise and physical fitness and can include stretching, training, daily physical therapy or rehabilitation exercises, and massage therapy.
Alignment, ease & support
What we use and where we spend our time should be designed to support physical health with a particular focus on the musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and nervous systems. To prevent contact stress, repetitive strain injuries, overexertion, fatigue, joint issues, and eye strain (among other health issues), tools, facilities, and fixtures can promote posture, alignment, usability, accessibility, and states of low tension.
CONNECTIVITY
Communication over distance
People need to communicate with each other over distance for safety, information exchange, and personal connection. Communication must be instantaneous and synchronous for emergencies, disaster warnings, real-time decision-making, situational monitoring, and public health messaging. Emotional connection and near-term planning also benefit from synchronicity. Other communications may be synchronous or asynchronous, including non-emergency information and idea exchange, cross-cultural exchange, long-term decision-making and planning, trade logistics, education, and media access.
Mobility
It’s critical to move people and items from one place to another. Mobility encompasses individual movement, transport, transit, and travel to support daily activities and responsibilities, food systems and trade, exercise, opportunities, and quality of life. The movement of people and goods can take place over land, air, and water. However, traditional modes require heavy use of land and resources. Open movement must keep the spread of diseases in check. People need pathways to mobility that are healthy, safe from collisions, and free of emissions.
Caregiving & social support
Social support is integral to human health. People depend on the availability of other people to provide care and assistance. Dependence levels vary but can, at various life stages, include help with feeding, bathing, dressing, toileting, transportation, meal preparation, laundering, cleaning, caretaking, organizing, and administrative tasks. People of all ages, conditions, and circumstances need direct personal support from family members, friends, community members, and healthcare professionals.
Caregiving is critical to infants, children, seniors, people in vulnerable social situations, and those with illnesses, disabilities, or mental health conditions. Care is embedded in specialties like children’s education and language interpretation. Less considered circumstances that call for care include cultural translation, postpartum support for parents, peer mediation, bereavement assistance, relocation support, refugee resettlement, health advocacy, safe spaces, harm reduction and sober sitting, mentorship, and general companionship.
Like medical treatment and self-care, social support does not center on physical objects. Humans are irreplaceable as primary resources. On the receiving end, the positive emotional experience of being cared for warrants redundancy and reinforcement. On the giving end, the administration of care draws from limited stocks. Time and emotional labor are finite. People in caregiving roles exist on a physical plane, needing replenishment and manageable workloads. This labor benefits from training or specialist education. As a result, capable and reliable personal support reduces overall material input needs.
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