Analyzing Health Concepts in the WHO Housing and Health Guidelines (2018) and Their Architectural Reinterpretation

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 Energy Research Center, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran

2 Department of Architecture, Kas.C.Islamic Azad University, Kashan, Iran.

10.22034/ats.2026.2085970.1027
Abstract
Housing, as the most fundamental platform for human life, plays a decisive role in ensuring the physical, mental, and social health of its residents. In recent years, the World Health Organization, by publishing the document "Housing and Health Guidelines," has provided a comprehensive framework for explaining the relationship between the quality of dwelling and health outcomes. This document introduces housing not merely as a physical commodity, but as a structural factor within the public health system. The present study, utilizing the method of qualitative content analysis, extracts the fundamental concepts of health in this document and then reinterprets these concepts in relation to architectural structure. The aim of this research is to transfer the discourse on health from the level of merely sanitary recommendations to the level of the logic of spatial organization, physical structure, environmental qualities, and the architectural design system. The findings indicate that many of the concepts raised in the WHO document have deep roots in fundamental architectural principles such as daylighting, natural ventilation, spatial hierarchy, human scale, physical safety, and adherence to spatial justice; however, in the architectural design and policy-making process, this connection has not been systematically redefined. The paper ultimately suggests that the concept of "healthy housing" should be rethought as a design framework, and not merely a health criterion, within the theoretical and practical structure of architecture.

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Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 11 March 2026

  • Receive Date 19 February 2026
  • Revise Date 26 February 2026
  • Accept Date 11 March 2026
  • First Publish Date 11 March 2026
  • Publish Date 11 March 2026