Indoor environment quality in hospital in industrial zone case study DRC
Hospitals in the DRC's industrial zones sickening patients and staff—not from disease, but from poor building conditions. This lecture discusses how indoor quality worsens urban vulnerability and how sustainable construction can help. The built environment is a health intervention and should be treated as such.
Organizer: Jean Paul Kapuya Bulaba Nyembwe, Department of Civil Engineering
May 20, 2026 | 15:40 - 16:05
(passed)
Summary
Healthcare facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo face a challenge that goes beyond medical capacity: the buildings themselves are making people sick. This lecture examines indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in hospitals in industrial zones, where inadequate ventilation, thermal discomfort, poor acoustics, and the presence of pollutants create environments that compound patient vulnerability and diminish the effectiveness of medical care. Drawing on civil engineering research from the University of Mbujimayi, it assesses how sustainable construction principles -applied at the design, materials, and systems level -can resolve these conditions without prohibitive cost. The lecture makes a broader argument: the built environment is a public health intervention, and treating it as such is essential to any serious urban health strategy in low-resource contexts.