What We Do

Inadequate housing makes it impossible for people, particularly vulnerable and at-risk communities, to achieve health.

ARCHIVE Global (Architecture for Health in Vulnerable Environments) is an award-winning international organization that uses housing design as a key preventative strategy in improving health outcomes in vulnerable communities around the world. Through simple, innovative, and cost-effective built environment interventions paired with community health awareness campaigns, our research has proven that these strategies improve the health-outcomes of our beneficiaries.

Learn more about Our Story.

Housing and Health

  • Household materials can host insects that cause diseases such as Chagas and scrub typhus.
  • Food stored in unhygienic environments can host life-threatening bacteria, mold, and lead to rodent-borne illness.
  • Inadequate access to water and sanitation are a common source of diarrheal disease, hepatitis, and many neglected tropical diseases.
  • Dirt floors carry parasites, bacteria, and viruses that cause diarrhea, hepatitis, typhoid fever, and neglected tropical diseases.

Housing and Health

  • Windows, doors, and eaves are entry points for insects, rodents, and animals, exposing families to vector-borne disease, rodent-borne illnesses, and more.
  • Lack of ventilation can exacerbate respiratory infections and the spread of infectious diseases.
  • Debris around a home provides a breeding ground for malaria-carrying mosquitoes and hiding spaces for deadly snakes.
  • Overcrowding exacerbates the spread of infectious diseases and increases diseases spread through proximity to livestock and other animals.

Housing and Health

  • Asbestos, found in many building materials, is known to cause pleural diseases and various cancers such as Mesothelioma.
  • Inadequate community resources such as lack of access to markets, and green spaces increase levels of stress, anxiety, social isolation, and reduces mental health.
  • Lead can be found in homes’ pipes, paint, or household objects built in the US before 1978, and can cause anemia, kidney and brain damage, and cognitive impairment in children. 
  • Radon is a colorless and odorless gas found in the ground that reaches homes through contaminated groundwater and dirt floors. It causes physical disabilities and various cancers.

Housing and Health

  • Household materials can host insects that cause diseases such as Chagas and scrub typhus.
  • Food stored in unhygienic environments can host life-threatening bacteria, mold, and lead to rodent-borne illness.
  • Inadequate access to water and sanitation are a common source of diarrheal disease, hepatitis, and many neglected tropical diseases.
  • Dirt floors carry parasites, bacteria, and viruses that cause diarrhea, hepatitis, typhoid fever, and neglected tropical diseases.

Housing and Health

  • Windows, doors, and eaves are entry points for insects, rodents, and animals, exposing families to vector-borne disease, rodent-borne illnesses, and more.
  • Lack of ventilation can exacerbate respiratory infections and the spread of infectious diseases.
  • Debris around a home provides a breeding ground for malaria-carrying mosquitoes and hiding spaces for deadly snakes.
  • Overcrowding exacerbates the spread of infectious diseases and increases diseases spread through proximity to livestock and other animals.

Housing and Health

  • Asbestos, found in many building materials, is known to cause pleural diseases and various cancers such as Mesothelioma.
  • Inadequate community resources such as lack of access to markets, and green spaces increase levels of stress, anxiety, social isolation, and reduces mental health.
  • Lead can be found in homes’ pipes, paint, or household objects built in the US before 1978, and can cause anemia, kidney and brain damage, and cognitive impairment in children. 
  • Radon is a colorless and odorless gas found in the ground that reaches homes through contaminated groundwater and dirt floors. It causes physical disabilities and various cancers.

Our Work

Each of our projects focuses on one specific health concern and one specific built intervention to improve the targeted health concern, and encompass research, the design of the built environment, and advocacy. Communities of need exist in both developing and developed countries, and our projects reflect that. Explore all of our Work.

News & Insights

Stay informed with updates, projects, reports, and upcoming events on the ARCHIVE Instagram Feed.

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Jul 20

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Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection, found Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection, found in tropical and sub-tropical climates worldwide, mostly in urban and semi-urban areas. The WHO has estimated an approximate 390 million dengue virus infections every year. Researchers from Queensland, Australia injected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with a bacteria called Wolbachia, which prevents them from being infected by dengue viruses. Wolbachia is a fast-spreading bacteria and passes down mainly from insect mothers to their children. To date, Wolbachia has been found to exist in at least 40 percent of all insect species, making it one of the most successful microbes on the planet. Since Wolbachia spreads very quickly, even a small number of Wolbachia carrier mosquitoes released into a neighborhood can transform almost all of the local insects making them dengue-free within a few months. @wmpglobal To learn more about this incredible research and more visit Healththroughhousing.org #15yearsofarchive #15yearsofbuildinghealthdifferently #denguecontrol

Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection, found in tropical and sub-tropical climates worldwide, mostly in urban and semi-urban areas. The WHO has estimated an approximate 390 million dengue virus infections every year.

Researchers from Queensland, Australia injected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with a bacteria called Wolbachia, which prevents them from being infected by dengue viruses.

Wolbachia is a fast-spreading bacteria and passes down mainly from insect mothers to their children. To date, Wolbachia has been found to exist in at least 40 percent of all insect species, making it one of the most successful microbes on the planet.

Since Wolbachia spreads very quickly, even a small number of Wolbachia carrier mosquitoes released into a neighborhood can transform almost all of the local insects making them dengue-free within a few months. @wmpglobal

To learn more about this incredible research and more visit Healththroughhousing.org

#15yearsofarchive #15yearsofbuildinghealthdifferently #denguecontrol ...

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On the Blog

Find out the latest in health and the built environment on our Blog Feed.

COVID-19 Reminds Us of the Role of Housing in the Fight for Women's Equality

COVID-19 has brought the issue of housing to the forefront as the world was instructed to shelter in place. Unfortunately, the effects of this pandemic have been disproportionately worse for women around the world and has been hard-hitting in key areas like financial stability and economic growth, health and safety, and has hindered progress in […]

Interview with Mario Novas, Director of Hacer Mucho Con Poco

In February, ARCHIVE hosted an exclusive screening of the film Hacer Mucho Con Poco, offering an exciting and inspiring look at a new “architectural movement” coming out of Ecuador. The film focused on how the discipline can be made more accessible through creative uses of local materials and new approaches to funding. Hacer Mucho Con […]

Architecture and Global Health: Demonstrating the Links

The built environment mediates our exposure to the outer world, yet how it does so is rarely discussed- probably because there is little credible evidence in the first place on how exactly actions in the built environment affect health, nutrition, or other spheres of life. How should such a conversation begin? The work that ARCHIVE does in low- […]

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