**2.1 The theory of Building Medicine**

The management concept of Building Medicine is that the behaviours and management models of human health and building health are similar in terms of their structures, functions, life cycles, and service years. Theories, methodologies, mechanisms or roles played medical science can be applied analogously to building health management. The analogous application considers theories and practices of the building construction and maintenance, evaluates constraints and limitations in applying human medicine approaches to building health management. The goal of building health management is to uphold the health and safety of the buildings and their occupants or even to promote the sustainability, environment friendliness, artistry or economical benefits of the buildings. Furthermore, the study will further explore how the theories of medical science can be applied analogously to buildings at different stages of their life cycles, such as its health system, legal framework, health promotion activities, emergency treatments, diagnosis procedures, patient care, health administration, pathology or misdiagnosis (Chang, 2006).

Fig. 1. Reverse thinking: Enhancing the research strength of technological and engineering fields by borrowing concepts from medical filed

As shown by Figure 1, except for the pubic health field, which has a close tie with the medical field, the currently available educational and technological applications are more oriented toward the field of electrical engineering, computer science, or civil engineering. Applying these technologies to medical treatment or research is part of the trend of crossdisciplinary collaboration, which can be also seen in the organization restructuring of academic institutions. For example, in National Taiwan University, the Institute of Biomedical Engineering was founded under the College of Engineering in 1988, and Graduate Institute of Biomedical Electronic and Bioinformatics was created under College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 2006. The two institutes were established to enhance the research strength of the medical science field. In contrast with the support lent to the medical field by the engineering field, the concept of Building Medicine takes a reverse turn of thinking: In view of the speedy progress and thorough thinking of medical field, why not apply its well-developed health management mechanism and methods in the medical field analogously to building health management? In this way, architects or civil engineers who not only know how to design and construct buildings, they can also learn how to be building doctors and safeguard building safety and healthy living environments.
