Conference Agenda

Managing the indoor microbiome is an underutilized dimension of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), holding significant potential to optimize occupant health, well-being, and building performance. This paper discusses the current understanding of a healthy building microbiome and identifies critical gaps in existing research that must be addressed in order to integrate the building microbiome into IEQ performance metrics. It explores the interplay between indoor and outdoor air quality, microbial communities, occupant health, and configurable building factors such as natural versus mechanical ventilation, air cleaning technologies, humidity control, surface properties of materials, and space utilization. Additionally, it explores the influences of cultural practices, socioeconomic status, and proximity to outdoor air hazards on microbial exposures and health outcomes, providing an important opportunity to decrease environmental inequities.

While optimizing IEQ for occupant health, productivity, and building performance is increasingly incorporated into sustainability goals and climate resilience, understanding the role of indoor microbiomes is lacking. We see a future of building design for healthy building microbiomes using microbial sampling tools, health data, real-time smart sensor technologies, and machine learning models. This could lead to transformative IEQ policies and best practices, fostering buildings that simultaneously support beneficial microbes, mitigate harmful pathogens, and thus enhance occupant health. This framing paper’s intended audience includes researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

The health risks of heat exposure are well established, particularly when temperatures exceed minimum mortality thresholds (MMTs). While most epidemiological research focuses on outdoor temperatures, this study adapts a burden-of-disease framework to estimate acute health impacts from indoor heat exposure using Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). We developed a new harm intensity metric to quantify DALYs per degree of daily indoor temperature exceedance above the MMT. The method combines risk estimates, incidence rates, damage factors, and indoor temperature profiles. We applied this approach to monitored social housing in Bolzano, Italy, during summer 2024. Four scenarios were analysed, varying by age group (all ages & 65+) and two MMTs (24.4°C & 28°C ). Inputs were based on meta-analyses of temperature-mortality associations and Global Burden of Disease data. Estimated impacts ranged from 0.005 to 0.022 DALYs/day for a population of 791, with higher burdens in older adults and at lower thresholds. The highest burden (0.022 DALYs/day) was observed in the 65+ group using the 24.4°C threshold . This framework supports the integration of health metrics into building and housing assessments. By expressing harm in DALYs, it enables comparison with other environmental risks and offers a foundation for future research and policy development.