During perception with our senses, interactions of different environmental stressors at brain level might occur. Previous studies have shown cross-modal effects between sound and odour. To test these effects of different sounds and levels of sounds on the perception of sound, temperature, odour, and light, as well as a number of physiological indicators, sixteen students were exposed to four different sounds (two indoor: mechanical ventilation & people talking; two outdoor: quiet rural area & city centre area) and two different sound pressure levels per sound, while sitting in a semi-lab environment. Bodily responses were sampled with wearable devices. Heart rate and breathing rate were monitored using a smart watch; EEG measurements were performed to assess their attention and mental relaxation levels; Acceptability and experience were assessed through a questionnaire to assess their comfort perception. Additionally, each student took a hearing test. The outcome showed when the traffic sound level increased, the students perceived the air as more smelly and less acceptable. The other sounds did not show any cross-modal effect. Moreover, heart rate and breathing rate significantly differed during the different tests, confirming that these two indicators can help to explain the physiological effect of noise as a stressor.

Research has shown that even though the indoor environmental conditions seem to comply with current standards and guidelines and those conditions seem ‘comfortable’ enough, staying indoors is not good for our health. Reasons for this discrepancy might be the fact that these guidelines (such as ventilation rate, lighting level, and temperature ranges) are mainly based on single-dose response relationships (effect modelling using dose-related indicators) for the physical stressors (e.g. odour, light, sound, and temperature) determined for an average adult person. They are aimed at preventing short-term discomfort rather than long-term negative health effects, ignoring situation-related aspects and different preferences and needs of occupants. A more comprehensive model, accounting for integrated effects of all stressors, and different preferences and needs of occupants in different scenarios and situations, based on situation modelling making use of building and occupant-related indicators, is introduced and partly validated in a series of field studies in different scenarios. Based on the outcome of these field studies and insights from other studies, the methods, indicators and in particular the human model are discussed. Research directions to go beyond the mainly comfort-based dose-related indicators in our IEQ (indoor environmental quality)-guidelines are proposed.

De via de lucht overgedragen infectieuze respiratoire deeltjes (IRDs), ook wel aerosolen genoemd, zijn de primaire route van overdracht voor respiratoire infectieuze ziektes zoals COVID-19 [1]. Klaslokalen hebben een verhoogd risico op besmetting vanwege de lange en hoge bezetting [2]. Deze overdracht kan dichtbij plaatsvinden, maar ook verder weg. Tijdens een door ZonMw gefinancierd veldonderzoek naar de verspreiding van het SARS-CoV-2 virus en de binnenmilieucondities in klaslokalen [3], bleek zowel de ventilatie als de temperatuur onvoldoende te zijn. Scholen hebben behoefte aan beheersbare maar ook betaalbare oplossingen. Mobiele luchtreinigers (MLRs) zijn een mogelijke (betaalbare) oplossing om overdracht van IRDs op lange afstand te verminderen. In opdracht van het Ministerie van Onderwijs Cultuur en Wetenschap werd daarom een vervolgonderzoek gestart met de vraag: zouden mobiele luchtreinigers in een toekomstige pandemie de situatie kunnen verbeteren?

People living in urban and industrialized societies, which are expanding globally, spend more than 90% of their time in the indoor environment, breathing indoor air (IA). Despite decades of research and advocacy, most countries do not have legislated indoor air quality (IAQ) performance standards for public spaces that address concentration levels of IA pollutants (1). Few building codes address operation, maintenance, and retrofitting, and most do not focus on airborne disease transmission. But the COVID-19 pandemic has made all levels of society, from community members to decision-makers, realize the importance of IAQ for human health, wellbeing, productivity, and learning. We propose that IAQ standards be mandatory for public spaces. Although enforcement of IAQ performance standards in homes is not possible, homes must be designed and equipped so that they could meet the standards.

As mandatory masking and social distancing measures decrease post-COVID-19, the risk of airborne pathogen transmission in crowded indoor spaces remains a significant public health concern. The pandemic highlighted the critical role of indoor air quality and ventilation in mitigating the spread of infectious diseases, underscoring the urgent need to improve our understanding and prediction of indoor airflow to minimise airborne transmission. In this review, studies on airborne transmission in indoor settings were systematically reviewed to identify research gaps and recommend changes in approach. The analysis is categorised into indoor airflow, dynamics of infectious respiratory particles (IRPs), and investigation methodologies. Findings reveal that almost 40% of the reviewed literature does not specify the type of indoor setting, with only 3% focusing on restaurant environments. Additionally, indoor air conditions are typically assumed to be constant, and respiratory activities are often limited to coughing and breathing. The review identifies the challenge of replicating the complex behaviour of IRPs in experiments and the computational expense of predicting turbulent indoor flows. Recommendations for future research include: i) focusing on social settings like restaurants, ii) considering varying air temperatures and humidity, iii) examining speech-related respiratory flows, and iv) employing visual and accurate tools to investigate particle-laden airflow. These insights aim to enhance public health guidelines and building designs to reduce the risk of airborne diseases.

To investigate the feasibility of using mobile air cleaners (MACs) in school classrooms for reducing respiratory aerosols, a test on aerosol removal of seven different types of MACs was conducted in a university classroom, for the optimal condition determined by a prior experimental study. Most of the MACs achieved a good level of clean air delivery rate (CADR) (900-1000 m3/h), and the CADR increased with the number of devices used. Based on the results, three MACs were further selected for conducting an ongoing field study in 45 classrooms at five Dutch primary schools. Each classroom was assigned one type of MAC with two devices, and was monitored for a period of six weeks with three weeks the devices turned on and three weeks off. The assessments of feasibility are based on measurements of indoor air quality, information on absenteeism of the pupils, and interviews with the occupants. The results are yet to be collected to draw further conclusions. However, problems were already encountered during the installation process of the devices which hindered the realization of the pre-determined strategies.

University students spend a considerable time at study places. The acoustical quality of these study places is one of the indoor environmental qualities (IEQ) that can have an impact on student’s health, comfort, and performance. The indoor soundscape approach has been introduced to better understand occupants’ sound perception and experience of sounds in relation to the environment. This study aims to explore the indoor soundscapes of home study places of these students by conducting semi-structured interviews with 23 university students with different profiles. For qualitative analysis, open coding was used. Sub-categories, based on the codes, and categories were created and assigned to the soundscape themes that are defined in ISO 12913-1. An affinity diagram consisting of the themes, categories, and sub-categories was initially developed. Then, it was validated through two workshops with participants. The results showed that the interpretation of the sound environment, responses, and outcomes differed among the students. In a previous study, 451 students were clustered in 5 clusters with similar acoustical preferences (profiles). Therefore, it is recommended to consider making the indoor soundscape approach applicable for different profiles of occupants.

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is an important aspect of maintaining human health and well-being, particularly since people spend most of their time indoors. Carpets, with their large surface area and dense fibre piles, have the potential to significantly impact IAQ by emitting and absorbing volatile organic compounds (VOC) from building materials and human activities. The cleaning effect of wool carpets regarding the sorption of odours from two sources of pollution: hardboard and sweaty underwear (as a proxy for bio-effluents), was investigated with an untrained panel of subjects assessing the odour intensity and the acceptability. Tests were performed in three different test environments, including a sniffing table, CLIMPAQs, and full-scale test chambers. The outcome showed that wool carpets can potentially clean the air of odours in small-scale environments, where the wool carpet covers the floor and walls of the test environment, and the odour sources are in contact with the wool carpet. However, the results were less conclusive in on scale scenarios where wool carpets only covered the floor. Overall, wool carpets have the potential to ad(b)sorb odorous emissions, but only when these emissions are near the wool carpet, and thus can have the opportunity to be ad(b)sorbed.

Changing outdoor conditions, i.e. higher outdoor air temperature, higher occurrence of heatwaves and outdoor air pollution, increase the risk of overheating and accumulation of air pollution in homes. Previous studies showed that high indoor air temperatures and air pollution affect occupants’ health, resulting in cardio-vascular and respiratory diseases, eyes and skin symptoms, and mortality. Measures to increase energy efficiency of renovated and newly built homes can further increase health risks during extreme weather events and can increase the outdoor temperature. Moreover, the rise of the outdoor air temperature in Europe is higher than the global average.

Therefore, understanding of the extent of current overheating and indoor air pollution and of the contributing factors is necessary to identify the required adaptability of dwellings in Europe to changing outdoor conditions. The objective of this study is to systematically review consequences of changing outdoor conditions, building characteristics, and technology on the indoor environment and occupants’ health in homes in European countries during summer.

This review focuses on empirical studies, as these enable to capture real world interactions of occupants and buildings in relation to outdoor conditions. Varying outdoor conditions, building-, and occupant-related aspects in different European climate zones are discussed. Main findings are that overheating already occurs in normal summers in temperate and northern European countries, while variation in overheating is related to occupants’ adaptative behaviour and building-related aspects. Based on the review, it is suggested to investigate adaptability of dwellings to changing occupants’ needs, new energy efficient technologies, and changing outdoor conditions.

Previous studies have shown that sound influences students both physiologically and perceptually. However, most of these studies focussed on the effects of sounds at group-level, ignoring individual differences. Therefore, we investigated which indicators can be used to identify differences in bodily responses and perceptual assessments of each individual when exposed to four different sounds. First, based on an audiometric test, the hearing acuity of 15 students (from five different profiles based on their acoustical preferences and needs) was measured. Then, two sound exposure experiments were conducted in the SenseLab: direct sound exposure using earbuds in a laboratory setting, and indirect sound exposure with speakers in a real room setting. During each experiment, the attention level (AL), mental relaxation level (MRL), heart rate (HR), and respiration rate (RR) were measured with wearable devices, and students made perceptual assessments of each condition. The percentage of change normalised the four bodily response measurements among students. Based on correlation analysis and t-tests, bodily responses, and perceptual assessments across experiments were compared, at group-level and individual-level. Six students, who suffered from mild hearing loss in low-frequency sounds, showed bodily responses such as increased HR during exposure to low-frequency sound conditions. Perceptual assessments of different sound types during both lab experiments substantiated the acoustical preferences of the students from the five profiles. Bodily responses showed no strong nor significant correlations with perceptual assessments during the direct sound exposure experiments. Differences in bodily responses and perceptual assessments between the two experiments and between group-level and individual-level were observed in AL. It is concluded that hearing acuity and type of sound (sound frequencies) are key indicators for identifying differences in bodily responses (such as HR and RR) and perceptual assessment. For future research, it is crucial to consider incorporating audiometric tests, bodily responses such as HR and RR, and perceptual assessments in this type of investigations.

In the realm of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting, the spotlight typically focuses on factors like carbon emissions, social responsibility, and corporate governance. [...]

Mobile air cleaners (MACs) have been proposed as a supplementary solution to combat the spread of respiratory aerosols in school classrooms. To determine which, where and how to use MACs, seven small- and medium-sized MACs were selected and assessed for different settings and configurations by 1) a decay test for determining the clean air delivery rate (CADR), and 2) a perception test with a panel of subjects, together with physical measurements, of noise and air movement. The findings show that to achieve the desired CADR (appr. 1000 m3/h for 30 students per classroom), the key factors are the induced airflow pattern and the location of the MACs. MACs with an upward air supply toward the occupied zone showed much higher CADR (max. 775–1332 m3/h) than those with a horizontal air supply (max. 219–333 m3/h). Moreover, using multiple devices simultaneously was crucial when the room size was increased, and combining mechanical ventilation could improve aerosol removal. Achieving a sufficient CADR would always lead to a noise level above the limit of 35 dB(A), yet sometimes the rating of the panel was more than 50% acceptable. The air velocities mostly fulfilled the requirement (<0.2 m/s), which aligned with the positive panel assessment. Hence, the evaluation by a panel of subjects can help to optimize the use of MACs in a classroom.

Airconditioning heeft een negatief imago: het zou ons minder tolerant maken voor temperatuurveranderingen; produceert achtergrondlawaai; zorgt voor tocht; kan de lucht verontreinigen; is moeilijk te bedienen; heeft onderhoud nodig; en gebruikt veel energie. Het is echter in principe economisch mogelijk om installaties te maken en in stand te houden die zowel energetisch verantwoord zijn als een gezond en comfortabel klimaat realiseren. De aanbevelingen en informatie in deze gids zijn bruikbaar voor architecten, installateurs, adviseurs, en voor personen die verantwoordelijk zijn voor het onderhoud van een klimaatinstallatie in een niet-industriële omgeving: bijvoorbeeld je eigen woonomgeving, op school of in een kantoorsituatie!

Understanding students' preferences of their study place, in particular acoustical and psychosocial preferences, is important to students' health and comfort. This study aimed to identify clusters of students with similar acoustical and psychosocial preferences, and to identify reasons for certain preferences of students in each cluster. A mixed-methods approach was applied, consisting of a questionnaire, which was completed by 451 bachelor students, and a field study conducted with 23 students from the same sample. The questionnaire data included among others acoustical and psychosocial preferences scores, while the field study data comprised interview transcripts, building checklists, and sound pressure level measurements. The questionnaire data were analysed using TwoStep cluster analysis to identify clusters of students based on their acoustical and psychosocial preferences. This produced five clusters of students that significantly differed in 14 variables, including preferences and perception of indoor environmental quality (e.g., noise from outside). Then, the field study data were analysed and categorised based on the five clusters of the students. The outcome explained the aspects associated with the acoustical preferences of students in each cluster. Building-related indicators such as the location of the building were found as an aspect that could affect the student's acoustical preferences. This study provides insight into the profiles of students based on their acoustical and psychosocial preferences, which are important for their health and comfort at their study places.

A significant number of young people live in temporary homes, which are designed to fulfil basic needs and provide space for normal activities. However, it is unclear what those basic activities are. Moreover, the indoor environmental quality is often left out of the meaning of home, although activities and objects can affect its experienced quality. We therefore verbally and visually explored how young temporary dwellers appropriate and experience their homes, including the indoor environmental quality. Fourteen young adults took part in semi-structured interviews and photographed their most used as well as their favourite place. The interviews were transcribed and analysed following an interpretative phenomenological analysis. The experiences of appropriation in the home were connected to the physical environment through an analysis of the photos and floor plans (sketched by the researcher) using an architectural analysis from the user perspective. The outcome showed that the young adults appropriated their home in three ways: by familiarising the place with objects and “normal” activities, organising where things are and when they happen, and managing the indoor environmental quality through activities and objects. It is concluded that qualitative and visual analyses can assist with making recommendations to improve the design of temporary housing.

Research has shown that, even though the indoor environmental conditions seem to comply with current guidelines and those conditions seem ‘comfortable’ enough, staying indoors is not good for our health. Reasons for this discrepancy might be the fact that these guidelines are based on single-dose response relationships to prevent negative effects, and that the criteria are determined for an average adult person, ignoring interactions occurring between stressors at human as well as environmental level. The fact that we are dealing with individuals in different scenarios (e.g. homes, offices, schools) and situations (e.g. sitting behind a desk, listening to the teacher, cooking, sleeping,) is ignored.

Research has shown that students differ in their preferences of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and psychosocial aspects of their study places. Since previous studies have mainly focused on identifying these preferences rather than investigating the different profiles of students, this study aimed at profiling students based on their IEQ and psychosocial preferences of their study places. A questionnaire was completed by 451 bachelor students of the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. A TwoStep cluster analysis was performed twice separately. First, to cluster the students based on their IEQ preferences, and second based on their psychosocial preferences. This resulted in three clusters under each cluster model. Then, the overlap between these two models was determined and produced nine unique profiles of students, which are: (1) the concerned perfectionist, (2) the concerned extrovert, (3) the concerned non-perfectionist, (4) the visual concerned perfectionist, (5) the visual concerned extrovert, (6) visual concerned non-perfectionist, (7) the unconcerned introvert, (8) the unconcerned extrovert, and (9) the unconcerned non-perfectionist. A number of variables was found to be significantly different among these profiles. This study’s outcome indicates that studying the overlap between IEQ and psychosocial preferences is required to understand the different possible profiles of students.

This is an account that should be heard of an important struggle: the struggle of a large group of experts who came together at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to warn the world about the risk of airborne transmission and the consequences of ignoring it. We alerted the World Health Organization about the potential significance of the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the urgent need to control it, but our concerns were dismissed. Here we describe how this happened and the consequences. We hope that by reporting this story we can raise awareness of the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and the need to be open to new evidence, and to prevent it from happening again. Acknowledgement of an issue, and the emergence of new evidence related to it, is the first necessary step towards finding effective mitigation solutions.

Sounds (e.g., human activity, nature, building systems) are one of the indoor environmental stimuli that may have positive and/or negative effects on students’ well-being and performance in educational buildings. Students in educational buildings have individual acoustical preferences and needs as portrayed by occupant-related indicators, for example perception. Acoustical guidelines for educational buildings are generally focused on acoustical performance in terms of dose-related (e.g., sound pressure level) and building-related indicators (e.g., sound absorbing walls), while occupant-related indicators (e.g., heart rate) are rarely mentioned. In contrast, previous studies such as indoor soundscape studies, do take into consideration occupant-related indicators, including physiological and psychological. Therefore, this study aimed at summarizing these indicators in a comprehensive overview that is essential for investigating the students’ acoustical preferences and needs in educational buildings. A literature review of relevant studies in the domain of indoor acoustics and soundscape was carried out. A number of key indicators (occupant-related, dose-related, building-related) and methods that are fundamental to be considered were identified. Only in a few studies, students’ acoustical preferences and needs were investigated by considering occupant-related indicators (both physiological and psychological). In addition, dose-related indicators of other indoor environmental quality (IEQ) factors and building-related indicators were rarely taken into account in previous studies.

Indoor environmental quality is still described with quantitative dose-related indicators, expressed in number and/or ranges of numbers for each of the factors (indoor air, lighting, acoustics, and thermal aspects). Interactions of stressors and effects at and between human and environment level are ignored. Individual differences in needs and preferences of occupants (over time) are not accounted for. We need a more complex research model and other indicators than the dose-related indicators used in our guidelines: building-related and occupant-related indicators.