Air Quality Matters

This week, we dive into a groundbreaking longitudinal study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology titled Damp Housing Conditions as a Determinant of Psychological Distress: A Longitudinal Analysis of the British Household Panel Survey, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about housing and mental health: What if the single biggest barrier to addressing dampn...

This week, we sit down with Bill McQuade, outgoing President of ASHRAE, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about progress in the built environment: What if the single biggest barrier to transforming buildings isn't our lack of technical knowledge—but our failure to put human health and wellbeing at the centre of every design, maintenance, and policy decision we make?...

This week, we dive into a groundbreaking paper published in the Journal of Energy and Buildings titled A Methodology for Evaluating the Effects of Personalized Environmental Control Systems (PECs) on Building Whole Life Carbon CO2 Emissions, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about building design and decarbonisation: What if the single biggest opportunity to slash ca...

This week, we sit down with Professor Lidia Morawska, one of the world's leading voices in air quality science and airborne infection transmission, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about progress in indoor air quality: What if the single biggest barrier to transforming the built environment isn't our lack of scientific knowledge—but our inability to convert public h...

This week, we dive into a groundbreaking study from Dublin City University published in the Journal of Housing Studies titled Transforming Social Housing: Moving Beyond Tenant Blame to Address Systemic Indoor Environmental Quality Challenges for Healthy Homes in Ireland, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about mould and dampness in social housing: What if the single...

This week, we dive into a thought-provoking commentary published in the Journal of Health Security titled Catch Me If You Can: Reducing Infectious Disease Through Better Indoor Air Quality and Bio Surveillance, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about protecting public health: What if the single biggest barrier to preventing the next pandemic isn't our lack of scienti...

This week, we sit down with Ciaran Byrne, Director of National Retrofit, and Brian McIntyre, Program Manager for High Performance Building Technologies at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about decarbonising the built environment: Key Topics Discussed: The Energy Security Reality: You can't control the cost of ener...

This week, we dive into a fascinating paper from the Journal of Sustainable Futures titled Co-creating Sustainable Innovations in Irish Social Housing Through Participatory Research, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about indoor air quality intervention: What if the single biggest barrier to deploying environmental sensors in homes isn't the technology—but the compl...

This week, we sit down with Kwok Wai THam, President of Indoor Air 2026 with Vice Presidents, Yvonne Soh, and Chandra Sekhar, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about the evolution of indoor air quality: What if the single most important shift in the last two decades isn't just our deeper understanding of the science—but our recognition that clean indoor air is now a...

This week, we dive into a fascinating full scale experimental study published in the Journal of Indoor Environments titled Indoor Laundry Drying: Full Scale Determination of Water Emissions Rates and Impact on Thermal Comfort, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about energy efficiency advice: What if the single most common energy saving recommendation—drying clothes i...

This week, we sit down with Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about healthy buildings: What if the single biggest barrier to transforming the built environment isn't our lack of knowledge about indoor environmental quality—but our inability to communicate complexity in ways that in...

This week, we dive into a fascinating paper from Douglas Booker published in the journal Athermira titled Unstable Air: How COVID-19 Remade Knowing Air Quality in School Classrooms, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about indoor air quality intervention: What if the single most important lesson from the pandemic isn't that we need to measure air quality—but that we n...

This week, we sit down with Christopher Mueller, Global Director of the High Purity Segment at AAF International (American Air Filters), to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about indoor air quality: What if the single biggest gap in our approach to healthy buildings isn't particulate filtration—but our complete failure to address the invisible chemical soup we're breat...

This week, we dive into a groundbreaking computational fluid dynamics study from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden that fundamentally challenges how we think about portable air cleaners in care homes: What if the single most important decision about air cleaning isn't which device you buy—but where you put it in the room? During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, care homes experienced...

This week, we sit down with Mikael Börjesson, Future Solutions and Public Affairs Director at Swegon Group, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about sustainability in the HVAC industry: What if the biggest transformation in ventilation isn't about technology or performance anymore—but about fundamentally rethinking how we manufacture, install, use, and reuse the syste...

This week, we sit down with Ben Jones, Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham and one of the lead authors of AM10, CIBSE's guide to natural ventilation in non-domestic buildings, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about ventilation strategy: What if the oldest approach to ventilation—natural airflow—still has a critical role to play in some of the most ad...

This week, we sit down with Danny Ashton, founder and host of HouseFresh, a consumer comparisons and testing YouTube channel and website for residential air cleaners, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we buy, trust, and understand indoor air quality technology: What if the air cleaner market is deliberately designed to confuse you—and what if the only way to cut through the n...

This week, we step slightly outside the building envelope to examine a question that fundamentally challenges everything we think we know about air pollution: What if the metric the entire world uses to measure air quality is structurally blind to the most dangerous particles we breathe? The document is a perspective piece published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, titled Air Qual...

This week, we sit down with Jason Jones, Director of Air Quality Management at Fellowes, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we sell, specify, and sustain indoor air quality solutions in the real world: What if the biggest barrier to clean indoor air isn't technology or science—but the economic conversation we're having with the people who actually have to write the cheques? Ja...

This week, we examine a document that represents a profound shift in how we think about school environments: What if the debate over airborne transmission and clean air in schools is finally over—and the real fight is just beginning? The document is titled Ventilation and Air Quality in Education and Childcare Settings, published on 24 February 2026 by the UK Department for Education. It applies s...

This week, we sit down with Stephanie Taylor, a unique physician architect whose career is dedicated to bridging the deep chasm between the medical profession and the built environment, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about buildings: What if the real problem isn't just that our buildings are failing us—but that we're measuring the wrong things entirely? As medical...

This week, we tackle a question that cuts through decades of technical progress and scientific consensus: What if the reason we still don't have clean indoor air isn't because we lack the technology—but because we lack the policy to actually implement it? The paper is a policy commentary titled Federal and State Policy Opportunities to Improve Indoor Air Quality, published in the Journal of Health...

This week, we sit down with Frank Kelly, Professor at Imperial College London and Director of the Environmental Research Group, to examine a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about air pollution: What if the real danger isn't just how much dust we're breathing, but what that dust is made of and what it does to our bodies at a cellular level? For over three decades, Frank Kelly ha...

This week, we dive into a question that challenges one of the most common assumptions in building energy efficiency: What if the chemical tests we use to validate air cleaning technology are completely missing the point—and what if the human nose is actually the most reliable instrument we have? The paper is titled A Method for Testing the Gas Phase Air Cleaners Using Sensory Assessment of Air Qua...

This week, we sit down with Mark Lynn, Managing Director of Eden Renewable Innovations and Chair of the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products, to explore a question that cuts to the heart of indoor air quality: What if the materials we bring into our buildings are the forgotten foundation of healthy indoor air—and what if natural materials offer solutions we've systematically overlooked for d...