Red LatamHaus

Presentation of the LatamHaus Network in the UN Latin American and the Caribbean Climate Week 202

Indoor air quality in low energy homes in Mexico City

This work looks into the indoor air quality at homes in Mexico City, and the use of the PassivHaus building certification as a way to improve it. For this purpose, monitoring in some homes in Mexico City is being carried out. Low-energy homes often address airtightness as a measurement to assure thermal comfort with the lowest energy consumption possible. But, it is known that air other problems might arise by addressing airtightness; such as ventilation, air pollution and mould. This paper focuses on IAQ and describes the possible implications of IAQ in low-energy homes in Mexico

Personal exposure to indoor air pollution for hybrid office workers in the UK – pilot study

The recent COVID-19 pandemic changed the working patterns worldwide with remote working and flexible hours. In many cases, employees and employers alike have favoured a hybrid working approach between the office and work from home, raising concerns about the indoor environmental quality at home and the office. Hybrid working and a change in commuting behaviours make it critical to understand the patterns of personal exposure to indoor air pollution during commuting and working time. This pilot study discusses the results from IAQ monitoring during long commute transects by train and car and during working remotely from home and in the office. Using a wearable air pollution sensor (Plume Labs, 2021), PM1, PM2.5, PM10 and NO2 were measured at 1-minute intervals during commuting (by train and car) to Lancaster University from different parts of the UK and working time (office and home). This paper reports the NO2 results from three train and four car journeys in the UK between November and January 2022.The aim is to investigate exposure patterns to air pollutants and identify spot events of high exposure. The findings suggest that exposure to NO2 during commuting can play a critical part in hybrid workers' personal exposure to air pollutants, particularly during extended commuting times. Trains are likely to have better indoor air quality than cars mainly due to the cabin ventilation systems and the routes they follow.While the findings cannot be generalised, they suggest that personal exposure to air pollution for hybrid workers is higher in offices and that extended commuting periods are related to higher accumulative exposure to air pollutants. Building design, neighbourhood, and town planning are necessary to provide an acceptable outdoor and indoor air quality both at home and office

Latin American Passivhaus approach : an exploration of SDGs and policy

Although Passivhaus was first developed for mid- and northern European cold weathers, it has now spread and adopted in many other countries. The climatic conditions may have changed, but the primary goal is still the same: reduce energy consumption while providing high indoor environmental comfort levels. The Passivhaus Standard's recent uptake in Latin American countries brings exciting opportunities to develop and adapt for the certification.This work explores the Passivhaus Standard potential to shape the low-carbon, energy-efficient and healthy buildings practices and policy agenda. In doing so, we explore the Passivhaus positive contribution and negative implications for implementing the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Latin America. The discussions are presented in two separate contexts. The first examines the Passivhaus adoption in Latin America following the current practices and how it responds to five SDGs responding to the UN's specific targets and indicators. The second sets the context for building Passivhaus in Latin America using natural materials, particularly bio-based fibre materials. Therefore, this section builds upon the response to the SDGs discussing these new approaches. Finally, we explore the potential for design-led research to engage real people and communities, understand everyday problems and implement the 'right' solution, not just the 'newest technology.' The findings support the Passivhaus adoption, open the debate for policies and a straightforward transition to healthier and more energy-efficient buildings in the Latin American context

Net zero retrofit and the indoor environment : the Glasgow Tenements case study

In 2019, the UK became the first country to declare Climate Emergency. Since then, policies have focused on achieving legally binding net-zero targets. With the worst-performing building environment in Europe, the UK has targeted the housing sector. While these policies are important to the environment, some of the changes we made to existing homes are not fully understood. This work presents indoor environmental monitoring (temperature, relative humidity and carbon dioxide) of a tenement in Glasgow retrofitted to the enerPHit standard. The environmental analysis suggests that the temperature (67% of the time), relative humidity (75% of the time) and CO2 (100% of the time) were within the recommended parameters. Overheating as defined by the Passive House Institute (>25°C in more than 10% of the time) was only observed in 1 of the 7 monitored dwellings. The same dwelling also had a higher occurrence of relative humidity below 40%RH. This project showcases the potential to preserve Glasgow's magnificent stone heritage while creating flats requiring less heating than newly constructed equivalents, thanks to natural, low embodied materials. While retrofit measures can help to reduce the energy consumption significantly - to 25.9 kWh/m2/year in this case (~90% lower than that of a similar), it is important to understand the indoor environmental conditions, as these can lead to increased performance gaps. Moreover, with the increased number of hospitalisation due to poor housing conditions, particularly mould, in the UK, indoor environment conditions have become a pressing matter

Personal exposure to indoor pollution during everyday activities of hybrid workers in the UK

Western lifestyles and urbanisation have led many people to spend most of their time indoors. Existing studies have described the impact of indoor air quality (IAQ) on health and well-being. However, IAQ assessments typically focus on home or office settings. Hybrid working and a change in transport behaviour raise the question of what are the new trends of personal exposure to air pollution among all daily activities including home, office and transport. This study discusses the results from IAQ monitoring in everyday life of UK hybrid workers. It uses a personal air quality monitor to track daily activities to measure trends of personal exposure to air pollutants and identify spot-events of high exposure. The results present the diurnal and spatial variation of five indoor air pollutants: PM1, PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and VOC. Data was collected at 1-minutes intervals in an open plan office, a house with a small home office but also during the commuting between Glasgow (Scotland) and Lancaster (North West England) by train and between Lancaster and Southampton (South England) by car at different times of the day and traffic conditions. The findings discuss hybrid workers' spatiotemporal personal exposure trends to air pollutants and contextualise them to short- and long-term health risks. The paper concludes with recommendations to minimise personal exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollutants and mitigate health risks by identifying “high risk” activities in spatiotemporal relation to air pollutants

Personal exposure to indoor pollution during everyday activities of hybrid workers in the UK

Western lifestyles and urbanisation have led many people to spend most of their time indoors. Existing studies have described the impact of indoor air quality (IAQ) on health and well-being. However, IAQ assessments typically focus on home or office settings. Hybrid working and a change in transport behaviour raise the question of what are the new trends of personal exposure to air pollution among all daily activities including home, office and transport. This study discusses the results from IAQ monitoring in everyday life of UK hybrid workers. It uses a personal air quality monitor to track daily activities to measure trends of personal exposure to air pollutants and identify spot-events of high exposure. The results present the diurnal and spatial variation of five indoor air pollutants: PM1, PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and VOC. Data was collected at 1-minutes intervals in an open plan office, a house with a small home office but also during the commuting between Glasgow (Scotland) and Lancaster (North West England) by train and between Lancaster and Southampton (South England) by car at different times of the day and traffic conditions. The findings discuss hybrid workers' spatiotemporal personal exposure trends to air pollutants and contextualise them to short- and long-term health risks. The paper concludes with recommendations to minimise personal exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollutants and mitigate health risks by identifying “high risk” activities in spatiotemporal relation to air pollutants

The Little Book of Healthier Fleetwood : Connecting Professional Stakeholders to Support the Growth of the Community

This Little Book tells you about how the Healthier Fleetwood programme from the perspective of professional stakeholders. It explores what Healthier Fleetwood is and how it positioned itself in a way to connect and support the local community in the UK coastal town of Fleetwood. Finally, it tells you some key insights to replicate the programme in other UK towns moving forward. The Healthier Fleetwood series has two titles. This is the first title in this series and the second title presents the views from the community and their key insights

Community empowerment : lessons learned from a local health programme

The use of complex public health systems to empower communities is often met with challenges and frustrations. Community empowerment programmes focus on improving mental and physical health needs, enabling individuals to become active members of the local community through collective actions. Design research plays a crucial role in understanding the interactions between health and communities. Healthier Fleetwood is a successful community empowerment program in the northwest of the UK, that connects residents with local services, groups, and events to foster a sense of community and encourage them to control their health and well-being. The success of this approach and its impact on health has been reflected in encouraging trends for reduced GP and A&E visits by Fleetwood residents. Nevertheless, the why and how behind the success of this community programme and its impact had never been previously captured and understood. The aim of the research, reported in this paper, was to develop an in-depth understanding of what impact is understood to be for the community and those engaged in the Healthier Fleetwood initiative, in order to replicate benefits to other UK towns. To achieve this, the research team employed design research methods, such as co-design workshops, day in a life, photovoice, design blueprint, and conversation methods. The findings identified 12 key lessons learnt, that can be used to develop similar Health Community Programmes in other UK towns. These findings can be grouped into three key themes: working closely with the community, having enhanced communication and the programme structure

Design of socio-spatial networks and practices for hybrid cities

Urban space and city living are being redefined in the context of hybrid cities – the realm where the physical and online worlds exist intertwined and interact. The emerging socio-spatial networks and practices create new possibilities for resilient, adaptive cities (and citizens) but at the same time raise questions on rights to the city, digital civics, openness and privacy. Human activities create, often unconsciously, an unprecedented amount of data turning humans into gullible data producers. Nonetheless, the ownership, interpretation, and management of data are under the control of few commercial entities. This research adopts a critical realist approach to the design of the future hybrid cities’ networks and practices to create a paradigm shift towards transforming people from “homo-datum” to “human-nodes” – conscious creators, developers and users of data. This study addresses the following themes: 1) What approaches in the design of hybrid cities would enable cities to reflect the complexity and plurality of people and societies? 2) How could technology assist human citizens with managing and interpreting in the correct context the increasing amount of data? 3) How can we move from current socio-economic models towards building new socio-spatial networks that will better represent future societies? 4) What is the role of non-human citizens and how would they interface with “human-nodes”? 5) Finally, what are the necessary conditions for transforming current cities and living into participatory hybrid cities and sustainable lifestyles