INTERIORS – Air Quality Research Facility

Thanks to funding from the Wolfson Foundation, the new facility will re-create a realistic residential environment to study indoor air quality.

The first of its kind in the UK, it will comprise two visually identical semi-detached houses with a lab in between that monitors air quality in each side of the house under different ventilation and build conditions. 

The houses will be built with different environmental standards with one built to current Passivhaus standards and the other to 1990s standards to mirror a large proportion of the housing stock available in the UK today.

Benefits

The World Health Organisation has stated that exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollution is one of the greatest risks to human health, and that improving air quality is necessary to reduce the global incidence and impact of diseases such as lung cancer, stroke and asthma (WHO 2021).

The facility will have the potential to expand on the university’s aim to deliver public good, providing evidence-based policy recommendations that improve housing provision and lead to better testing and regulation of products.

Where and when?

The INTERdisciplinary Facility for IndOoR Air Quality and Health ReSearch - known as INTERIORS - will be located on Campus East. The building will be located between Anne Lister College block I and Goodricke College, Kenneth Dixon Court A Block. Work started in November 2024 and will be completed in the summer of 2025.

How will it affect me?

There may be some building noise as the work progresses. Our contractor will try to minimise this as much as possible.