Sustainable Housing & Protective Building Materials: Masonry as a Link Between Accessible Construction, Energy, Human Comfort and Mosquito Control in Rural Tanzania

研究表明，气候变化的影响将大大增加农村社区的脆弱性，在农村，依靠土地生活的人面临热浪、饥荒和干旱等极端天气事件的风险越来越大。此外，世界上80%以上的人面临至少一种病媒传播疾病的风险，疟疾是发展中国家的主要死亡原因。然而，这一领域的大多数研究以杀虫剂、化学干预和转基因蚊子的形式处理这一公共卫生危机，很少考虑建筑环境的作用，特别是在资源有限的情况下。然而，最近为使住房更具保护性而做出的努力，往往导致住房的空气传播减少，空气质量和室内舒适条件不达标。此外，现代的、可持续的建筑在技术上可能是复杂的，而且昂贵得令人望而却步。然而，砖是世界上最常用的建筑材料，世界上三分之一的人口居住在完全或部分由泥土建造的建筑物中。通过研究这种简陋材料的材料方面，以及构成城市公共服务的热、能源、排放、水、信息和资源的协同关系，一种新型砖有可能成为城市弹性和公共卫生战略的更大组成部分。美国工程和建筑专业的学生将在课堂和国外合作，设计创新的方法来重新构思模块化的土材料，以挑战现有的建筑和材料科学规范。这一多学科提案联合了来自四个不同专业（建筑、工程、昆虫学和社会人类学）的教师导师，以解决国内环境对坦桑尼亚农村公共卫生和复原力的重大影响。来自建筑和工程专业的美国学生研究人员将共同合作，探索由可获取的低影响资源制成的砖石建筑材料的能力，以控制坦桑尼亚农村住房中的热量、水分和蚊子的传递，探索设计、疾病和快速变化的气候之间的交集。这项IRES工作的主要目标是：(1)在受蚊子影响的快速发展的湿热地区制定可获得和可立即部署的模块化建筑材料战略；(2)扩大具有防蚊潜力的气候适应性建筑材料的作用，以支持农村社区的抗灾能力和公共卫生工作。(3)为美国学生提供以社区为基础的研究和设计经验，在快速变化的气候中促进技能发展，技术知识的应用和跨学科环境中的专业发展。这个跨学科的学生小组将与当地材料和地区专家合作，开发低成本建筑和建筑技术的原型，以提高居住者的舒适度，同时减少携带疾病的蚊子入侵的可能性。虽然这个项目的重点是一个蚊子肆虐的国家，但我们希望病原宿主相互作用和热缓解战略将适用于其他热带地区，使那些在气候变化中可能受到快速发展影响最大的人受益。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Studies indicate that climate change impacts will dramatically increase vulnerabilities in rural communities where those living off the land are at increasing risk from extreme weather events such as heat waves, famine and drought. Additionally, more than 80% of the world is at risk from at least one vector-borne disease, and Malaria is a leading cause of death in the developing world. However, most research in this field addresses this public health crisis in the form of pesticides, chemical interventions and genetically modified mosquitos with little consideration for the role of the built environment, particularly in limited resource settings. Recent efforts to make housing more protective, however, often lead to dwellings that have reduced air transmission and provide substandard air quality and interior comfort conditions. Additionally, modern, sustainable buildings can be technologically complex and prohibitively expensive. The brick, however, is the most commonly used building material in the world and one third of the world’s population lives in buildings which are totally or partially made from earth. By studying the material aspects of this humble material in tandem with the synergistic relationships of heat, energy, emissions, water, information and resources that make up a city’s public services, a novel brick has the potential to become a greater part of the urban resiliency and public health strategy. Working collaboratively in the classroom and abroad, U.S. engineering and architecture students will design innovative ways to reconceive modular earthen materials to challenge existing norms of construction and material science. This multidisciplinary proposal joins faculty mentors from four diverse specialties – architecture, engineering, entomology, and social anthropology – to address the significant impact of the domestic environment on public health and resiliency in rural Tanzania. U.S. student researchers from architecture and engineering will work collaboratively to explore the capability of masonry construction materials made from accessible, low-impact resources to control the transfer of heat, moisture and mosquitos in rural housing in Tanzania, exploring the intersection between design, disease and a rapidly changing climate. The primary objectives of this IRES effort are to (1) develop strategies for accessible and immediately deployable modular building materials in rapidly developing, hot-humid regions afflicted by mosquitoes, (2) expand the role of climate-adapted building materials with the potential for mosquito protection to support the resiliency and public health efforts of rural communities, and (3) provide community-based research and design experience for U.S. students in a hands-on context that promotes skill development, application of technical knowledge and professional development in an interdisciplinary environment with complex relationships of culture and science in a rapidly changing climate. This interdisciplinary group of students will work with local materials and regional experts to develop prototypes for low-cost buildings and construction technologies that improve occupant comfort while reducing the potential for intrusion of disease-carrying mosquitos. Though this project focuses on one mosquito-stricken country, it is our hope that the pathogen host interaction and thermal mitigation strategies would be applicable to other tropical regions, benefiting those who are likely to be most impacted by rapid development in a changing climate.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.