Sustainable, resilient and healthy built environments: An integrated approach

建筑环境，作为现代人类的主要栖息地，包含有活力和死亡生物（称为室内微生物群）的复杂混合物，这不仅会影响居住者的健康和生产力，还会恶化建筑物的不同部分，导致材料结构性能的不良变化。此外，由于建筑部门是资源开采和大量二氧化碳排放的主要引擎，建筑环境对气候变化相关问题负有部分责任。最近，绿色建筑设计和使用新型生物源绿色材料用于非结构和结构室内应用已经增加，以减少温室气体排放。然而，新兴的绿色材料是天然可生物降解的，它们与建筑环境微生物群的相互作用如何影响这种可持续建筑的结构完整性和室内空气质量，目前还没有明确的迹象。我的长期愿景是通过整合应对气候变化的建筑环境生态学的潜在动态因素，以及它们对新兴绿色建筑材料的环境性能的影响，为更好地设计健康、有弹性和可持续的建筑设计提供新的理解和方法。在短期内，通过这个发现项目，我的目标是研究气象因素对室内空气质量动态的影响，以及有植物（亲生物设计）和没有植物（非亲生物设计）的办公室的微生物群落。此外，我的目标是更好地了解在气候变化导致的洪水等自然事件日益严重的影响下，室内微生物群对选择用于亲生物和非亲生物空间的绿色建筑材料的物理和机械性能恶化的季节性影响。随后，我还旨在评估实验室规模的基因增强天然纤维抗微生物降解的性能，以用于未来的潜在应用。也就是说，后者旨在开发一种新技术，从根本上使易感的绿色建筑材料更有弹性地抵抗微生物生长和代谢活动（作为生物降解的主要原因）。探索项目的完成将有助于加拿大在健康、有弹性和可持续建筑设计方面的领导地位，最终设计师和建筑师可以更优化地使用植物和抗微生物材料，同时减少因气候变化造成的潜在长期经济损失。

Built environment, as the main habitat of the modern human, encompasses a complex mixture of viable and dead organisms (known as indoor microbiome), which can not only affect occupants' wellbeing and productivity but also deteriorate different parts of the buildings, leading to undesirable changes in the materials' structural properties. In addition, the built environment is accountable for part of problems associated to climate change, due to being a principal engine for resource extraction and high amount of CO2 emissions by the building sector. Recently, green building designs and use of novel bio-sourced green materials for non-structural and structural indoor applications have increased as an effort towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, the emerging green materials are naturally biodegradable and there is no clear indication as to how their mutual interaction with built environment microbiome would affect the structural integrity of such sustainable buildings and the indoor air quality. My long-term vision is to devise new understandings and methods for better design of healthy, resilient, and sustainable buildings by integrating factors underlying dynamics of built environment ecology in response to climate change, and their effect on the environmental performance of emerging green building materials. In the short-term, through this Discovery Program, I aim to investigate the effect of meteorological factors on dynamics of indoor air quality and on microbial communities in offices with plants (biophilic design) and without plants (non-biophilic design). In addition, I aim to better understand the seasonal effect of indoor microbiome on deterioration of physical and mechanical properties of select green building materials for use in both biophilic and non-biophilic spaces under the increasing impact of natural incidences such as flooding as a result of climate change. Subsequently, I also aim to assess the performance of laboratory-scale genetically enhanced natural fibres against microbial degradation for future potential applications. Namely, the latter aims to develop a novel technique that could fundamentally make the susceptible green building materials more resilient against microbial growth and metabolic activity (as the main cause of biodegradation). Completion of the proposed Discovery program will contribute to Canada's leadership in the design of healthy, resilient, and sustainable buildings, which can eventually enable more optimal use of plants and microbial-resistant materials by designers and architects, while decreasing potential long-term economic losses due to the climate change.