The first in a series of “Seminars on Indoor Air Quality” took place online on 3 May, organised by the Catalan Society of Architecture and Health of the Academy of Medical Sciences and Health of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. The seminars have an interdisciplinary focus and are being co-directed by UIC Barcelona School of Architecture lecturer Jordi Roviras. They aim to explore how we might manage to improve the air quality inside buildings, with a view to improving overall health. 

“We are starting to be known as the ‘indoor generation’, due to the amount of time we spend inside. The World Health Organisation has been warning us for years that indoor spaces are five to ten times more polluted than outdoor spaces. The pandemic’s silver lining is that it has increased our awareness of indoor air quality”, explained Jordi Roviras. 

There will be six seminars in total, starting at the beginning of May and running until the beginning of June, in which experts from the scientific and architectural communities will address the biological, chemical and physical factors that condition indoor air quality. These seminars will feature speakers such as Elisabet Silvestre, expert in human biology, bioconstruction and biohabitability; Sílvia Gómez, founder of the start-up Sens Solutions; Carmen Ruíz Martín, medical director at Hospital Verde; Sònia Hernández-Montaño, founder of Architecture Sana; Marcos Blay from Zonair 3D; Miguel Ángel Mena from Dileka; Guim Castrillo from S&P; José Manuel Díaz from Mitsubishi; Maria Marín from Airlite and Ricard Santamaria and Eulàlia Figuerola from H.A.U.S. Healthy Buildings S.L.