The Future of IAQ at Indoor Air
The latest episodes of the Air Quality Matters podcast bring us two highly relevant discussions for professionals in the built environment. First, we get an exclusive preview of the upcoming Indoor Air 2026 conference in Singapore, featuring insights from the event's leadership team.
Following that, a rapid-fire One Take episode unpacks the surprising building physics behind a very mundane household task: drying laundry indoors.
The Road to Indoor Air 2026
With the Indoor Air 2026 conference fast approaching, I sat down with the leadership team driving the event: Tham Kwok Wai (President of the Conference and Professor at NUS), Yvonne Soh (Vice President and CEO of the Singapore Green Building Council), and Chandra Sekhar (Vice President and Professor at NUS).
Reflecting on the 23 years since Singapore last hosted the Healthy Buildings conference in 2003, a time marked by the SARS outbreak, the guests discuss how the indoor air quality (IAQ) sector has matured. While some foundational challenges remain, the science, technology, and sheer complexity of the built environment have shifted dramatically.
Air Quality Matters will be on site, recording podcasts and interviewing keynote speakers and more, so watch this space!
Key Topics Discussed
The Evolution of Building Complexity: The panel explores how the built environment has become significantly more complex over the last two decades. The introduction of synthetic materials, denser occupancies, and the compounding external pressures of climate change (such as wildfires and urban pollution) mean that modern buildings must process and filter environments much more rigorously than in the past.
Human-Centric Design and Well-being: A major focus of the conversation is the pivot from purely energy-focused green building standards to human-centric design. The guests discuss how exposure to indoor environments directly impacts cognitive performance, sleep quality, and long-term health, cementing well-being as a core metric for building success.
The Role of Real-Time Data and AI: The discussion highlights the transition from reactive building management to proactive control. With sensor technology advancing and data analytics and AI, facility managers now have the tools to address IAQ issues before they affect occupants.
Climate-Specific Resilience: Hosting the conference in a tropical climate provides a unique backdrop for discussing resilience. The panel examines how regions like Singapore manage the delicate balance between high heat, heavy humidity, and energy-efficient cooling, including the implementation of mixed-mode ventilation strategies.
Notable Perspectives
The conversation offers several valuable takeaways that highlight the current trajectory of the IAQ sector. For instance, Yvonne shares a notable anecdote about a tenant who, without understanding the technical specifics of a recent building retrofit, simply noticed that the air "felt different." This highlights a growing trend: the tangible, physical impact of green building standards is finally reaching the everyday occupant.
Chandra also raises a compelling perspective regarding the fundamental expectations we place on our environments. He discusses the emerging argument that access to clean, filtered air should be viewed as a fundamental human right, regardless of whether a person is outdoors in nature or inside a heavily engineered office building.
Finally, Kwak Wai provides insight into the overarching goal of the 2026 conference: translating two decades of rigorous science into actionable policy and standards. He notes that the focus is no longer just on identifying problems, but on proving the mechanisms of exposure and building resilient systems to mitigate them.
One Take: The Physics and Fallout of Indoor Laundry Drying
In a brief but highly informative One Take segment, I breaks down a recent paper published in the Journal of Indoor Environments detailing the exact impacts of indoor laundry drying.
While environmental agencies frequently advise against using tumble dryers to save energy, passive indoor drying, a common practice across Europe, particularly in the winter, has profound and often misunderstood effects on a room's hygrothermal state. Using a controlled 40-cubic-meter experimental room, researchers mapped exactly how two litres of water evaporate from a standard load of cotton laundry.
The Three Phases of Water Emission and Thermal Comfort.
The study reveals that moisture emission is not a steady process. And lays out three phases of drying that all homeowners and building managers should know.
The Thermal Comfort Trade-Off
The most critical insight from the paper is the endothermic nature of evaporation. As the water leaves the clothes, it actively pulls heat from the surrounding air. The study recorded room temperatures dropping by up to 3.8°C.
When mapped against standard thermal comfort charts like ASHRAE 55, this cooling effect actively drags living spaces out of acceptable comfort zones. The practical fallout? Occupants feeling this sudden temperature drop are highly likely to turn up their central heating, effectively negating the energy savings gained by avoiding the tumble dryer in the first place.
The segment concludes with a look at strategic mitigation, emphasising that even mundane tasks require a basic respect for building physics.
Indoor laundry drying: Full-scale determination of water emission rate and impact on thermal comfort
The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with
Particles Plus - Eurovent- Aico - Lindab - S&P
The One Take Podcast in Partnership with
SafeTraces - Inbiot - Farmowood - Ei Electronics
Do check them out in the links and on the Air Quality Matters Website.
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