The University of York is building a facility to study air quality inside homes, which will be known as the Interdisciplinary Facility for Indoor Air Quality and Health Research (INTERIORS).
The first of its kind in the UK, the project is Located on Campus East, between Goodricke and Anne Lister colleges. The project consists of two visually identical semi-detached houses with a lab in between. One house will be built with techniques similar to those in the 1990s, and the other will use the modern Passivhaus gold-standard. The lab will monitor air quality during everyday activities, like cooking and cleaning, to explore the impact of ventilation and air-tightness.
The University hopes interdisciplinary research conducted in the INTERIORS lab will improve understanding of how building design affects air quality for millions of people.
Work started in November 2024 and will be completed this summer.