Research on buildings gets showcase

From Research to Reality: What Environmental Research in the Building Domain is Doing for You — that’s the title of an afternoon on Feb. 11 to discuss making the buildings we live and work in healthier and more energy-efficient.

Catherine Mulligan and Azita Hajizadeh will talk about how building materials affect the environment, notably through the landfill of waste materials. They say that extensive work must be done to quantify the pollutants from such materials as treated wood.

Maria Elektorowicz and Mansour Hakimpour will make a presentation on site contamination in urban residential areas, and the electro-remediation of these brownfields, as they are called.

Nine researchers, including a representative from Goodyear, are scheduled to talk about the fate and impact of plasticizers in the environment. Most plastics contain a variety of low-molecular-weight additives called plasticizers. When they degrade within buildings, they create undesirable volatile organic compounds, to which we are exposed.

Dorel Feldman will also make a presentation on plastics. He is proposing to replace the common composition of vinyl flooring with formulations using a byproduct natural polymer called lignin, and plasticizers more resistant to fungi and microorganisms.

Fariborz Haghighat and a group of researchers will make a presentation about ventilation to reduce volatile organic compounds in buildings.

Paul Fazio and Dominique Derôme will talk about the building envelope, and how it may be designed to eliminate mold growth and the movement of spores into the living space.

Finally, Radu Zmeureanu and his colleague from ETS, Hugues Rivard, will discuss a decision-support software for architects and engineers called the EEE (Energy and Emissions Estimator).

The conference takes place on Wednesday, Feb. 11, from 1 - 5 p.m. in Room 763 of the Henry F. Hall Building.