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METHODS article

Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Indoor Environment
Volume 10 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2024.1517638
This article is part of the Research Topic Living Quality in Urban Areas: Indoor and Outdoor Experiences and Their Mutual Interactions View all articles

Integrating Building Code to Microbial Count Studies in Urban Built Spaces with Ventilation and Human Presence: A Model

Provisionally accepted
Ma. Beatrice Diño Villoria Ma. Beatrice Diño Villoria 1*Vina Babaran Argayosa Vina Babaran Argayosa 2*Angelo Demegillo Rosalinas Angelo Demegillo Rosalinas 3*Daniel Nichol Reyes Valerio Daniel Nichol Reyes Valerio 4*Christian Lyle La Madrid Christian Lyle La Madrid 5*Michael Xavier Nocon Ticzon Michael Xavier Nocon Ticzon 6*
  • 1 De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Manila, Philippines
  • 2 University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, National Capital Region, Philippines
  • 3 Ove Arup and Partner Hong Kong Limited, Mandaluyong, Philippines
  • 4 De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines
  • 5 We Design Lab LLUID BUILDERS INC, Antipolo, Philippines
  • 6 Fundamental Design Experts, Makati, Philippines

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In this work, a conceptual framework is proposed for translating microbial research into usable design tools in an urban built environment. This study on Microbiomes of the Built Environment (MoBE), specifically the cultivable microbial count, incorporates building code and built environment design factors applied in the Philippine setting. The National Building Code of the Philippines with focus on minimum habitable room specifications was used to provide basis for the framework process. Human presence and ventilation were used as parameters to produce data that can be used as design tools. Using passive air sampling, the three experiments were conducted within Metro Manila according to the proposed framework. The first experiment using settle plates of culture media in the morning and afternoon seeks to understand how bacterial and fungal counts are affected in a naturally ventilated and in a non-ventilated room. The second and third experiments were done to test the effects of different window sizes and the number of humans on bacterial count, respectively. Results showed higher bacterial count in the room with natural ventilation compared to the room with no ventilation. The use of different window sizes did not show significant difference in counts with the number replicates used but as the number of humans in the area increased, the bacterial counts also increased. Data produced in the preliminary experiments were used to conceptually design a space in this paper. The authors suggest that this building-code inspired framework be used as a guide for MoBE studies as a starting point and be further developed to understand and eventually produce healthier built environments.

    Keywords: architecture, Engineering, built environment, bioinformed design, microbiomes, Microbiology, Ventilation, Human activity

    Received: 26 Oct 2024; Accepted: 20 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Villoria, Argayosa, Rosalinas, Valerio, La Madrid and Ticzon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Ma. Beatrice Diño Villoria, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Manila, Philippines
    Vina Babaran Argayosa, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, 1101, National Capital Region, Philippines
    Angelo Demegillo Rosalinas, Ove Arup and Partner Hong Kong Limited, Mandaluyong, Philippines
    Daniel Nichol Reyes Valerio, De La Salle University, Manila, 1004, Philippines
    Christian Lyle La Madrid, We Design Lab LLUID BUILDERS INC, Antipolo, Philippines
    Michael Xavier Nocon Ticzon, Fundamental Design Experts, Makati, Philippines

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.