A Review of Balcony Impacts on the Indoor Environmental Quality of Dwellings

The Microbiome of the Built Environment: The Nexus for Urban Regeneration for the Cities of Tomorrow

Built environments are, for most of us, our natural habitat. In the last 50 years, the built-up area has more than doubled, with a massive biodiversity loss. The undeniable benefits of a city providing all the basic needs to a growing population showed longer-term and less obvious costs to human health: autoimmune and non-communicable diseases, as well as antimicrobial resistance, have reached unprecedented and alarming levels. Humans coevolved with microbes, and this long-lasting alliance is affected by the loss of connection with natural environments, misuse of antibiotics, and highly sanitized environments. Our aim is to direct the focus onto the microbial communities harbored by the built environments we live in. They represent the nexus for urban regeneration, which starts from a healthy environment. Planning a city means considering, in a two-fold way, the ecosystem health and the multidimensional aspects of wellbeing, including social, cultural, and aesthetic values. The significance of this perspective is inspiring guidelines and strategies for the urban regeneration of the cities of tomorrow, exploiting the invaluable role of microbial biodiversity and the ecosystem services that it could provide to create the robust scientific knowledge that is necessary for a bioinformed design of buildings and cities for healthy and sustainable living.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic Era on Residential Property Features: Pilot Studies in Poland

Flats/houses in the COVID-19 pandemic era became the central place for living, working, learning, studying and entertainment. According to Maslow’s pyramid, all the basic needs had to be satisfied within a single space, which caused a change in the importance of certain locational and physical features of the flat/house. This study aimed to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic changed the perception of the environmental features and the physical features of flats/houses. The research material was obtained from a questionnaire study disseminated through different online channels. The study was conducted in Poland, and citizens’ preferences are linked to the prevailing spatial and socio-economic determinants. A group of respondents were presented with 23 features describing the location and 17 features describing the physical features of flats/houses. They were also asked questions about the level of satisfaction with the current location and housing features. The results were analysed, and the statistical significance of the difference in the perception of the location features and the physical features of the flat/house was verified using a Chi-squared test. The results demonstrated a change in the importance of certain attributes concerning both external and internal factors. The physical features of the flat/house appeared to be more important (from the respondents’ perspective) than the features related to the location, as most changes occurred in that group. The respondents indicated that access to medical care facilities had gained importance (+8%), while good access to public transport had declined (−9%). For the physical features of flats/houses, respondents from other countries also indicated the importance of other attributes, i.e., the floor area (+12%), number of rooms (+14%), additional rooms (+14%), and access to broadband Internet and digital platforms (+28%). The study showed that over 30% of respondents would change their flats/houses if their financial means permitted.

Thermal and Optical Properties of the Sunspace Casing as Factors Influencing Temperature Rise in Greenhouse Systems

In sunspaces, there is an observable temperature rise above the external air temperature, caused by solar gains and the buffering effect of their enclosure. In addition, their external partitions form a barrier preventing the direct influence of the external environment and delaying the natural deterioration of elevation surface. In the paper, the temperature rise in a glazed balcony attached to a typical flat in a multifamily building, together with the energy demand in the living zone, were assessed with the use of dynamic computer simulations. Ten variants of the sunspace casing were analysed, with different thermal and solar energy transmittance of the glazing (which is a novel subject in the research area). This enabled us to evaluate average values of the temperature reduction factor during the year and to choose the most efficient variant of the sunspace external partitions. It turned out to be an insulated, double-glazed casing with a spectrally selective coating (type O 21), combining high insulative properties with high solar transmittance. These features allowed the temperature in the sunspace to rise by almost 10°C (compared with the external air) and lower total energy demand in the flat by 33% (compared with a flat with an open balcony).

Influence of the Adaptation of Balconies to Loggias on the Lighting Climate inside an Apartment Building under Cloudy Sky

The reconstruction of balconies and loggias is a key element of the renovation of apartment buildings. Artificial light will never replace natural light. Every day, one must make full use of the potential of daylight and enjoy an advantage—free-of-charge natural light entering the interior. When renovating balconies, people often change the character of this protruding structure from a façade to a loggia. This is also the subject of this paper. For the evaluation of the daylighting conditions prevailing in residential building, the Daylight Factor (DF) was considered as the parameter for indicating the quantity of admitted daylight. The DF values and illuminance—CIE overcast sky were calculated using DIALux 9.1 software. The aim of the paper is to compare two variants of the level of daylight in the rooms of the residential building. One option to bring in even more natural light than a window is a variant with balconies. Loggias are satisfactory in terms of static and thermal technology, but daylight conditions are deteriorating. The article provides an insight into the solution of the renovation of balconies and loggias in a specific apartment building. The result shows their influence on changes in the conditions of natural daylight in the interior of two selected rooms.