The change of paradigm ushered in by COVID 19, along with similar challenges that may arise in the future, has highlighted the importance of designing safe and healthy buildings, deploying (occupancy, ventilation, filtering …) strategies that lower the risk of disease caused by air-borne pathogens.

The session would be organised around four lectures and an open panel discussion in which brainstorming will be welcome.

The first lecture would be delivered by invited speaker Susan Roaf on future design trends to prevent collapse in hospitals. A second would analyse an online tool based on mean CO₂ levels as an indirect indicator of human presence or air change rates to estimate possible risks in classrooms, offices, restaurants or family gatherings. The other two lectures would describe studies on design and ventilation strategies in educational environments.

The lectures will be followed by a Wooclap-mediated online panel discussion to conceptually map session participants’ proposals for measures to mitigate the spread of virus aerosols, including:

• event duration (exposure time)
• occupancy (proportion of allowable).
• facemasks: use and type
• ventilation
• impact of purifying the air.