About this episode

The episode features an interview with Dr. Sarah Haines discussing the impact of indoor environments on human health through the lens of building science and microbiology.

An interview with Dr. Sarah Haines The Indoor Microbiome is the complex, invisible world of trillions of microorganisms living within indoor environments. Its residents include bacteria, archaea, fungi and viruses. We live immersed in this ecological niche, for good or ill. A typical home can host between 500 and 1000 different species of bacteria in household dust alone, and thousands of species of mold, yeast and viruses are in the air and on the surfaces around us. Together they serve as the primary ecological interface through which buildings influence human biology. In this light, we are beginning to view indoor environments not merely as passive shelters, but as active, highly complex indoor ecosystems that actively influence our immune and endocrine function, and long-term wellbeing. Today, we are joined by Dr. Sarah Haines, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and Principal Investigator of the IMEE Lab, to explore the foundational framework behind this shift. We will discuss the emerging perspective of "biologically informed architectural design" and the fact that architects and interior designers don’t just curate materials, they curate our basic microbial…

More episodes of The Building Science Podcast

• Perspectives on Hydronics in the Real World · April 25, 2026 · 1h 15m
• (Un)Healthy Homes · April 7, 2026 · 1h 16m
• Our Second PSA, The Humid Climate Conference in Austin May 4th & 5th! · March 23, 2026 · 17 min
• Hydronics: The OG HVAC - Part 2 · January 27, 2026 · 1h 22m
• Buildings as Habitat: Biodiversity-Informed Investments in Public Health · January 20, 2026 · 1h 17m
• Hydronics: The OG HVAC - Part 1 · December 22, 2025 · 1h 24m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Building Science Podcast podcast page.