Published in Scientific Papers. Series E. Land Reclamation, Earth Observation & Surveying, Environmental Engineering, Vol. XIII
Written by Vasilica VASILE, Cornelia BAERĂ, Aurelian GRUIN, Adrian-Alexandru CIOBANU, Bogdan BOLBOREA
A global problem that affects almost all areas of life is the environmental pollution, and because people stay indoors about 80-90% of their day, it can say that indoor air pollution is most of concerns. The growing attention paid to the use of natural materials has become a current topic among researchers, due to the increasing need to exploit renewable materials, conserve energy and adopt sustainable production methods to create buildings adapted to modern times. Although, earth might be considered, from a current perspective, an ancient building material, between 30 and 50% of the XXI century population lives in dwellings made of earth. In this respect, our studies focused on exploring the current status of worldwide research on air quality inside earthen buildings, in order to establish the performance indicators related to this field. The findings highlight the need to rethink the way in which indoor spaces are designed and operated given the waste generation, resource depletion and climate change, with increasing numbers of people which want to live in environmentally friendly and healthy buildings.
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