Indoor Air Quality Society Takes Part in Sustainable Places 2025 with Two Contributions
Sustainable Places 2025, held this year in Milan, gathered innovators, researchers, policymakers, and industry stakeholders committed to shaping Europe’s sustainable and resilient future. Renowned for its cross-disciplinary approach, the conference once again provided a space for exploring solutions in energy efficiency, construction innovation, circularity, digitalisation, and citizen engagement.
This year, the Indoor Air Quality Society (IAQS) participated in the programme with two contributions across key thematic workshops, highlighting the role of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in creating healthier and more resilient built environments.
Scaling Impact: Collaborative Pathways for Sustainable Building Renovation in Europe
Coordinated by Steinbeis and linked to the Network of Building Renovation Projects, this session brought together six European initiatives working to accelerate sustainable renovation. The workshop explored cross-sectoral approaches that address challenges such as circularity, user-centric renovation, digital tools, social inclusion, resilience, and policy alignment.
The interactive setting invited dialogue between participants and project representatives, aiming to identify complementarities and support the development of joint strategies with broad impact across Europe.
In this session, Mikael Börjesson, presented “Two cities and their Indoor Air, Improving Cardiovascular Health for disadvantaged communities“. He introduced IAQS’s ongoing activities focused on improving indoor air quality through science-based approaches, education, and stakeholder engagement. He explained how these efforts connect to the renovation processes showcased within the session taking two projects as specific example.
New European Bauhaus: From Principles to Reality - Lessons Learnt on What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why
How do we turn sustainability, beauty, and inclusion: the three pillars of the New European Bauhaus (NEB); into something concrete? This was the central question of the interactive workshop hosted by Star Track and the NEB Junction projects at the Sustainable Places Conference in October 2025, gathering more than 20 EU-funded projects working across design, construction, materials, and community engagement for the built environment.
The workshop explored how this vision translates into research and innovation practice, with concrete tools and methods from ongoing projects: participatory design, co-creation, reuse of materials, and digital tools for citizen engagement. The workshop showcased tools and methods that make this vision tangible:
- Participatory design for neighbourhood regeneration (REGEN EU Project)
- Co-creation for social housing renovation (drOp)
- Sustainable materials and skills development (INGUMA_Biobased, WoodStock project, NEB Academy)
- Urban mining for façade reuse (AEGIR)
- Strategy games to design decarbonisation pathways (TIMBERHAUS)
- Digital tools for energy communities (GINNGER EU project)
- Visualisation for indoor air quality awareness (IAQ Society)
Different topics, same ambition: to combine technology, creativity, and community. A series of short pitches illustrated diverse approaches developed across Europe: participatory urban planning, community-led renovation, bio-based materials, digital tools, energy communities, and more.
Representing IAQS, Michael Börjesson delivered a five-minute pitch titled “Ventilation and Indoor Climate in Schools: Research-Based Evidence.” His contribution highlighted why ventilation is essential, how temperature influences student performance, and the strong links between indoor environmental quality and absenteeism. He also presented practical examples of how indoor air quality data can be visualised and communicated in accessible ways, supporting the NEB ambition of creating healthier and more meaningful living environments.
Following the pitches, the interactive co-creation workshop encouraged participants to discuss what has worked well so far, what has not, and how NEB values can be further embedded in future activities.
Outcomes will support:
the development of the New European Bauhaus Hub for results and impact,
the integration of NEB values within local innovation ecosystems in the construction sector.
Event insights.
