Sponsor
This work was funded by a grant with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service [USDA ARS Agreement No. 58-0202-5-001], a grant to the Biology and the Built Environment Center from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation [grant no. G-2015-14023], and by start-up funds provided by Portland State University.
Published In
Buildings
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2019
Subjects
Ventilation -- Effect on ozone reactivity, Indoor air quality, Building, Wooden -- Testing
Abstract
A broad range of building performance monitoring, sampling, and evaluation was conducted periodically after construction and spanning more than a year, for an occupied office building constructed using mass timber elements such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) floor and roof panels, as well as glue-laminated timber (GLT) beams and columns. This case study contributes research on monitoring indoor environmental quality in buildings, describing one of the few studies of an occupied mass timber building, and analyzing data in three areas that impact occupant experience: indoor air quality, bacterial community composition, and floor vibration. As a whole, the building was found to perform well. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including formaldehyde, were analyzed using multiple methods. Formaldehyde was found to be present in the building, though levels were below most recommended exposure limits. The source of formaldehyde was not able to be identified in this study. The richness of the bacterial community was affected by the height of sampling with respect to the floor, and richness and composition was a ected by the location within the building. Floor vibration was observed to be below recognized human comfort thresholds.
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DOI
10.3390/buildings9060142
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/28855
Citation Details
Stenson, J., Ishaq, S. L., Laguerre, A., Loia, A., MacCrone, G., Mugabo, I., ... & Van Den Wymelenberg, K. (2019). Monitored Indoor Environmental Quality of a Mass Timber Office Building: A Case Study. Buildings, 9(6), 142.
Description
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).