The Indoor Air Quality Trilemma: Improving Air Quality, Using Less Energy, and Meeting Stakeholder Requirements

Good indoor air quality (IAQ) is critically important for many aspects of our lives, including as we’ve found recently in reducing the transmission of airborne diseases such as COVID-19. Delivering good IAQ poses several challenges to organisations: it can require changes in working practices, be bounded by infrastructure capabilities such as buildings and their heating and ventilation systems, and result in substantial energy usage. In this study we have conducted a preliminary investigation measuring IAQ in a typical ‘science lab’ classroom, and engaging with stakeholders to jointly explore these data. Our mixed methods approach uncovers an indoor air quality ‘trilemma’, which relates air quality, energy usage, and stakeholder practices that can be mediated by, and understood as, a site for potentially impactful future HCI designs.