Investigating the impact of architectural planning and functional program on the indoor microbiome. A health concern

Abstract

This paper reports findings for an innovative architectural methodology in spatial analytics, for application in characterising microbial load and distribution to spatial planning and functional use in inhibiting health care acquired infections (HAI); (including airborne and surfaces). The spatial analytical findings represent a 1st stage pilot investigation on the microbiome of two hospitals sites in South Africa. The investigation conducted observational analyses modelled in ArcGIS software, and spatial integration modelling of CAD floor plans in Depthmap Space Syntax software. The data was overlaid and analysed. A strong correlation between high occupancy rooms and high occupancy flow zones was found in all cases. Mitchells Plein (MP) hospital presented unintelligible spatial data with low integration of space implying high core clustering. Khayelitsha District Hospital (KDH) reported high levels of correlation between the potential social interaction and observed social interaction. The static and personal monitoring of temperature, humidity and CO2 (CO2 rebreathe air as infection risk parameter - a parallel study funded by the Fogarty Research Grant) indicated low CO2 levels throughout, but a statistical significance indicated that both sampling methods are required for characterisation of the indoor environment (IE).