How do modern buildings affect human health?!

Some features of modern buildings appear to cause obvious health harms, as they prevent contact with many microbes in the natural environment, leading to negative effects on the diversity of the human microbiome.

The lifestyle of industrialized societies has gradually depleted the diversity of the human microbiome, contributing to the development of “environmental diseases,” such as type 2 diabetes or neurodegenerative disorders.

Buildings create new niches for disease hosts and vectors, concentrate waste and toxic materials, or reduce ventilation and entry of sunlight, said scientists at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) in Toronto.

For example, the built environment creates new reservoirs of harmful microbes adapted to humans, or reduces individuals' exposure to beneficial microbes.

The revolutionary, holistic view of organisms and microbes as a “functional unit” will change the boundaries of urban planning in the world.

Scientists provide innovative scientific and applied perspectives to develop a future microbiome-friendly architecture, which will once again allow natural, healthy human contact with microorganisms in the built environment.

The ultimate goal is to plan and build the buildings of the future in such a way that the emphasis is not on complete isolation from the natural microbial environment. This can be achieved by using less toxic building materials and creating overall greater structural permeability to external influences, especially microbial.