institute of Building biology and sustainability
An interview with Johannes Schmidt, course manager of the Building Biology Course (https://buildingbiology-course.org) at the Institute of Building Biology + Sustainability IBN, Germany.
Highlights:
the roots of healthy buildings and building biology are here in Germany
If you study medicine, you learn about illnesses but not about sickness caused by spending time in a building
In any house, the most important place from our perspective is the bedroom
We have drastically changed the way we live over the last few generations. Just 100 years ago, we spent much more time outdoors.
we don't want to say we have to go back to the Stone Ages. I'm using a computer, I use electricity, in the institute we simply use it in a more efficient, less harmful way.
I use my body as a tool for movement in a natural environment, every day ideally.
Institute of Building Biology & Sustainability
What is the background to the Institute of Building Biology and Sustainability (IBN) in Rosenheim, Germany?
The history of the institute is that it actually was founded by a professor, Dr. Anton Schneider. And that was done in the year in 1976-77. This is when he started with his Institute, he was a professor at a technical university, here in Rosenheim in Germany. And he was doing research on different kinds of wood technologies, and also wood treatments, preservatives, etc. And by starting this, he also he found out about the impact of chemical treatments on the health of human beings.
Non-toxic, sustainable buildings
He was wondering whether there are not other technologies, or maybe even other craftsmen ships that have been done in the past when people were building houses. And by doing the research on that, he found out that there are many ways how you can build houses in a way where you have less exposure to toxic materials. And this is by simply using more natural materials.
He also made the connection of the impact of using all the or many industrial building products that they used in those days. And that many new building materials have been invented and used in the building trade. And there he started to find another way of building that is more environmental friendly, that is more sustainable. And this that has less impact on the health of the people who live in the houses.
Professor Schneider retired early, he had some health problems, then he founded in 1983. This institute as a private company, so to speak. And as the institute, it was no longer a part of the university. And from there on, he continued his work.
When we think about the green building movement in the US, it it feels like, in a sense, what was happening with with building biology in Germany was almost predating that, it was happening before, have you from a historical perspective. Do you see what happened in Germany as leading the industry globally?
The birth of healthy buildings as a concept
I think the roots of healthy buildings and building biology are here in Germany. I think it was in 1967-68-69 that he was working together with some other scientists who were doing research on that, and out of this meeting, then Professor Schneider started with his Institute at the University.
A healthy building headquarters
I was particularly interested to see the building of the Institute in Germany. So can you describe the headquarters, the building itself, and then also the types of services that the Institute offers, because it's more than just education, although obviously, we're partly talking about the course today, but the Institute offers other things as well.
Yep. When Professor Schneider retired in 1983, he already lived in the smaller village, close here to Rosenheim. And there he had a second building there. And this was the original, or the other first building of the private IBM of the private institute. In 2014, when Fred Schneider who actually is an architect, we build a new building biology building, which is now the headquarter of the IBM of our Institute.
With this new building, we realized the building biology principles, and we used the building biology recommended building materials. And this is where we also now have a good example, how you can build an office building in a building biology wait.
And so if anybody who is listening here is in Germany, and if you want to see our institute of the building, you can certainly come and visit us and have a look and have a look at what what building biology in reality is not just on paper, but in reality, in a way. But there are also many other building biology buildings that have been built over the last decades.
Building biology for offices and educational facilities
Our building here, I think, is also a good example for office buildings. And what we are doing here at the Institute, so the main purpose of the institute is to educate people who are mainly in the building trade, about how to build in an environmentally friendly way, how to use natural materials, how to build in a way that our modern tools and equipment that we have is not harmful, and that we reduce unnecessary toxins or that we also reduce or eliminate it, electromagnetic radiation or electrodes, or electrical magnetic fields, in order to have less electrode smoke, so to speak.
Also if we use new building materials that be checked this new building materials out whether they might contain any kind of problematic toxins or something like that. So if you ask about the typical work at our institute here, the main thing is to give additional information to give additional knowledge to architects to craftsmans, to carpenters, to painters to maintenance, and everybody in the building trade.
But as building biology is also a connection with the aspect of health in the house, the building. We also do have students who for instance, come as doctors you know, or who are in the health sector, because we think there is a big gap or lack of knowledge between those two.
If you study medicine, you learn about illnesses but not about sickness that can be caused by spending time in a building. I mean, many people know the term of sick building syndrome. But they actually do not know what that is. And this is something where we also trying to educate the public about this connection. And so another thing that we have, but this is unfortunately, only in German, we do have now an online magazine.
there is then a next step in the education program, that on top of a basic building biology course, which also is available in English, we do have an additional education, for testing. So this mainly refers to all the buildings that already exist, that you have to find out. If you are hired as a building biology testing specialist, what kind of problems are in the house. And this is another education program.
On top of the basic problem program, where we teach people how to test was testing instruments, the electro magnetic fields, the electrostatics, magnetic static fields, radioactivity, radon sound. Now in since a couple of years, also about how to test light fixtures we have now more and more LED light fixtures in our houses, how do you check those out?
Toxic chemicals in buildings
Another aspect is or a big topic are all the chemicals that we have in our houses, for instance, like formaldehyde, for instance or VOCs volatile organic compounds, how to test those, but also how to test, for instance, pesticides, that have been treated wood as woodstain, where you have a lot of toxic components that you can still find in existing houses in another topic is all these problems that are related to too much moisture in a building, when you get fungus growth and mold. And there also is a connection with increases what we can absorb heat in Germany that you do have, due to climate change a change in the climate, we have more humid summers. And when you have more humidity in the air, you get more humidity into the houses, which then can increase the growth of mold and fungus.
So it also is a not just a small way of checking out the houses. It's also some kind of like a holistic approach, you know that we check out what kind of possible risks can you find within the houses. But so far, unfortunately, we do not offer this courses, this additional testing education in English, maybe in a couple of years. We don't know it depends on the amount of students that begets who take the English course.
And within the course there's also some basic theoretical knowledge about the testings, how to do that. And we do have, this is something that everybody goes into, you can check this out, we have a standard of testing methods. So if you're interested in then you can read that.
And there you can also read about our evaluation guidelines, you know, where we have a guideline, how to judge the measurement that we do when we test houses in if you look on our numbers on our readings that we should suggest what is dangerous and what isn't, that you will find out that this differs a lot from official limits for instance, that are published by the government because our reference is the human being and the health of the human being. And this is also a I would say a unique or a different approach.
Healthy interiors & ecological footprints
And what else are we doing here we also we are looking on furniture from instance and interior design, because with furnitures, you can have the same kind of problem, they are made out of a lot of new material. And so they also can cause health problems.
And we are also looking at the energy efficiency of buildings. And there we look, also in a holistic approach on the complete ecological footprint of a building. And this also refers to the time when you start building a house, you know, because it makes a big difference, whether you use building materials that come out of your region, or whether you import building materials from foreign countries that have been shipped over the oceans, in containers.
So this also has an effect on the ecology and on the ecological footprint of the house, this is something that we're looking at. But also when you maintain a house when you live in the house, how do you and where do you get the energy in order to live within the house?
Yeah, I think it also is looking at a house from a holistic point of view that we try to combine these different views, you know, so how healthy is the building, in the building actually shall be a place where we can relax, where we can recover. And in any house, the most important place for us is the bed, the sleeping area.
If you look at the sleeping time, if you let's say sleep eight hours a night, we spent 1/3 of our life by sleeping. And this is a very essential time, because in the in the in the time when we are sleeping, our body is recovering itself, if it repairs itself, it detoxifies itself. And in this time period, our body should not be interrupted or disturbed by in this case, specially in by electromagnetic fields, you know, because many of the functions of our body also work with electricity within our body, you know, and artificial electricity can disturb this. And this is something that also many people simply don't know, they are not aware of that. And this is where we also try to inform the public about this very important issue.
If you speak to doctors, or if you speak to doctors who are environmental doctors or naturopaths, you know, they will also confirm that they have many illnesses, new illnesses. In they are also to a certain degree, they know where they might come from, but many of these doctors do not know what is the cause. And this is something that we also try to teach the public that we have to look on other aspects of here, we have to take into account other things in these days where more and more people realize that for instance, food organic food is better, and maybe eating less meat etc. and organic food is good drinking enough and good water. And but we do not look enough on the aspects of our buildings.
We have drastically changed the way we live over the last few generations. Just 100 years ago, we spent much more time outdoors. And now we spend about in our civilized world, about 80 to 90%. Indoors. And from this perspective, we want to build, create and improve houses in a way that for us, the human beings, our living environment, our buildings are as natural as possible in order to keep us in good health.
Buildings in harmony with nature
So in a way, you're challenging the assumption that everything that is new, is necessarily better or healthier. You're saying actually, so in some cases, in many cases, the new building materials and the new furniture materials that we're using are not necessarily healthier for the people for us or for our planet. And in fact, maybe some of the answers were already in place. We just have to go back and look for them.
Yes, I would agree to that. I mean, we don't want to say we have to go back to the Stone Ages. I'm using a computer, I use electricity, in the institute we simply use it in a more efficient, less harmful way. So we simply reduce it. And even me living here, or working here in a building biology office, and also having a building biology home, I'm also spent a lot of time outdoors, you know, in the nature, you know, going through the woods for exercise outdoors. I use my body as a tool that has to be used for movement, in a natural environment, every day ideally.
These days, we are sitting for eight hours or more hours a day, just in the chair and looking straight with almost no movement into a computer screen, you know, this is also very unnatural. Our eyes, for instance, they were also used to look in the distance close, in the front of your feet, you know, to the left to the right, you know, there was a lot of different movements, and we have reduced this in a way that it also can be harmful over the years for our eyes, you know, besides all the possible toxic influence from poor air quality, or electromagnetic fields, etc.
you know, we also be should make more use of our physical body, how it was intended by nature, and our body was not intended to spend 80 90%, in buildings, where you are exposed to all kinds of new chemicals that never existed 100 years ago on this planet, and to expose your body to electromagnetic radiation of all different kinds of frequencies and intensities, this is something that we are not used to.
Designing a healthy bedroom
So this idea of having a healthy bedroom, where as you say we spend a third of our life. Beyond having a natural natural fabric, mattress and pillows and bed sheets, for example, you're also thinking about the potential damage of EMF that's happening in the room?
Well, I mean, one of the first steps actually is to get information about this and so that you know what, what what happens if you use electricity, you know, and this was actually something that we are teaching in our course, you know, for instance, we also we do have electricians, you know, and an electrician, if you if you hire an electrician, to do some changes at your house wiring system, he will do everything that goes in according with the building codes, and he will make sure that you have that your light fixtures are working, that you can use your Wi Fi and that all these kind of things are working.
But these electricians they do not know how to reduce this kind of exposure. And there's for instance what most people have in their bedrooms they have electricity and they have their light fixtures beside their bed and they do not know when they turn off the light that there is still the electric current on on the wireless system, which makes up with always have an electrical fields, and this electrical field can connect to everything where electricity can flow. And electricity also can connect, for instance, to water. And our physical body contains about approximately 70% of water.
So our physical body can connect to this electrical fields, and then we have an artificial flow of artificial electrical fields that actually have nothing to do in our physical bodies that they simply shouldn't be there this artificial electricity is, you know, and also what is that, for instance, our physical body is using also electricity with a constant variation of the frequency.
You know, for instance, right now, if a testing laboratory would test the frequency of your brain, right now, they would probably find a frequency range of some around 15 to 35, up to 40 cycles, you know, and the cyclists that you have on your electricity in Germany is 50 cycles in the United States is 60 cycles.
And if you if you have a constant connection to this artificial 60 cycle, electricity was in your body, this is a constant disturbing to your body to do and to do all the electrical flow that is natural, you know, and you have there from your brain, for instance, you have electrical flows to your muscularity. In the daytime, when you are moving yourself, you also you have a constant connection to all your organs within your body. And if there's always a constant, artificial fields, this simply makes it very hard and stressful to keep up with the natural organization and and stimulation of your complete physical body.
And from this point of view, what we are saying, how can we change that. So what we do, when a testing specialist for instance, comes to house, he measures the amount of fields that you have within your bed, you can measure this, and with a testing tool, or with different testing tools, and then you know, what's, what's the actual situation, and then you judge this actual situation, according to our standard of testing methods will fit with this guidelines, you know, and the next step would be to turn off the circuit of the bedroom.
And usually, then if you then continue to test American neck next testing, you in most cases, you would find that the readings have dropped significantly. The next step is if you still have some Phillips there, that you for instance, turn off the bathroom, that is beside your sleeping room, or the kitchen, you know if the bedroom is in the first in the second floor, you turn off the circuit for the kitchen that is below the bedroom, or from the living room, you know, and then you check out which kind of circuits have an influence on the bedroom. And then when you find out, let's say you have the bedroom, the bathroom and the living room.
And for instance, the guest room, then the building biology testing specialists will recommend to build in so called Automated circuit breakers that turn off the electricity if you don't need it in the nighttime. You know, that means when you turn off your light fixture, when you lay in your bed, you turn it off, then this automated circuit breaker will realize or recognize that you don't need the electricity and it will turn and it will shut off the regular 120 50 cycle electricity in Germany and I think in the States is 110 voltage 60 cycle, we'll turn it off.
And we'll only now have a DC voltage with 12 Watts to your light fixture and this 12 volts DC is not a problem for the body and doesn't harm us, you know. And when it's dark in the night and you have to go to the bathroom in the night you need to light you just turn on your light fixture and then The automatic circuit breaker will notice this by this 12 volt system. And we'll switch to your 110 and 60 cycles, and it takes half of a second, and your light goes on. So this is a very simple technical solution, where you can eliminate those electrical fields in your bed while you are sleeping. And you don't have to, you don't have to worry about any kind of influences from the electricity. Well, this is a very simple way. And this may cost you a couple 100 bucks to get this installed. And this is a very simple solution.
And our recommendations, for instance, if you build a new house, you have another you have another choice, you can use so called shielded wires, and those shielded wires, they it's something like an aluminum mesh around the the three cables within the wire, and you have to connect this to the ground, and they eliminate radiation of the electrical fields, when we don't have to turn off the circuits. You simply use those shielded wires system and the plucks, and you have eliminated those electrical fields. And then you can plug in this is now also available shielded light fixtures, and you have eliminated the electrical fields within your house.
So this is no Hocus Pocus, this is not something very tricky, this is something very easy. But the problem is most people do not know that they could do this and most electricians don't know about this possibilities. Now, this is what we are trying to teach. And in order to do that, you also have to do it in the proper way, you have to testing more properly. And this is what we teach in our course.
human-centric design concept
Doing my research into Building biology, I came across this term that you use quite a lot called “human based design”. Now that appeals to me immediately when I read it, but perhaps you could just talk to us and describe a little bit that concept and what his main characteristics are?
Well, I think as the term actually says human based, that the focus is on our humans, and this also includes that we as human beings, that we feel better if you for instance, look on harmonic relations have the dimensions of room, you know, and that you also look on natural materials, and this is something different.
If you only ever design that is only based on the most economical point of view, you know, how can you save? Or how can you get the best, the best revenue or the best outcome on your investment, so to speak, you know, that you just look on a building from a money point of view, you know, that you try to use and use cheap building materials, you know, and it also makes a difference.
For instance, if you then touch these kinds of surfaces, you know, it makes a difference. For instance, if you have a wooden desk, you know, where you are working, or whether it's just an artificial born or whatever it is out of plastic and an artificial surface, for instance, you know, so it's goes by the look. And it also goes for instance, for instance, right now for look out of my window, you know, I have a big window so that I can also see the outdoors, you know, this is something that's important for us that you are not in an environment where you but you can see to the outdoors, you know, this is also some because there you can see if you're lucky if you're not live in the big cities, that you can also maybe look and see a tree or something like that, you know, this is that you also include the the the needs, also from from what we are what our physical body has been used over the last I don't know many centuries, you know, and millenniums you know, and all also that you can smell for instance, natural materials, you know?
And and, yeah, how can you say that, and also one thing and know whether you be linear the expression of the Golden cut, you know, that is an expression where architects use this in order that you have a certain kind of the lengths to the width to the heights of room, for instance, you know that this is in a harmonic relationship, where you simply feel better, you know, and if you have something that has been built according to this harmonic dimensions, when people enter rooms like that, and if you ask them, How do you feel in this room here?
Labor, so, oh, well, it feels good, it feels nice, you know, and this is something that people say, when they come through our building, or to our Institute building, you know, then they say, Oh, wow, this here, it smells good, and it feels good. And so, on the opposite, if you go into a modern building that only has been built with economical rules, then you might also feel well, you know, it doesn't feel really good. Or the smell oh, well, no, it smells a little bit strange, or it smells chemical or something like that, you know? So, this is what I would say that this has something to do with the human based design.
Building Biology post-Covid
How has building biology responded to what we've gone through with the the COVID crisis? Like what's the reaction been from within the building biology world?
Well, on the one hand, it's actually nothing new for us, because what we are saying is that we should, yeah, ventilate our houses better. And that we that in order to have a more a better air quality and natural air quality, and now it's this is thanks to COVID to Corona, that people are now ventilating their offices and also their houses much much better, you know, and one additional aspect is that you also reduce the amount of possible viruses that might be in the air, but in order to carbon dioxide for instance, or if you have building materials or furnitures that are built with chipboards, where you have formaldehyde is a problem.
Or if you have artificial building materials that off guess VOCs you also get a reduction of these kinds of toxic air pollutants. And so from this perspective, it's a positive effect of the Coronavirus you know, that people are now realizing how important ventilation is the other thing is that we are saying that building biology is also one aspect that improves your health status.
And if you live in a building biology built house, you can also expect that you will have a better immune system that is more stable and then also can that you then also have a natural way how your physical body can treat with this virus if you should be exposed to it. And so, we also we did get some questions from our viewers how shall we deal with the mask for instance, you know, and this also is a topic where we say that has to be looked at and some of the aspects are good, but there are still many many questions and to the way how we are dealing with this COVID crisis here.
And we say eat proper organic foods, drink a lot of water, spend much time outdoors, inhale proper air in nature in the woods go through the woods, you know, that also cleans a lot of our toxic dust and etc. So that your support your physical body and also spent a lot of time outdoors in the sun. You know we do need direct sunlight you know we do don't need more artificial light in only wear the mask when it's really necessary.
And for instant, but this is my personal opinion, if I see people walking outdoors, who the woods and wearing a mask, it doesn't make sense to me, it's from my point of view, I think it's actually an increased health risk, you know, because when we human beings, when we exhale, our physical body tries to get rid of stuff, of particles, also of particles of viruses of bacterias of carbon dioxide, you know, and if you're wearing a mask, you are inhaling at least a certain percentage things that our body wants to get rid of.
So I would say only wear a mask when it's really necessary. And also change those masks in the regular basis, you know, if people are having masks in their pockets, and then using the same kind of mask for a week or longer, I mean, this is also not very good idea. Because you also might get within the mask, some kind of fungus grows or whatever, you know.
So yeah, it's, it's certainly is an additional topic. And for our institute yet also meant some disturbances here and made more workload for us because we had to shift our hands on seminars, and giving those seminars online, in many of our speakers of the spoon biologists that we have as speakers, they weren't used to that, you know, so we were kind of thrown in the cold water, having here zoom conferences and zoom seminars.
And, for me, I also have to admit that it's much more exhausting. If you speak for six hours, just always introduce green dots of your computer where the camera is, you know, and you don't see the interaction, you know, with the people know, if you're in a room, or you have a seminar, where you can see the people may you can
Building Biology online course
So in terms of the structure of the course and the duration, it looks like it's about a year to complete, so quite a serious undertaking more than just a quick certificate that that we might do in a month. This is this is a year of still part time work?
Yeah, the English version is 100% online , so that everybody on this planet, no matter where he is in New Zealand, or Australia, or the United States, that he can take the course in English. And people have to study at home. And we do recommend that you, for instance, open one chapter of the course and that you then study offline, you know, and that you also use a cord connection to your computer and not just using Wi Fi, you know, when you are learning our course that teaches you not to use Wi Fi.
So, but yes, it would be better, you know, if you have the students right in front of you, but it also wouldn't be very ecologically that people students would have to fly to Germany or that we would fly to different countries on this planet, you know, in order to teach us so It's, it's a compromise, you know, I mean, we are not that happy.
But on the other hand, if more and more people on this planet are using in their individual countries, the building biology principles, you know, the better it is for this planet, you know, even if there is a lack of communication or back and forth, you know, and, but we are still in touch with the students and from time to time.
Also, I do have individual zoom meetings with the students who take the course. And sometimes we get visits, you know, if the course come to Germany, they visit us here. And there is a growing community of building biologists all over the planet, which is nice, but it's still a small percentage of people in the building trade, you know it, but I think we urgently need more more people who are working in a building biology way, also due to climate change, you know, we are also in touch, for instance, here in Germany with the, from the Friday for future movement with the architects for future with a lot of young architects, you know, who want to do something.
And when they started, they also thought how can we develop a architecture that is good for the climate? And we simply could say, well, we have these these concepts already since 30, or 40. Deck years, you know, and so you don't have to invent, invent the real new, and just get the knowledge for Building biology.
And if you build the building biology principle, it's the best way how to build buildings, in order to do something for the environment, and also for the climate for the climate change, you know, and, but there we need much more. I mean, I mean, we need building biologists on this planet, like the amount of doctors or architects, they all should know this, if this knowledge, you know, this would help our, our planet Earth a lot, you know,