Aspecta was proud to sponsor the keynote address by Dr. Jessica Green - a world-renowned scientist inspiring people to think about bacteria in entirely new ways. Metroflor’s Director of Design Robert Langstaff introduced Jessica to an audience of hundreds of architects and designers. Her presentation was rich in content about the role of bacteria in built environments– and its potential for positive impact upon people. Her mission to take the role of microbes public came to life through a stunning, visual presentation of their power in built environments. We’ve never seen anything quite like it.

Jessica told a fascinating story about our bacteria and the culture behind it. It’s amazing how pervasive this all-inclusive ecosystem is, and how these microbes are part of all of us, everywhere. We interact with them all the time, both in a negative and positive way.

Jessica began by showing us her graphic novel in progress, which visually depicts how bacteria affects an apartment building in Paris and how microbes are critical to our health and well-being. Materials including flooring are important factors in indoor environments. Floors have microbes brought in by shoes.

Designers and architects are actually designing indoor microbial cities, whether they know it or not. How can they be more deliberate in positively impacting indoor microbiology? Outdoor air is healthy air – filtering it is healthier than keeping it out. Outdoor air has the greatest variety of microbes while mechanical air systems keep it out with negative impact, especially in hospitals.

Said Jessica, “Rather than asking how can we keep microbes out of the indoor environment, ask instead: How can we design the indoor environment to promote beneficial microbes and inhibit harmful ones?”

Metroflor’s own Chief Sustainability Officer Rochelle Routman and Robert Langstaff met with Jessica afterward to discuss the synergy between the philosophy of Biophilia, which is at the heart of the design of Metroflor’s products moving forward, and Jessica’s understanding of how we are intimately connected with each other and even the smallest forms of life.