University College London (UCL) is building a world-leading Control Active Ventilation Environment lab (CAVE) in Dagenham, designed to research climate and airborne hazards.
Located at the LondonEast-UK Business and Technical Park, Dagenham, the new $13.4 million state-of-the-art facility is the first of its kind to carry out research at this scale into air quality and ventilation challenges in buildings.
It is designed to answer questions relating to indoor air in urban environments, and how indoor air can be protected and improved.
It will allow researchers to understand how airborne particles – including viruses and pollution – move around transport systems and buildings such as airports and theatres, enabling better designs that improve public health.
CAVE will give a boost to the work being carried out across a broad spectrum of challenges, such as ensuring the UK is prepared for future virus outbreaks and can demonstrate best practice, and tackling high indoor air pollution levels in cities, which are of increasing concern in an urbanised society.
Mechanical plant has been installed on the second floor and roof to control the experimental conditions required within the lab space. Inside the lab space there are further internal thermal walls provided to control the temperature of the room between -5 to over 40 degrees and maintain the conditions required for the end user experiments.
The facility is due to be officially launched in early 2024.