Sandra G. L. Persiani holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from the Sapienza University of Rome and has been working at the Chair of Prof. Thomas Auer within a TUM Foundation Fellowship since 2019.
As Postdoc researcher of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation, Persiani will engage in research in the field of indoor environment and green architecture:
The majority of the world’s population lives today in urban areas and spend more than 80% of their lives indoors. The quality of our artificial environments is therefore having an increasing impact on our well-being and lifestyle sustainability.
Although single positive effects of integrating greenery in the built environment have been extensively researched and documented, little is known about the combined effects of people-plant and plant- building technology interactions.
Persiani hypothesizes that a self-reliant “symbiotic” association can be established between plant, man and building to mitigate unwanted indoor environmental conditions. Relying on the supposed capacity of the three agents to self-organise, the association would overcome the individual physiological limitations and allow a new form of resilience to emerge. The hypothesis is tested through a Living Lab experiment monitoring and analysing selected office spaces, which will provide experimental data on the interactions between plants, humans and buildings.