When smell becomes part of indoor air quality

What makes an indoor environment healthy? Beyond temperature, ventilation and pollutant levels, smell also plays an important role in how people experience buildings. This is the idea behind the research that earned Eurac Research the Best Paper Award at Indoor Air 2026, the world's leading conference on indoor air quality.

The award was presented at Singapore Management University to Giulia Torriani, together with Francesco Babich and Olga Somova, recognising research carried out in collaboration with Simone Torresin and Rossano Albatici from the University of Trento.

A new tool for indoor air research

The award-winning paper introduces SmellscaPy, an open-source Python library that supports the analysis, visualisation and interpretation of perceptual data on indoor olfactory environments.

The tool helps researchers work with data describing how people perceive smells indoors, making it easier to investigate an aspect of indoor environmental quality that has received far less attention than traditional indicators such as pollutants or thermal comfort.

By making the library openly available, the research team aims to support further studies on the relationship between indoor environments, human perception and wellbeing.

Expanding the concept of indoor air quality

The research reflects a broader approach to healthy buildings. Indoor air quality is not only about reducing pollutants, but also about understanding how people experience the spaces where they live and work.

Smell influences comfort, wellbeing and the overall perception of indoor environments. Considering these aspects alongside traditional environmental parameters can help design buildings that better respond to people's needs.

Receiving the Best Paper Award at Indoor Air 2026 is an important international recognition of this research and highlights the growing interest in multidisciplinary approaches to healthy and comfortable buildings.