A new direction at CSTB to accelerate responses to environmental quality challenges

DSAM considers together indoor environments, urban atmospheres, including mobility, as well as exposure and health risk, three inseparable dimensions influencing our quality of life.

Scientific and technical objectives serving its clients and the industry

Thanks to its multidisciplinary expertise, the DSAM aims to:

• To advance knowledge of indoor and outdoor environments through an integrated, systemic and multi-criteria approach: aerautics, acoustics, light, thermal comfort, wind, electromagnetism…
• Raising awareness and supporting prescribers on health issues throughout their project.
• To analyze and anticipate the interactions between buildings, cities and mobility in order to support the transformation of territories.
• Developing tools, methods and operational solutions to enable the building sector, public actors, manufacturers and developers to respond to health, environmental and societal challenges.
• Supporting the design and renovation of resilient, healthy and comfortable buildings and infrastructure.
• Optimize support for CSTB's clients and partners, while consolidating its position at the European level.

Exceptional skills at the service of these ambitions

To achieve these objectives, the DSAM brings together a multidisciplinary team of 125 employees - researchers, engineers, test technicians, digital specialists, in-situ measurement experts and support services - who possess a diversity of skills enabling a comprehensive analysis of phenomena: aeraulics, air quality, acoustics, thermal, climatology, aerodynamics, electromagnetism, mobility…

It benefits from the unique scientific and technical foundation of the former Health Comfort and Climatology, Aerodynamics, and Air Handling departments.

Unique testing facilities in Europe

The DSAM has around ten state-of-the-art research facilities and laboratories, some of which are unique in Europe, including:

• The Jules Verne climatic wind tunnel,
• The European Building Acoustics Laboratory (LABE),
• The Thermal Laboratory,
• The POLLEM Laboratory is dedicated to measuring pollutants and allergens,
• ARIA, air quality analysis platform.

This complementarity of digital, experimental and in situ means, combined with the unique expertise of this new direction, makes it possible to observe, simulate and test environments in realistic, reproducible and extreme conditions.

Enhanced cross-sectoral collaboration

The creation of the DSAM facilitates collaboration with other CSTB departments and amplifies the scope of work, serving even more integrated and efficient research.

This management is entrusted to Julien Rogé, director of CSTB Nantes, previously operational director of Climatology, Aerodynamics, Aerodynamics.

According to Julien Rogé, Operational Director for Health, Atmospheres, and Mobility: “Supporting the transformation of buildings and cities requires organizing and intensifying our actions around all the key factors of quality of life. Working together on the quality of indoor environments and urban atmospheres is therefore a priority. The creation of the DSAM represents an important strategic development in this respect: it facilitates the development of relevant solutions that take this dual challenge into account.”