There is a very interesting article by Kate Baggaley in Popular Science from a few weeks ago that is definitely worth a look.
“Bacteria and fungi are a menace to paintings, sculptures, and ancient artifacts.”
Source: The world’s art is under attack—by microbes | Popular Science
It discusses how microbes are damaging various kinds of art works and how curators are trying to both study this and limit this. This is a good case study in an alternative aspect of microbiology of the built environment where what people are trying to optimize is “health” in a way but health of art works and not of people, animals, or plants or even buildings.
This article and blog post was a breath of fresh air! The article focuses on an aspect of microbiology that is far from what I have been studying. You are completely right, we focus on health, people, plants, and animals when there is so much more that microbes are affecting. Do you have a favorite aspect of microbiology one would not normally consider?