The Ingredients of Healthy Homes

Many people are familiar with the ingredients that make up a house: at the most basic level you could say it is four walls, a roof, a place to live, a place to eat, and a place to sleep.  However, what ingredients are needed to make a house a home?  This question is more ambiguous, but it is also more important to our sense of fulfillment and well-being.

If you were to ask fifty college students where they live, most would probably describe their dorm or the room they rent near campus.  On the other hand, if you were to ask them where their home is their answer would likely be quite different.  We associate our ‘home’ with many things beyond basic shelter. A home is connected to a sense of belonging and relationship; it helps remind us who we are.

“We need a home in the psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical: to compensate for a vulnerability. We need a refuge to shore up our states of mind, because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances.”

Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness

With this in mind, and with the goal of improving health and well-being, we endeavor to create architecture that helps families build Healthy HOMES.  To do this, we need a clear understanding of their ingredients.

Healthy:

A home should first and foremost be a safe place for the family to live.  Beyond that, the best homes help improve their physical and emotional health as well.  There are many design strategies that can be used to facilitate improved health: incorporating plenty of natural light, quality ventilation, good acoustic design, and the use of healthy materials are just a few.  By creating a healthier environment, a home can improve quality of life and help facilitate stronger relationships.

Operational:

While some of these ingredients are less concrete in nature, it is important to remember that a home should still function successfully.  Structural integrity and compliance with building codes are critical for a family’s safety, their financial investment, and their peace of mind.  A house may have an award-winning aesthetic design, but if it leaks every winter, it will ultimately fall short.

Memorable:

A home should also be a memorable place to live.  It should feel special and include a unique charm that helps the family form a sense of place and belonging.  One of the ways we can accomplish this is to create spaces for quality connection with family members.  A home with an open space to gather will help facilitate family interaction through visual and auditory connection.  The contrast to this is a house that is divided into numerous separate rooms, which can get in the way of relational connection.  Incorporating special amenities like an intimate reading nook can also create opportunities for memorable connection.

Enjoyable:

Beyond the practical functions a home should accomplish, it should also be a very enjoyable place to live.  It should elegantly facilitate enjoyable experiences that fit the family’s lifestyle.  This could include a large space to entertain, a warm study to sit down with a book, or a beautiful view of the kids playing in the backyard.  Considering special opportunities that help facilitate enjoyable experiences is an important part of elevating the design of a home.

Sustainable:

Last, but certainly not least, a home should be sustainable.  This word is thrown around a lot these days, so it is important to define what we mean when we think of a ‘sustainable’ home.  Being sustainable means that a home successfully fits within a family’s means to facilitate their own financial health while also seeking to provide a healthy impact on the community and the well-being of our world as a whole.  It should be energy efficient and prioritize high performance and reduced impact while also creating a place the owners can sustain within their means.  The most energy efficient house will not succeed as a ‘home’ if it does not align with the owners’ financial means.  Thankfully, an energy efficient house does help reduce its financial burden as well.

“Architecture is very influential. We spend almost all of our time in architecture. Architecture can make you sick, if the building materials are toxic. Architecture can make your relationship go south; I can build a building that can make people get divorced. I mean you can make life hard on people, or you can make people’s lives incredibly better with architecture. Architecture is a powerful tool. Architects are given this great gift to make people’s lives better, and not just the rich people that hire us, but everybody.”

Steve Badanes, Citizen Architect

Years ago I had the opportunity to work on a remodel with a kind young couple.  They had a cute two-bedroom cottage, and they wanted to convert their attached garage into a master suite to make room for their growing family.

Even though this was a simple project that will never win an award or make it into a publication, it is still one of my favorites because we were able to help create a home for them:

1. We improved access to natural light and comfortable outdoor spaces to help create a healthier environment.
2. We improved the function of the home by upgrading the utilities and creating more space for their growing family.
3. We created opportunities for memorable experiences by designing a window seat in the master bedroom accompanied by an intimate reading nook.
4. We made the master bedroom an enjoyable space by providing a large window with a beautiful view of their backyard.
5. We made sure the project was sustainable from a personal and community perspective through efficient utilization of their home’s existing footprint.

This couple finished their remodel just in time to welcome their first child.  It was an honor to help them create a healthy home for their growing family.