It is no surprise that amidst a pandemic people are spending much more time in their homes. Overall human beings spend a significant amount of time indoors, meaning the air we breathe is a lot less healthy and could affect our overall well-being later in life. This reason alone is enough to stress the importance of hiring a designer who understands building science- it can make the difference between a healthy home or one that has the potential to make you and your family sick.
There are certain factors that can impact the air we breathe, one of those being a fireplace. This element leaves an opening in your home that can pull dirty air into the home from the fireplace itself or the building envelope. According to the United States, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) microparticles in wood-burning fireplaces can cause bronchitis, asthma, and other respiratory issues in children and the elderly. A safe alternative for this would be using a vented gas fireplace, this eliminates the need for wood and other natural materials along with pushing out the harmful exhaust. Speaking with your architect about a ventilated fireplace in the home design process can make all the difference in the air you will breathe every day.
Nearly every living thing relies on the energy from the sun, and humans are no different, we need sunlight just as much as the succulents on our windowsills. Natural light provides vitamin D – making us calmer, and more productive as a result. By allowing us to feel closer to nature through biophilic design humans can feel happier and healthier as well. Aside from benefiting the human body, sunlight can also benefit your wallet.
Natural light can eliminate the need for artificial light in the home, saving homeowners money on monthly electricity bills. Along with not needing to use artificial lights during the day, we can also rely on natural light to heat our homes during cooler seasons. Saving money on your home is great, but making money on your home is even better. Natural lighting can actually increase the value of your home, opening your windows allows sunlight to fill your whole room and in return gives the appearance of a much larger space. An article by The Ohio State University breaks down different ways light is being harnessed in the home!
An excellent example of a home that utilizes this science is the Keezletown Farmhouse. This home was designed to capture all the coziness that comes with owning a family farm, and in doing so focused on getting the perfect from the comfort of the living room.
When designing a home, it is important to ask a lot of questions to figure out the goals of the new project. Why do you want to expand that room, how do you use this area, and even, what kind of car do you drive? Understanding the specific ways things are happening and how the client wants them to happen is at the heart of good design. If you have ever thought about it, you probably realize that a house is the most complicated machine you will ever own. A home has water vapor moving through walls, mechanical systems moving air, vents exhausting fumes and humidity, walls resisting wind, roofs shedding water, and the list goes on. Buildings are complicated for sure, just like the lives they facilitate are complicated.
So when approaching a renovation or addition project it is important to know the client’s values. In order to best design the right solution for them you have to know the goals, problems, challenges, and budget. This is the work that we do as architects, we boil down complicated problems into easy-to-digest decisions. Our work in the early phases is an act of uncovering the story. We develop a narrative of spaces and shapes working with your budget in mind. These parts are woven together into a built form that can be used to create the physical space.
As architects, we help reduce stress and unknowns through our shared experiences and work to enhance livability through design solutions. It is not only our job to understand you but to be able to translate your goals, lifestyle, and hopes into a physical space that will flourish with you. This project renovation in Fluvanna County would not have been possible without the contracting skills of M3 inc.Teamwork withtrusted partners is another key to a successful project.
Over the last year of uncertainty, it has been difficult to figure out what products have changed, what is available, and what the “right” answers are for our clients. As a firm, we have always worked hard to stay informed about changing patterns, products, and best practices in the field and that is hard to do working remote. Reading articles and studying text can only teach so much, so we had to ask ourselves, what could we do to stay on top of things in order to best serve our clients? We started hosting online education sessions each month, inviting product experts to help educate us and others in the industry. We worked at finding a range of sessions that not only benefited our own learning, but a community we built online of industry professionals. One of our “Golden Product Rep” that helped us with a virtual seminar is Steve Norris with American Bath Group. He has a wide range of plumbing products, many that we use in our projects, and delivered some excellent information for us to consider during the design process.
Today, Steve is with us live and in-person – outside of our office with a trailer display of his products. This gives us a chance to put our hands on things, see the differences, and understand how to guide our clients better through the selection process. We have also invited some industry colleagues to join us because we are better as a team than we are working in a silo. During our time spent with the American Bath Group, we had the privilege to learn about cutting-edge materials and products that are being utilized in residential and commercial bathrooms. By far one of the coolest advancements we viewed was shatter-resistant tempered glass.
This demonstration was conducted by our very own interior designer a more professional example of this technology can be viewed here. We were asked to press down on the glass as hard as we could and upon breaking the glass stayed a solid, laminated in place. This technology will not only save your bathroom from disaster but has the possibility to save lives.
Overall we were incredibly thankful that American Bath Group took the time to show us all of the newest material advancements and allow us to not only learn but to grow as a team.
Our first Net-Zero design came back in 2005. At the time Solar PV was expensive and rare for most of our projects. We focused on building energy-efficient to reduce energy usage, but Solar PV almost never got added. Then the price of solar thermal dropped and we starting seeing more interest in that technology. Today, things have switched drastically in the favor of Solar PV as panels are very affordable. As energy costs continue to rise renewable, “Green energy”, is rising in popularity. The switch to renewable energy seems like a no-brainer, there are several benefits to taking the plunge into a more environmentally conscious lifestyle, more specifically – solar power
GiveSolar is a non-profit that not only understands the benefits of solar power but is working towards installing panels for 20 Central Valley Habitat for Humanity households with twelve solar panels through their Solar Seed Fund. This project will not only make solar power more accessible but also promote green energy and the economic benefits of going solar. GiveSolar has been an active member of their communities since 2016, beginning with a solar barn-raising, since then they have been striving to eliminate poverty through green energy.
Solar power pulls energy from the sun that would otherwise show up on your utility bill, this form of energy reduces electricity bills, cuts down on carbon emissions, and can even increase property value! These panels save homeowners roughly $14,000.00 in a span of thirty years, panels not only work for you but work towards keeping our environment healthier. You might be asking yourself why doesn’t everyone switch to solar? There are common misconceptions that sway homeowners from going green, one of those being unpredictable weather, when in fact cloud coverage doesn’t significantly affect the power the panels absorb. Solar panels also don’t require warm weather in order to work, what’s stopping you from going green?
We have never thought so much about theair we breathe as we do now. After a year of working remotely, I returned to the office this week, sharing space with four other businesses. I also had a few people drop-in, from delivery drivers to clients to friends that I had not seen in a year. This was a huge change after a year of almost never leaving my house. Of course, after this past year of a virus that spreads through airborne particles, this is a huge change. The air we breathe has a direct impact on our health and therefore the design of our buildings matters.
Indoor air can be very unhealthy, even outside of virus spread. Smoke, mold, and chemicals along with other people contribute to what is in your air. All of these things in your air can be harmful to human health. When you think of air pollution you often think about smokestacks on industrial building sites or car exhaust. However, that is just a small part of the picture.
The air in your home comes in and gets trapped inside. It comes in when you open doors and windows of course, but it also comes in through your walls, crawl space, and attic. When the wind blows on one side of your home that exterior wall becomes positive pressure and the opposite wall becomes negative pressure. This pulls and pushes air through every gap and cracks in your house. This makes your insulation, carpet, drywall gaps, window edges your air filter – air filters that never get changed or cleaned.
Air is lazy, it looks for the easy path to escape. Easy gaps like electrical outlets, light switches, attic access all become paths for air to come into the house, bringing with it humidity, spiders, pollen, dust, and dirt. Your ductwork run in unconditioned spaces also becomes a conduit for dirty air bypassing the filter intended to clean your air.
Chemicals in your building products are released into your air and you breathe them in. NO-VOC paints have become really popular, but not the only option. Off-gassing from glues, furniture, clothing, cabinets, paints, cleaning supplies, detergents, and even food are released into the air of your home causing a chemical cocktail that has impacts on your health.
When we design a custom home I always encourage our clients to allow us to write a project manual setting the performance standards for the HVAC system, airtightness of the thermal envelope and protects the inhabitants of the home. This performance standard is a critical element to protect the homeowner and to set the standards for the builder to complete. Without this document, you are leaving these performance standards to the builder and his subcontractors. While they may also be very concerned about indoor air quality, their priority is to make sure you are comfortable which is the source of most client’s perception of quality. We need to raise the bar and also talk about the air we breathe and the importance of setting high standards for indoor environmental quality.
