Design Architecture What Is a “Healthy” Home? By Lloyd Alter Lloyd Alter Facebook Twitter Design Editor University of Toronto Lloyd Alter is Design Editor for Treehugger and teaches Sustainable Design at Ryerson University in Toronto. Learn about our editorial process Updated October 11, 2018 Public Domain. Lovell Health House, 1929. Credit: Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA. Share Twitter Pinterest Email Design Tiny Homes Architecture Interior Design Green Design Urban Design In 1929 Richard Neutra built the Lovell Health House, which was really a manifesto about how to design a healthy house, key elements being lots of sunlight and fresh air. But Neutra was also influenced by Freud and believed that his houses could cure neuroses, that houses could affect the occupants’ psyches. Today, a lot of people are thinking about how to build healthy houses once again, as we learn about the dangers from chemicals within the home and pollution without. And once again, architects people are realizing that our houses and workspaces have to do more than just provide shelter, and health is more than just physical. © UKGBC A great summary of this thinking is the new report by the UK Green Building Council, Health and Wellbeing in Homes. It’s a significant document because it looks at both the home itself and the community it is part of: Our home, both the location and the physical building itself, influences almost every aspect of our lives – from how well we sleep, to how often we see friends, to how safe and secure we feel. If we want to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals, families and communities, there can hardly be a more important place to start than the home: it is where most people spend most of their life. They also stress that there is more to it than just the physical stuff that’s in our building codes: The World Health Organisation defines health not as merely the absence of ill-health but as “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing”. Therefore, we have interpreted “health and wellbeing” to include social, psychological and physical factors. It is also about more than just a home, but also about community. Physical health can be described as the absence of disease, as well as optimal functioning of our body. Mental health is about much more than just the absence of mental illness: it encompasses positive issues such as peace of mind, contentment, confidence and social connection. Social wellbeing is determined by the strength of an individual’s relationships, and the way in which they function within their community. Light A great example of how sophisticated the thinking has become is a look at lighting. In Neutra’s day (and in the California climate) you couldn’t have enough natural light. But we have learned that with windows, you can have too much of a good thing; houses can overheat in summer, freeze in winter without lots of mechanical heating and cooling. Windows are not just glazing, but more complex: Windows are ‘machines’, in the sense that they combine multiple properties: they should be considered not just as transparent sections of wall, but as important multi-functional elements of the home. Good window design can enhance occupant wellbeing, both physically and psychologically. However, there are a number of common pitfalls which do quite the opposite. Inappropriate glazing design can impact privacy, furniture layouts, amount of solar gain and heat loss. Internal Air Quality This is much more complicated than it was in Neutra’s day (and California’s climate) where you opened windows for fresh air. In fact, it is much more complicated than it was when we started writing about it on TreeHugger, when we stressed tuning windows, cross ventilation and living without air conditioning. We are also living more closely together and have learned more about the dangers of particulates and other air pollutants outside our doors. To save energy we have tightened up our homes, and many of us are living in smaller spaces. However, it is possible to prov