What Is A Healthy Home And What Does It Have To Do With Passivhaus?

When we tell people that we make healthy homes, they often look confused. And that is fair given the unhealthy state of the UK building stock which is the oldest and poorest performing in Europe. As architects, we have met successful people, middle to upper-class families, whose homes were so rotten they found slugs in their shower and insects in the children's cereal. If these experiments in indoor biodiversity were the spark for their refurbishment project, you don’t need statistics to say that we are accustomed to a low standard for our homes. 

 What is a healthy home?

Let's imagine what it might mean to have a truly healthy home and explore where Passive House might fit into the picture.

First, perhaps we should question what it means to be healthy. In 1948, the WHO defined health as a "state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." A home might then create the conditions that support this definition. But to support good personal health, what parameters should we use to assess the health of our homes? How could we look at this in a structured or strategic way? 

 Passivhaus

A good place to start is the Passive House standard, considered by many to be the ultimate standard for high performance, energy efficient homes. With a fabric first approach, the standard prioritises high levels of insulation, exceptional airtightness, careful detailing and quality construction. This methodology focuses on performance and energy. To embrace issues of mental and social well-being, a truly healthy home is more than this. Yes, there are collateral benefits of the passive house approach resulting in comfortable energy efficient homes. But it is like the tendency of profession athletes to feel good and healthy as a result of an uncompromising training regime. 

I like to think of Passive House as a fitness standard of peak building performance. It is the professional athlete of buildings. It is a great place to start and, in our view, the ultimate building block for a truly healthy home. But it does not encompass everything that eco-friendly and sustainable architecture should consider. 

The Ultimate Healthy Home

A truly healthy building is more than just fitness and performance. It should consider aspects of our mental and social well-being, such as providing joy and excitement, rewarding us every day by making us feel good and healthy, helping perform at our very best. 

The fabric first approach of the Passive House standard goes a long was in doing this. But some aspects of this approach are not environmentally friendly, such as the use of high-performing phenolic foam insulation that help achieve high insulation standards but are bad for the environment. 

A healthy home encompasses larger more holistic issues related to its making, the spaces it provides and its impact on the planet. In addition to the fitness considerations of energy use and airtightness, a healthy home should also consider larger more holistic issues such as:

• the use of eco-friendly and sustainable materials

• the sourcing and recyclability of materials

• acoustic comfort within the home

• providing joy and delight

• providing peace and calm

• flexibility for future adaptation 

• spaces suited for social activity

These are questions for architecture to address, above and beyond any Passive House requirements. 

Finding the right balance for a building project, with or without Passivhaus

What if Passive House isn’t possible? What if there are conditions that limit what can be done? We think that is okay.

We passionately embrace Passive House but recognise that it is not always possible or feasible. We’ve spent more than a decade refurbishing and upgrading London property. We turn aspirations into reality. We know first-hand that it is a balancing act and that Passive House could be but is not necessarily part of a healthy and sustainable solution. 

We all know that time and the responsibilities of family and work can limited what we can do for our own personal fitness and health. A building project is no different. Plus, building is an expensive undertaking, and finances can be a constraint. With home refurbishment, particularly in urban areas, space, building type, methods of construction, and conservation requirements may restrict what can be done. And that is okay.  

With these restrictions, it may not be feasibility or practical to aim for the peak “fitness” standard of Passive House. But that shouldn’t prevent you from having the healthiest building possible. We’d all agree that challenges shouldn’t prevent good health. 

Defining Good Health

Good health in your building will be healthy balance of critical parameters that respond to the challenges unique to every building. But also, the unique drivers that make each one of us feel healthy. With our personal health, some people might enjoy athletic performance and the adrenaline rush of an intense run. Others enjoy the peace and utter calm of a yoga retreat. For some, it is about being slim and having little or no body fat. For others, it is about enjoying good food with friends and family. 

The reality is, we are all different, and our definitions of good health will vary. More importantly, the drivers that lead to good health, particularly with regard to social and mental wellbeing, will be unique. We also understand that an overemphasis in one area might negatively impact others. Because we know that good health is a balance. It is no different when it comes to the health of your home. To achieve good health, a building project will be driven by a clear definition of good health means to you, a definition that puts these critical parameters in balance with practical limitations.

As Architects, finding the right balance for every project is what we do. We balance solar gain, heat loss and daylight penetration. We choose between ultra-thin high performing insulation and thick natural insulation with low environmental impact. We balance the airtightness with indoor air quality and fresh air intake. And most importantly, we are balancing the individual needs of every client, the things that will make them feel good. All of this starts with the end goal – what are we trying to achieve in terms of health and performance. 

That is why we set up our healthy home checklist to help homeowners identify their priorities and clarify thoughts towards creating a healthy home. Our checklist will get you thinking about your priorities and what makes you healthy. 

If you haven’t downloaded our Passive House Checklist and Questionnaire, you can do so below. If you have and would like to discuss your answers or thoughts, please contact us to arrange a free consultation.