Good indoor air quality is essential for comfort, health and the long-term condition of a London home. Moisture, pollution and stale air build up quietly in older properties, especially when windows stay shut because of noise, privacy or security concerns. Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery provides a reliable solution. It delivers filtered fresh air, removes moisture before it becomes mould and recovers most of the heat you have already paid to generate. If you are planning a renovation or whole-house retrofit, integrating MVHR can create a home that feels cleaner, quieter and far more comfortable every day.

In my last article, I discussed the relationship between the Passive House standard and the making of a healthy home. I spoke about how the Passive House standard, which can be considered a measure of peak fitness, can serve as a strong foundation for your healthy home, a home that will also embrace more holistic issues.

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.