A house is the machine for living in.
This famous quote by Le Corbusier was made when he developed his housing design philosophy in the 1920s. Fast forward 100 years, and it seems while we still quote this, we don’t action it to the degree we need to.
Famously, Villa Savoye embodies his 5 principles. Columns, to create open spaces and lift buildings up, free-form interior designs, free form façade designs not limited to load-bearing functions, horizontal windows to provide even daylight across rooms and rooftop gardens. Put in context, these ideas radically challenged the status quo of Architecture in the day, at a time when solid labor-intensive construction was the norm. Perhaps Le Corbusier’s drive was influenced by the tuberculosis epidemics that had plagued society for decades. Certainly, light and roof top gardens whilst elevating homes could well have come from wanting to create better living conditions for the occupants of his homes.
Later Mies van der Rohes Farnworth House and Phillip Johnstons Glass House applied similar principles. These are all Architectural iconic buildings recognised and known by many.
But perhaps its time that we embrace a new set of 5 principals to further our development of the “Machine for Living In” to be both energy efficient and healthy.
Passive House has 5 principles, Airtightness, Quality windows, Efficient Thermal Envelope, No Thermal bridging, and Heat Recovery Ventilation. And while Passive House Designers and Consultants rattle off these like a list, perhaps we need to understand why we need this to make our homes healthy Architecturally considered machines for living in.
When I talk to people about Passive House Principals, which fundamentally are energy efficient and healthy home principles, it is often seen as a list of features to pick from. The reality is that these 5 principles work together, get one out of sync, and the unhealthy problems we currently experience in the majority of our housing stock will continue. The key to creating energy-efficient and healthy homes for our future is understanding the performance of the design.
Airtightness helps with the effectiveness of the insulation by reducing air movement through our building envelope. It also stops moisture from collecting in unseen places, causing mold and rot that is only evident once the damage has been done. Little or no thermal bridges reduce the weak spots at construction that effectively plug heat loss and gain weak spots. Thermal bridges can be mould-forming spots so removing these are key to quality indoor air. Quality windows balance both the heat loss and heat gain by the right size, orientation, shading and installation. Heat recovery ventilation recycles the heat or removes the heat whilst controlling humidty.
Airtightness and a quality thermal envelope mean that the energy efficiency of the unit is maximized. Addressing air quality, ventilation rates and humidity create healthy indoor environments to occupy. The intention of all of this is to create a healthy comfortable home with low energy bills. Here in New Zealand, we are constructing new builds (to minimum standards) as the most airtight in our history, meaning moisture and ventilation need more consideration than ever before. 30,000 New Zealand children are hospitalized each year with asthma-related issues, we cannot afford to ignore these 5 principles anymore.
A machine for living in should support our health whilst being efficient to operate. 100 years later, our quest for a machine for living in has evolved, to being a healthy efficient machine to live in.