Home Improvement

Good house design got its form partly on the forces that act into it.  Climate and weather are a pair of the best form-makers (there are no igloos from the tropics) since houses need to be designed and developed to repel the damaging outcomes of the planet we are living in.  Nature is definitely wanting to tear our buildings down.

Climate and weather also change the comfort of our homes, and cause us to get strategies to maintain the temperature and humidity of the homes within tolerable levels.  A great deal of design effort is about keeping the heat in or keeping the warmth out, according to the climate and season.

This Old House

On occasion throughout American history, the varieties of our homes have reflected – to greater or lesser extents – our ingenuity for making our homes’ internal climates much more comfortable.

Settlers inside Deep South built deep porches around their low-slung homes to shade them through the harsh sun as well as produce a reservoir of cooler air that could be drawn in the house.

New Englanders built compact homes with small windows to defend them from winter winds and hold in all the heat as it can be.  And prairie homes, often built of stacked sod, were half-buried in the earth to smooth out the temperature swings as well as protect them on the frequent violent storms that sweep the plains each summer.

Easy and effective strategies honestly were necessary because fuel for heating homes was limited.  We created houses that conserved resources; we didn’t understand how to never.

That changed together with the era of cheap and plentiful electricity and gas main for home heating, along with the introduction from the first air conditioners form of hosting homes in 1928.  Suddenly, houses didn’t should answer their environment; any home could simply be kept as warm or as cool as desired using mechanical means whatever the weather outside.  Little thought was given to energy conservation strategies until the early 1970s, once the cheap energy we’d assumed became suddenly expensive, along with the climate-ignorant houses we’d produced for decades became costly to heat and funky.

That 70’s Show

But then an incredibly cool thing happened.  Architects and builders across the nation started to revive the “lost art” of designing homes that responded to climate and weather.  Ancient ideas like earth-sheltering and thermal massing were used again.  New passive-cooling strategies and unique ideas like the Trombe wall were invented.

And most interestingly, the homes using low-energy techniques took on new, exciting forms.  Suddenly there seemed to be something different out there beside Yesteryear inspired design.  It absolutely was an enjoyable time packed with invention and experimentation.

But those years was short-lived.  With the mid-1980s fuel was cheap again and energy-efficient unique home design was almost forgotten.

To The Future

So it’s no real shock that individuals now find ourselves having come full circle, with rising energy prices plus a revised involvement in home energy efficiency.  It’s an important concern these days when some studies show residential buildings consuming up to 21% in the nation’s energy.

Today’s home cost effective strategies will vary compared to what they were 30 years ago, however.  Today the target is on technology in lieu of on design.  New materials are techniques have been developed which make otherwise climate-insensitive home designs (and there are plenty) better stewards with the energy they should maintain human comfort.

Technical solutions may be expensive, however, simply because demand that common building materials perform with a advanced.  Windows have “high-tech” glass with low-emissivity coatings, Argon gas-filled spaces, or longer to 3 sheets of glazing.  Heating systems are running at higher efficiencies, and will come built with programmable thermostats and insulated ductwork.  Solutions like these do conserve energy and therefore are important components in any home even so the technology crutch shouldn’t be leaned on too heavily.  We need better design.

Designer’s Challenge

Let’s say, rather then spending numerous additional dollars on high-tech glazing to help keep the sun’s heat out, we more carefully located our windows to prevent sunshine in the first place?  What if we used elements of the house itself to shade those windows from heat radiation and UV rays?

Suppose we took better benefit from the ground’s relatively stable temperature to stabilize temperatures in your houses, as opposed to exposing every square foot of a Home Decorating Ideas surface on the elements?  Rather than constant mechanical air-con to eliminate humidity, why don’t you try opening windows onto shady porches and permit the breeze cool the property?

And what if we opened our minds somewhat – stopped thinking a great deal about fashion and resale value – and allowed the sorts of our houses being shaped more because when they react to the weather as well as the environment we reside in?

The surprising result could possibly be intriquing, notable and beautiful homes that cost very little to heat and funky – the same as the past.

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