14 DAY TRIAL // After the real estate market crashed, proving that bigger is not always better, architects thought it is time to think about sustainable innovations applied to the homes of the future.
Therefore, in 2006, architects John Brown, Matthew North, and Carina van Olm launched on the market the Slow Home Studio, a new project able to redefine our households in terms of sustainability and energy-efficiency.
The main idea follows the slow food trend, which suggests the fact that our organism needs food and nutrients that make us function better than regular food which does nothing more than filling our stomach.
The movement adapted to architectures has 12 main rules. The followers are keen on preserving and applying environmental stewardship and sustainability practices, while relying only on quality craftsmanship.
They thought that an energy-efficiency building has to be compact in size, in order to reduce energy and water losses. Also, they think that it is highly important to offer their buyers a fair price for such innovations, in order to recreate the relationship between an owner and his household and implement it on a large commercial scale.
“Slow homes give us an opportunity to rethink our relationship with our houses. When a house is well made it will make life easier. We want to help people make sense of their homes in a logical way,” declared Brown.
They also took into consideration the fact that energy-efficient homes should be sun-oriented, in order to exploit the entire potential of natural lightning, natural heating and cooling.
It seems that these eco-conscious architects approve the recycling trend, even when it comes to buildings. Instead of building new homes, the team advices the people to improve their present household, declaring that such a strategy is far more eco-friendly.
“Stay where you are and reuse it. It’s a much more environmentally friendly approach then building a whole new house,” added Brown.
Furthermore, the experts agreed upon the fact that we should liberate our house from everything that is not meant to improve our lives, one way or another.
Evaluating our present elements, such as the current position of light switch panels and height of kitchen and bathroom counters appears to be a great start. The team states that small incremental changes have the potential to turn a regular household in a smart energy-efficient home.