Healthy home design: How bespoke oak framed homes can support wellbeing
In recent years, health and wellbeing have become increasingly prioritised, with more of our clients adopting similar wellness features into their designs.
What is a healthy house?
A healthy home is designed with your wellbeing in mind.
From improving air quality and efficiency to building for the future, it’s a more considered way of design, creating a healthy environment that lets you live comfortably for years to come.
In the UK government’s Healthy Home Standard, a healthy home is divided into five themes:
- Inclusivity - including accessibility
- Amenity - which includes ceiling heights and indoor and outdoor storage.
- Efficiency - this focuses on fabric first design and energy performance.
- Comfort - such as air quality and maintaining comfortable living temperatures.
- Control - which means considering space for future adaptations and extensions.
Keeping this framework in mind can help guide your overall design.
Our Architectural Team can help finalise your healthy home while ensuring that each room is truly tailored to your needs.
A healthy home also makes for an environmentally-friendly home.
Read more about the health benefits of building with sustainability in mind below:
Design features to consider when building a healthy house
If you’re embarking on a new adventure and designing a home, why not incorporate the below features to support your wellbeing?
Natural Light
For many of our clients, incorporating natural light into their designs is a priority, be it through adding face glazing to large areas of the design, large sliding glass doors, skylights or balconies. All of these features create a greater sense of connection to the outdoors, making your home feel bigger, brighter, and better for your wellness.
Natural light encourages healthier habits, as well as better sleep and higher energy – affording you both long- and short-term benefits.
It also gives you the opportunity to incorporate more green spaces and plants into your home. Like natural light, plants have been shown to support wellbeing by improving mental health, air quality, and productivity. They also complement exposed oak framing, making plants a popular addition to home offices and work-from-home spaces.
Read more:
Passivhaus
Our panel system can be the silent hero of your home when it comes to wellbeing. Although laid within the walls, WrightWall,WrightWall Natural and MVHR systems maintain a stable, consistent temperature within your home, even during hot and cold spells.
These panels can bring wonderful health benefits, supporting better sleep and everyday comfort.Being a comfortable temperature helps regulate your body and allows you to relax more quickly – especially as opening windows, closing blinds, and adjusting heating need to be considered much less frequently.
You will also be benefiting the health of your loved ones as all air has been filtered of pollen, dust, and pollution – and in particular those living with asthma or other respiratory illnesses.
Read more about Passivhaus here, including frequently asked questions.
Forward planning and versatile spaces
An increasing number of home designs are now including spaces that are completely devoted to wellbeing - a trend noticed by our own Architectural Team.
Whether that’s home gyms, relaxation and meditation or hobby space, incorporating a wellness space into your design ensures that creativity and mindfulness have a dedicated place in your home.
Additionally, by making the right considerations early on – such as ventilation, window placement and structural layout, you can create a versatile space that evolves with your lifestyle as it changes.
Extra bedrooms, guest accommodation or home offices are often secondary uses for these spaces. Thanks to the right forward planning and versatility of oak framing, your hobby room can be easily converted to suit your needs, making it a valuable addition to your home, and your wellbeing.
A home for now, and for the future
These architectural design features are worth considering if you want to prioritise wellness in your home, extension, or outbuilding, and our team of architectural designers can help you to seamlessly integrate them into your bespoke design.
To get started, book your own design consultation with our team or download a brochure to get inspired.
