Home Comforts
With winter snow and ice battering the UK last week, my thoughts have turned to the comfort and cosiness our home can give us. For Hogmanay, my family and I travelled over to Southport to visit a close friend who has just moved into a new house. The house (like so many in England) is a brick and slate semi built in the early 20th century. Coming from our new build townhouse, it was a bit of a shock not feeling automatically warm when indoors and both my wife and I (we both grew up in similar homes) had to make the mental gearshift to remember simple things like closing room doors to keep the heat in. One thing I noticed when we got there was the number of blankets and throws our friend had - something we don’t really have in our house and, as midnight drew near, we all ended cosied up on the sofas under them.
My friend’s house was by no means cold, but the lack of insulation compared to a modern house meant that living patterns and habits were subtly different. For me, the unexpected bonus of the cooler room temperatures was the sense of comfort and cosiness that it engendered. Coorying up under blankets in the front room was a lovely change of pace after a hectic Christmas and the colder bedroom made my New Year’s Day lie-in that bit sweeter as, poking one toe out from under the duvet and extra blanket to feel the temperature, I felt justified in my decision to stay put just a little longer…
As an Architect, particularly one who has an interest in working with historic buildings, the topic of thermal comfort is never far away. I have had clients on projects ask to deliberately remove or downsize radiators as they were used to living in slightly colder buildings while, conversely, others have commissioned feasibility studies to maximise the amount of insulation which can be added to a Victorian end-terrace. Growing up I can distinctly remember my own house (an early 20th century detached stone bungalow) being cold and would often have to lean up against a radiator in depths of winter and I can remember the only source of heating in my grandparent’s house being the fire in the front room. The UK has the oldest housing stock in Europe and as such we are trying to heat old houses in a way they were never intended to be. Up until the latter half of 20th century, thermal comfort was personal – individuals were kept warm either by clothing or by single-point heat sources such as fires. The introduction of central heating systems switched that philosophy to one where entire spaces were heated and, as a result, the average internal temperature of houses rose from 12C° in the 1970s to 18C° in the 2010s. This rise in temperature has seen levels cold-related deaths and diseases fall although fuel poverty continues to be a major issue with 1 in 10 households in England being affected (estimates in Scotland and Northern Ireland are considerably higher). Modern levels of insulation mean that houses require comparatively very little heating and Passivhaus buildings (those which are super insulated and airtight) are so efficient that often they only require heating in the very coldest weeks of the year.
So, what does Comfort mean to you?
If the statistics are to be believed then, we should all be tearing down our Victorian terraces and building Passivhaus but the uptake for these houses is still very small despite the technology being around for decades. The move to higher room temperatures only tells half the story and many of us, like the clients I mentioned above, choose to live in colder properties. When I asked another friend whether she would like to live in a warm modern house or a cold old house, her preference was for the latter due to its historic character. This is also true of the friend in Southport. Both did say that if they had the choice to live in a warm AND old house they would do so, but it seems that for them, a certain amount of the cosiness of their homes is derived from its character as well as its temperature.
Bridging the comfort gap.
Given the reluctance in the UK for getting rid of old housing stock it seems that many in this country feel the same way. For Architects and designers, striking the balance between warmth and character can be a tricky tightrope to master. The RIBA and specialist organisations such as the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB for short) have run campaigns and produced technical advice on how to upgrade and retrofit of historic buildings. Anecdotal evidence from conversations with others in the industry suggests that there is a growing demand from householders for more comprehensive thermal upgrades beyond the usual double glazing and loft insulation. What my New Year’s Trip showed me however, was that there is an opportunity to enhance existing spaces with ‘non-architectural’ changes. An extra blanket or a condescending cry of “put another jumper on” is never going to solve fuel poverty – this needs real and serious government intervention – but in situations like my friend’s house, where the rooms are a bit cooler, then recognising and adapting daily habits and patterns can lead to a harmonious balance of comfort and character and that, I think, is the cosiest place to be.