Mark Ahlheim - Healing Homes.GURU

BUILDING FOR HEALTH NOT SO BIG

In 2001, architect Sarah Susanka wrote a bellwether book published by Taunton Press entitled The Not So Big House . It immediately resonated with me. I knew Taunton because they publish a monthly magazine called Fine Homebuilding which I was beginning to read and came to respect as the best of a handful of periodicals aimed at teaching builders how to build homes of higher quality and durability. I still read it today, and in fact they just published their 40 th anniversary issue. Not So Big also resonated with me because I grew up in Buffalo, NY and as a student of bungalow architecture and the Arts & Crafts Movement which was founded by a group of early 20 th century Western New York artisans known as the Roycrofters, I recognize many of the building techniques and construction materials used by the Roycrofters as the same Ms. Susanka advocates for and was using in her Not-So-Big designs. The book was prescient because less than six years later the Housing Bubble/ Great Recession of the late aughts was upon us, and by 2012 the average size of a new American home was actually going down. Not by much, but held steady long enough that the average sized “McMansion”—a name I gave to the newly-constructed homes in my neighborhood because they were becoming so completely cookie-cutter in their look and floor plan—began to level or even go down. So it was completely natural that as I began my own quest for building healthy that I would incorporate many ‘Not So Big’ design elements into my homes. With that said, of all the content on this website, this section has the least direct relevance to health, though that is not to say that the ideas I express here are unimportant or have nothing to do with health. Quite the contrary. I truly believe that when the four or five design principles I talk about are executed together, they lay the groundwork for a home’s occupants to be happy and content—a major prerequisite for living in a healthy home. Please follow along as I give you an abbreviated tour of the four elements that most define my healthy homes. Along the way I will also explain how those elements dovetail with an emphasis on building healthy, naturally, and sustainably.

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

I think the most important take-away from Ms. Susanka’s work is what I call “Quality over Quantity.” I believe most homes are too large. As an example, I still think today’s Living Rooms are way too big and maybe post COVID completely unnecessary. Instead, homes ought to have an “Away Room”—a term coined by Ms. Susanka—and indeed a central concept that underpins both of my current floor plans.

Not to mention building smaller saves resources and costs less. By definition it is more sustainable in terms of original investment and costs to operate and maintain. A floor plan that has less square footage and built to dimensions that require less cutting creates less waste and part-and-parcel of being healthy and sustainable. They are hallmarks of my homes. We must also consider durability and life-cycle costs. A friend’s father once told me, “I never try to buy the same thing twice” and at a time of skyrocketing material prices for construction materials, there has never been a truer adage to live by. I like to say that durability is the greenest aspect of my homes and I dare say that in my own home remodeling—e.g. fabricating our backyard deck railings out of copper rather than wood, hanging an alabaster fixture as the centerpiece of our dining room, or having a hand-made concrete sink built for our laundry room, I have never regretted the extra cost. These items make a noticeable difference in how our home looks and feels and performs. Building on my Bau Biologie and Bungalow and Not-So-Big influences, my homes strive to routinely substitute natural or highly recycled materials for artificial, synthetic ones. Salvaged wood, cork, wool, and hemp for flooring or insulation; steel or aluminum for roofing or sometimes siding; a completely natural and paper-less drywall called MgO board finished with good old-fashioned lime or clay plasters instead of petroleum-based paints, as examples. By minimizing the synthetics and using less processed building materials, we create an indoor environment that is instantly more healthy; much more conducive to cleaner ion-rich air; in many instances has reduced electromagnetic potential; typically helps sequester carbon; and is less fire-prone and therefore safer. Look elsewhere under the MORE tab on this web site for two videos that discuss further. [Also see another of my flip-page magazines entitled Get The Facts: Indoor Air Quality & Toxic Building Materials for a longer discussion on two topics key to building for human health.] NATURAL MATERIALS

ARCHITECTURE THAT INSPIRES

This is not necessarily one of Ms. Susanka’s main themes, but you certainly see it in the images of her book and it is something I think about often. We are in our homes A LOT these days, so the question becomes: how do we design a home that inspires without becoming mundane. And how—if at all—does that same space provide the opportunities we need to recharge and take on the next day’s challenges day after day after day?

My homes answer that question by not getting caught up on trying to make some big dramatic architectural statement but rather by concentrating on design details that help occupants live a more joyful, fulfilling, and productive life. When they do, health ALWAYS follow. If you live on Chicago’s north-side, you know the look that all too often does NOT inspire from the moment you walk through the front door—you enter a soulless McMansion living room/ dining room area gussied up with some overwrought trimwork meant to impress. Its physical separation from the family room/ kitchen area by a butler’s pantry and half bath means that the visual openness the home is trying so hard to achieve gets blocked, and circulation gets pinched whenever guests come over as they crowd into the back half of your home while the front half searches for meaning. On the contrary, Chicagoans who live in the Bungalow Belt equally know the inspiration that can come from something as simple as the beauty of an exquisitely hand-tiled bath or a couple pieces of nature-inspired stained glass windows and a floor plan that easily accommodates private study or a baby nursery or overnight stays or even intergenerational living. I have seen both in my travails as a Chicago real estate agent and I have learned that the understated and the simple can inspire more than the elaborate and complicated. Ultimately I believe the healthiest homes are those that are not just devoid of polluted air and water and chemical toxins, but those that also combine the elements I discuss here in their construction. I have also found that joy and happiness I talk about can come from almost anywhere within a home and frequently derived from the simplest of design elements: e.g. a strategically-placed built-in bench that invites one to sit and stay and read with a child; a door-activated light switch that obviates the need to fumble for a wall switch in an otherwise dark closet; a library ladder that saves floor space and makes it easier to reach and store rare or rarely-used books. It is these small nuances and attention to detail that help a small home live BIGGER, adds versatility or extra functionality, makes a home more comfortable, and in general, helps us be our best and live happier lives without the extra square footage.

I have incorporated many of these elements into my own home. I invite you to come by and see them sometime so you can experience these things firsthand.

THE WAY WE REALLY LIVE

The last of the design principles that underscore Ms. Susanka’s Not So Big Houses and my healthy Little Big Home designs are homes that possess a floor plan that reflects the way we really live. No simple task in an age of COVID, but suffice it to say that flexibility and adaptability are built into her designs and mine.

I have read a dozen or so commentaries post COVID on how our homes will have to adapt to the change in lifestyle that our COVID lockdowns brought on. I am not convinced however that all of the proposed innovations in home designs I am reading will indeed become permanent. I mean touchless appliances and faucets and toilets? Really? What happens when they break down? (And they will break down.) Even more energy-efficient homes? Not sure exactly how a more energy efficient home leads to better health, and in fact I have seen quite the opposite as tighter homes with fewer air exchanges lead to increased air pollution from off-gassing synthetics. One trend I do however think is permanent: Greater attention given to indoor air quality especially given that COVID is a contagious, inflammatory, respiratory disease that spreads through the air. The demise of the completely open floor plan is almost certainly a second. As one obvious for instance, both employers and employees have found during the pandemic that working from home works just fine, thank you very much, at least for part of the week. I think the need to accommodate work from home is here to stay . Finally, I find it almost always true that homes are healthiest and make you happiest when they are built simply—an adage that pops up in Ms. Susanka’s work and is the central theme of another of my favorite architectural books: The Simple Home: The Luxury of Enough by Sarah Nettleton. From that book’s inside cover jacket, a couple paragraphs that perfectly sum up both the essence of Ms. Nettleton’s work and my building philosophy as expressed through my Quality Standards: A simple home puts us in touch with the simple pleasures of life: the warmth of winter sunlight, the scent of flowers through an open window, a family meal at a communal table. By learning to appreciate the “luxury of enough,” we can delight in the simple abundance of our homes’ most basic pleasures. [Ultimately] Finding your own simple home reflects the wisdom of good choices, the elimination of non-essentials, and the celebration of restraint. Along the way, you’ll realize that it isn’t so much the things you put in your house that bring you joy as it is the way the house allows you to revel in the simple pleasures of life . [Emphasis mine] SIMPLE IS BETTER

Ms. Nettleton goes on in her work to precisely specify what Simple means to her:

 Simple Is Enough. A simple home figures out what it really needs and what is superfluous;  Simple Is Flexible. A simple home is a flexible stage for living rather than a straightjacketed array of single-purpose rooms;  Simple Is Thrifty. As Ms. Nettleton emphasizes, a simple home is thrifty in both economic and ecological terms and thrifty even when an owner can afford more;  Simple Is Timeless. A simple home is not about impressing others or keeping up with the Joneses with trends that by definition go out-of-date;  Simple Is Sustainable. A simple home does not need advanced technologies or expensive products to achieve the spirit of sustainability; and my favorite  Simple Is Resolved Complexity. A simple home resolves seemingly complex needs, and by doing so means less upkeep, less stress, and more time for other things. My healthy Little Big Homes and Homes That Heal strive to embody all six principles that Ms. Nettleton so eloquently describes. If you are looking for a home like this for you and your family, please contact me.