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Back to the past for House Design

Solutions to the growing problem of excessive energy use in modern housing may lie in clever but forgotten domestic architectural techniques from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

A
The Return of Natural Comfort in Domestic Architecture by Dr. Emma Taylor is the result of over 30 years of research and award-winning sustainable house design by Taylor and her colleagues in Environmental Design, Civil Engineering, and Historical Studies at the University of Bristol.

“The crisis in residential building design is already here,” said Taylor. “Policy makers think we can fix housing-related energy issues with modern gadgets. We can’t. As temperatures rise globally, we’re going to keep wasting more and more energy trying to cool our homes artificially until we simply can’t sustain it.”

B
Taylor is calling for a radical overhaul of how homes are designed—moving away from the sealed, machine-dependent boxes so common today. She advocates a return to designs that allow for natural ventilation and thermal regulation, eliminating the reliance on air conditioning units and mechanical cooling.

She shows that it is completely possible to design naturally ventilated houses by revisiting pre-air-conditioning architecture, when buildings were shaped to work with the climate rather than against it.

C
She highlights that most modern homes must be sealed and artificially cooled or heated to be livable. This comes at an enormous environmental cost. In Europe, domestic housing accounts for nearly half of all electricity use, driving carbon emissions sky-high, while other parts of the world are quickly adopting similar unsustainable models. Taylor argues that glass-fronted, climate-sealed homes are more about aesthetics and status than actual functional need.

D
Her book delves into the forgotten craft of passive house design from the 19th and early 20th centuries, including the remarkable innovations seen in early sanatoriums and rural cottages. Of special interest are the homes designed by early environmental architect George H. Langley, such as his model cottage in New Haven (1872–1883), which featured extensive cross-ventilation and sun-shading techniques.

“We created digital models of Langley’s homes,” says Taylor. “We introduced virtual pollutants—like tobacco smoke or viral particles—and found that the airflow systems would have reduced exposure dramatically.”

E
“We found that these 19th-century homes achieved up to 20 complete air changes per hour—almost on par with modern hospital ventilation systems,” she explains. “We believe modern homes could easily be designed with these principles, using far less energy.”

Taylor also criticizes today’s overemphasis on individual rooms for each person. “Shared spaces, particularly for children and the elderly, can work wonderfully in well-ventilated homes—at a fraction of today’s energy footprint.”

She laments the loss of skill in natural design, citing the disappearance of features like large porches, breezeways, and high ceilings that once allowed air to circulate freely through the home.

F
Many of the earlier home designs were inspired by public fears of diseases thought to be spread by "bad air"—or miasmas. While we now know germs are the real culprits, the belief that air quality affected health led to smart design features like elevated floors, large windows, and roof vents in homes.

Although the miasma theory has long been disproved, Taylor believes we should not discard the valuable architectural legacy it left behind.

G
Today, vast portions of a home’s budget are spent on installing and running HVAC systems. But Taylor has spent three decades designing and monitoring homes that work with the natural environment—and often outperform modern homes in comfort and efficiency.

“To build the low-carbon homes of the future, we need to look back to when homes worked with the climate,” she argues. “The real surprise is how much intelligent design we’ve simply forgotten.”

H
Taylor cites examples like the award-winning Eden Terrace housing development in York. With 100% passive cooling and lighting, and natural airflow throughout, the homes serve 300 residents with less than a third of the energy typically used by similar-sized homes in the UK.

She warns that sealed, modern homes built in rapidly urbanizing regions like Dubai and Houston will become economically and environmentally unsustainable within decades as temperatures rise and electricity prices climb.

I
Taylor is confident that naturally ventilated, energy-efficient homes can be built in almost any climate. Her team has constructed hybrid houses in the extreme weather zones of Toronto and Johannesburg. These homes use passive design techniques with minimal mechanical assistance—and heating or cooling systems can often be turned off completely in spring and autumn.

She concludes by encouraging society to rethink what a home should be: “We need to reimagine how we live in our houses. The future of home design might just lie in our past.”