Joseph Allen directs Harvard’s Healthy Buildings Initiative, advocating for the elimination of harmful chemicals in our buildings as a way of measurably improving public health. His opinion piece that appeared in The Washington Post earlier this spring explains why our collective work to avoid and eliminate forever chemicals like PFAS in our indoor environments is so important to public health and productivity: PFAS chemicals have been clearly linked to cancer, endocrine and fertility issues, and low birthweight, among other health concerns. PFAS in clothing, housewares and building products virtually never breaks down, hence Dr. Allen’s “forever chemicals” moniker for them. Instead of deteriorating into innocuous chemical compounds, PFAS evenutally find their way into our water and air, where we can gain regular exposure to them.

Dr Allen’s piece also details the herculean effort involved in tackling the regulation of this huge and pervasive class of chemicals: PFAS substances can be found in products ranging from dental floss to housepaint to furniture. And though it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, it’s also true that consumer power plays an important role in the fate of forever chemicals. Every time you inquire whether a product contains PFAS and make a different selection when it does, you help to move the needle away from forever chemicals in our homes, our workplaces, our water supply and in the air we breathe.

When researching furniture, cookware, appliances, house paint and even dental floss, be sure to reach out to manufacturers to confirm that the products you plan to buy are free of all PFAS chemicals (and not just PFC-free or PFOA-free, which are just 2 of 10,000 possible PFAS variants). Better options do exist, but frustratingly, it can take tenacity and perseverance to find them.

Recent Work

To my undergrad architecture friends: Peter Waldman would be impressed by this beautiful case study in the relationship possibilities between new walls and old ones: mirroring, delaminating, offsetting, adhering. @aschool_uva

To my undergrad architecture friends: Peter Waldman would be impressed by this beautiful case study in the relationship possibilities between new walls and old ones: mirroring, delaminating, offsetting, adhering. @aschool_uva

Trying on hardware for size as we punchlist

When you find a good finish carpenter, don’t let him (or her!) go

Masterful walnut work makes all the difference

Soapstone, masterfully. We love soapstone for its natural beauty, the fact that it needs no toxic sealer, and because can be sourced locally. But we’ve rarely seen it crafted with such care. Can you spot the plugs in this fireplace surround? Because of their heft, these soapstone pieces required mechanically fastening into the framing behind. Hence the practically invisible plugs. Thanks @seacoastsoapstone. #changeyourhaabitts #healthierbuildingmaterials

Zellige tile is a labor of love, but it sure is beautiful. #zelligetiles #changeyourhaabitts

Dry fitting tile helps ensure that an intentionally random pattern looks just right #cletile #cementtiles #haabitt #changeyourhaabitts

Thanks for the shout out @havelock_wool. What a pleasure to support your work and superb products. #changeyourhaabitts #healthyhomes #healthybuildingmaterials #havelockwool

About last weekend: site visit to @sbbotanicgarden left me loving this potting shed roof structure

When it comes to stair detailing, less is generally more. This custom white oak newel post will be ready to receive cable rail later this week #whiteoakstairs #cablerailingsystem #customstairs #healthybuildingmaterials #healthyhomes

Loving these samples from @ecoshel shingles. Built-in rainscreen and capillary break between shingle layers ✔️means our clients can look forward to a long life for these beauties and the wall behind them #changeyourhaabitts #sustainabledesign #cedarshingles #rainscreencladding #ventilatedsiding

Channeling Le Corbusier or Harry Potter? You decide. #lecorbusier #harrypotter #changeyourhaabitts

Channeling Le Corbusier or Harry Potter? You decide. #lecorbusier #harrypotter #changeyourhaabitts

Getting vertical in Rye NH with staggered stud wall assembly #changeyourhaabitts #healthybuildings #wallassembly

Please welcome HAABITT’s new mascot. She’s snoozing on a low tox/ low VOC repurposed floor, of course. #changeyourhaabitts #healthybuildingmaterials

Weathered in and almost ready for interior finishes. Havelock Wool Insulation + Intello Plus is a great insurance policy against air infiltration and moisture damage. Here, we’re managing a retrofit with a tricky detail at the knee wall #changeyourhaabitts #475buildingsupply #havelockwoolinsulation #proclima

“Fewer points of contact on the land means that the building is less obtrusive. And more glass means that it is more reflective of the natural environment.” John Sugden (a student of Mies van der Rohe) still getting it right in Alta, Utah.

Replacing windows that are ✅foam free ✅air tight ✅vapor open #havelockwool #proclima #changeyourhaabitts

Vote for the best version of us you can imagine. #changeyourhaabitts #voteforchange #voteforlove #yourvotecounts

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Coldest site visit of my life...and also one of the coolest

Stay tuned for this one as we thaw out and mobilize!

In Honor of International Womens Day: She Who Builds

I zoomed into a compelling summit this evening called She Who Builds: A Passive House Accelerator Summit and was thoroughly impressed by the range of experience and discourse offered by the panelists—all women working in sustainable, high-performance construction trades. Wow, do I wish there were more effective ways to network, connect and support one another. We Can Do It, but isn’t it more fun when we’re doing it together?

I especially appreciated the discussion around diversity on the jobsite and the movement to seek out, support and celebrate more racial perspectives in the trades. Let’s keep listening to each other and advocation for a richer cross-section of talent on the jobsite.

Anyone for a Game of Chemical Whack-a-Mole?

Dr Anna Young presents compelling graphics in her “Our Global Chemical Experiment” discussion. Young is a researcher with the Healthy Buildings Program at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health

I recently tuned in to Our Global Chemical Experiment, a presentation of Dr Anna Young’s research on measuring our exposure to harmful chemicals in office and classroom settings. Dr Young works with the Healthy Buildings Program at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and her findings are worth noting. By eliminating entire classes of chemicals of concern, we can avoid the whack-a-mole that results from unknowingly opting for a regrettable substitution—a material or product with worse (and TBD) health impacts than a single well-documented CoC. A good example is the movement to eliminate PFOS-based stain repellants. But to avoid PFOS in favor of its close cousin (and potentially even scarier) PFHxA is to compound the problem. Because PFHxA is a newer compound, we know less about its health and environmental implications. PFAS of all stripes have been linked to cancer, low birth weight, immune dysfunction, and endocrine disruption, and they degrade very slowly, if ever. PFAS are thus now pervasive in the ground water and soil in many communities—which means they can also be detected in measurable amounts in humans. A better approach is to avoid PFAS altogether.

Design Education: Still Adjusting to the New (Zoom) Normal

It’s been a solid six months of zooming into design studios for students of architecture, urban design and planning at Harvard’s GSD and elsewhere, and I’m amazed by the agility, progress and productivity these students have managed in such unsettling times, under such sudden and unexpected working and learning conditions. Design education has, until recently, always centered on the collective experience of working in the studio alongside critics and amongst peers who can offer real time feedback and critique. So these past months have been uncharted waters for design students and critics alike. Kudos to these students for rising to the (hopefully temporary) challenges of Studio in the time of COVID, and thanks to my fellow reviewers (all blurred out here for privacy) for an engaging and affirmative discussion. AS always, thanks for the invitation, David!

Back to School: Managing Indoor Ventilation During COVID-19

Image courtesy of WSJ.com

Amidst the debate about exactly how the novel coronavirus is transmitted and whether going back to school this fall in person is safe, we can agree that access to more fresh air reduces the risk of contracting COVID-19. I’m no HVAC expert, but I do know a thing or two about improving indoor air quality and have been recently engaged in helping schools determine how to keep pandemic-era classrooms as safe as possible. We’re introducing as much fresh air as possible—through open windows fitted with fans to exhaust stale air and introduce fresh air, positioned at opposite ends of each classroom. As the weather shifts and a windows-always-open scenario becomes harder to maintain, we’re also introducing conditioned fresh air mechanically through a central HVAC system which is fitted with robust filtration (either high-level MERV/HEPA media filters and/or ionization filtration with ultraviolet light treatment. It’s worth noting that many of these filtration strategies have not yet undergone rigorous testing specifically for the novel coronavirus, but it’s common sense that transmission risk is reduced when we dilute the viral load. Standalone air purifiers can also be effective in classrooms, though they need to be sized appropriately to achieve several complete air changes per hour in each classroom.

This recent WSJ article does a great job illustrating and outlining a multifaceted approach to classroom ventilation as a critical but dependent piece in the COVID-19 Back to School puzzle. Other essential principles: require masks, reduce class size to keep students at least 6 feet apart, and encourage outdoor learning as much as possible.

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"I don't know how to explain to you that you should care about other people."

For me, it all boils down to empathy—the ability to walk in someone else’s shoes and imagine their suffering and pain. As a white woman of relatively profound privilege, I know that I will never understand what it is like not to travel through life without a perennial leg up, feeling safe in my own skin, enjoying the benefit of the doubt, a second and third chance, and the assurance that my sons are much more likely to return home safe to me after an encounter with law enforcement officials than Black sons. I will never understand, but I stand in solidarity and compassion with my fellow Americans who have suffered because they don’t also benefit from white privilege. I am grieving the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Brianna Taylor. I am grieving our broken country, the loss we have collectively and cumulatively suffered. Racism means that we ALL lose critical opportunities. I will work to effect positive change in my community as a citizen and a professional. Black Lives Matter.

Timber! New French Law Mandates 50% Wood Content for All Public Buildings by 2022

Kudos to France for taking an aggressive step forward in sustainability. New government regulations will now mandate that all public buildings contain at least 50% wood or other bio-based sustainable content as soon as 2022. In anticipation of hosting the 2024 Olympics, the City of Paris has already adopted ambitious visionary measures to align with the Paris Agreement and to reduce the carbon footprint of the Olympic Games by 55%.

Minister for Cities and Housing Julien Denormandie proclaimed earlier this month, “If it is possible for the Olympics, it should be possible for ordinary buildings…I am imposing on all public bodies that manage development to construct their buildings with material that is at least 50% wood or other bio-sourced material.”

Hooray for France. And though we’re unlikely to be similarly compelled by our own government here in the US, may we be inspired by France’s new standard and work toward it here and abroad.

Information Wants to be Free

I recently had two incredibly divergent exchanges when reaching out to colleagues in the healthier materials sphere. Jeff Stacy, owner of Mighty Roots, a Seacoast-based design build firm focused on sustainability and human health, was incredibly receptive to sharing ideas and experiences. Exchanges like that one always leave me feeling energized and validated. But coincidentally, I also reached out to a Massachusetts-based vendor of a flooring underlayment product that we’ve been wanting to specify to ask a few questions. It was a bummer that her information on the product and its availability was even more limited than my own. But what was even more disappointing was the fact that, when she shared that she also designs “green interiors,” and specializes in “nontoxic” kitchens and baths, I asked what she uses for cabinet finishes (since sourcing both durable and less toxic finishes is so difficult). She replied that she uses “proprietary products and ingredients” and can’t share her information. Yikes! When did protecting turf start mattering more than doing the right thing? A small part of me sympathizes: Building materials research can be tedious, frustrating and slow. And it’s far from lucrative. But everyone should have access to information—especially the kind that allows us to make better decisions about human health and environmental impact. And in my experience, sitting in front of Pharos or PubChem trying to weigh the relative risks of chemicals is no substitute for a network of colleagues who can help reason through difficult choices. Cheers to all of you generous souls working in the world of healthier materials and sustainable development and construction that want to share information. Thank you!

Avoiding Spray Foam Insulation in Window Installation

Image Courtesy of foursevenfive.com

Here’s a great tutorial from 475 Building Products on window installation that avoids the use of spray foam sealant to achieve airtightness. Yes! It’s healthier, less messy, and produces FAR less waste. AND the use of (no VOC!) sealant tape means that it’s easier and safer for novices to work with. We’ve used this method and think it’s a win-win.

Protecting Ourselves From Toxics Is Too Much Work

Sonya Lunder, Senior Toxics Advisor at the Sierra Club, recently published a science opinion piece in The Guardian reminding readers that the exhausting burden of protecting ourselves from toxic chemicals in our everyday products ought not to fall on consumers. I should know—I’m a toxics vigilante both at work and at home, and most days my efforts feel woefully inadequate. There is just so much to know, and it feels like I’m working against the grain of business as usual in the U.S. I know many identify with me: What parent wouldn’t go to every length possible to protect their child from known chemical risks? But as Lunder points out, “after years of parenting, I’ve come to understand that individual actions,” like avoiding certain products and chemicals, “are temporary, incomplete, and exhausting.”

The problem isn’t that consumers aren’t diligent or careful enough. “If a problem surfaces with a product like dry shampoo,” Lunder says, “we should turn our efforts to getting it off the market, rather than leaning on individual women to fix the problems society is unable or unwilling to solve.” Eliminating—or even curtailing—risk in this country has so far fallen in the lap of consumers and that is an inherently flawed model. “We’ve got to think bigger and demand more from the companies who make chemicals and consumer products. And we’ve got to hold our government accountable to do the same.”

Here’s where we come in: Lunder urges readers to lay off harried moms and pregnant strangers, and instead participate in advocacy groups aimed at developing more protective laws, better regulating industry. Avoiding toxics altogether might be a futile effort, but it’s also true that consumer demand can move the market needle meaningfully. So each time you opt not to buy the noxious dry shampoo (or elect to insulate your house with foam insulation, for example) you’ll be reducing consumer demand for the most toxic products and increasing the market share for better alternatives. Better still, in your spare time (ha!), demand chemical disclosures and plain-language ingredient terms on the products you purchase or are considering. These inquiries make more of an impact on companies then they often care to admit.

The Life-Changing Magic of Making Do

I wish there were an emoji for an emphatic nod and sigh, a guttural YES! that would convey my enthusiasm for Benjamin Leszcz’ recent opinion piece in the Globe and Mail. The Life-changing Magic of Making Do reminds us that “the stuff of life isn’t stuff at all,” and that our perennial compulsion to throw out the old and replace it with the new is a construct worthy of careful reexamination. Nothing groundbreaking here, but it’s just so on point about the implications of our insatiable appetite for stuff, from its drastic ecological impacts to increased rates of unhappiness and social isolation.

I love that Leszcz encourages us to let go of our compulsion to use stuff as a means to solve our problems and display our success—both to ourselves and others. He argues that we ought to be more materialistic and not less; our stuff should matter enough to us that we are driven through the inconvenience of repair and retrofit to expect a full lifetime from our things. Maybe it does make more sense to splurge on the cashmere sweater (only when you really need it of course) from the shop downtown instead of the acrylic bargain from H&M at the mall—and then feel compelled to repair the moth hole several years from now because it’s still a beloved, quality, high-value item.

“By becoming more materialistic, in this deeper sense, we can radically reorient our relationship with things. In this way, we can not only mitigate the high cost of thoughtless consumption, saving us money and the planet harm, but also, we might just wind up a whole lot happier.” Lofty, yes, but the article got me thinking (again) about how to more tactfully incorporate this line of conversation into client dialogue about project goals without seeming condescending or preachy. I have a profound interest in and passion for reducing consumption in my projects and on the homefront. I love the challenge of reusing and repurposing, and achieving more with less.

But it’s also true that I’m an architect and a designer, and my compulsion to optimize the spaces I work in often feels at odds with my profound concerns about my own impact on this planet. Figuring out where to curtail project scope not just because the budget necessitates it, but because we’re mindful of material waste and excess can be a buzzkill. Who wants to think about keeping the old ho-hum bathroom vanity when you’re spending $30/SF on the fabulous tile underneath it? Could we reuse it in the upstairs bath with the leaky faucet instead of buying a new one? Inquiries like this one are part of my design value system. And asking those questions, in a curious and collaborative way, feels like a new process to navigate each time I start a project with new clients. Together, we seek out a happy medium between delight, reason and responsibility.

“You should not have to be a Ph.D toxicologist to be safe from so many chemicals"

“So much of what we are exposed to is poorly tested and even less regulated,” says UCLA Pediatrician Dr Richard Jackson.

The damning punchline of columnist Nicolas Kristof’s ominous February 2018 NYT opinion piece, which I recently came back across, has me worked up (all over again). Even on second glance, it cultivates that type of terrified paralysis that makes most of us want to throw out hands up in the air, sigh loudly, and do nothing. In a predictable turn of paragraphs, Kristof details his shock at the results of his “Detox Me Action Kit” lab panel, offered by Silent Spring Institute to consumers who are curious about bodily levels of several common toxic chemicals. As an educated consumer and journalist with reporting expertise in the field, Kristof expects pristine lab results. Spoiler alert: his urine betrays high levels of unexpected toxins circulating in his body, and he has readers feeling hopeless and devoid of agency as a result. “…chemical industry lobbyists have rigged the system so that we consumers just can’t protect ourselves adequately…they are running the show and we consumers are their lab mice.”

Yikes. This lab mouse would like to remind you that as a consumer, your buying power and curiosity have more potential to shift the market than you think. It’s true that we are, in the world of healthier building materials, in early stages of reform. But you can affect change with your buying power and your curiosity. Ask questions about building product ingredients and manufacturing processes whenever you are in the hardware store. If you don’t get clear answers, request more information or seek it out for yourself directly with the manufacturer. If product manufacturers are not able or willing to provide clear information on ingredients, spend your money elsewhere. Every dollar and every question counts, and we’re always here to help.

WATCH THIS NOW: Six Classes of Chemicals to Avoid

I just love the work of Green Science Policy Institute—it’s backed by serious science, but it’s accessible and actionable. It provides a necessary wakeup call without the usual paralytic effect that leaves us too scared to effect any real change in our lives or our environment. In this short video, GSPI’s Founder and biophysical scientist Arlene Blum expertly summarizes the ongoing issues with chemical regulation in the US and introduces six categories of toxic chemicals and why we should avoid them. It’s worth watching this and also the six short clips (found at https://www.sixclasses.org/videos) that each focus on one of the chemical classes to avoid.

Best Practices: Choose Fresh Produce for the Carbon Conscious

I’m prepping for another talk on reducing toxicity and ecological footprint at home. And while I jump at the chance to wax on about the particulars of healthier building materials, the realm of toxicity at home can be pretty mind bending (and sometimes scary). When it comes to construction on the homefront, change is slow, expensive and messy, and it takes lots of preparation and planning. So it’s also important to zoom out and include in the discussion those everyday considerations that can affect cumulative impactful change with immediacy, little investment and minimal disruption to daily life. Case in point: Educated choices in the produce aisle can lower your carbon footprint drastically. World Wildlife Fund scientist Chris Weber says, “Food choice is one of the easiest things for people to change, because when you compare it to something like your transportation choices or home energy use, food is something you choose every day.”

That means emphasizing plant-based choices in your diet over meats, cheeses and highly-processed foods. It also means finding a good balance between organic farming practices and locally-sourced produce that doesn’t require lots of time on a truck (or a plane!) or in a heated greenhouse. In her recent NYT article on the subject, Jillian Mock summarizes the wisdom of several experts on the subject:

• Avoid delicate off-season produce like South American blackberries or asparagus in the winter—they are highly perishable and require air travel and cold storage (two significant carbon loads) to stay fresh in our American produce aisles. “While transportation accounts for only about 6 percent of food-related greenhouse gas emissions globally, not all modes of travel are created equal. Anything that travels by air, like fresh blackberries or asparagus from South America, is going to burn a lot of carbon.”

• Prefer produce that does not require the use of heated greenhouses. When shopping for tomatoes in a mid-Atlantic grocery store, choose the varieties that have been trucked in from warmer climes like California or Mexico over Canadian hothouse varieties. “Even having been shipped farther, those southern tomatoes probably have a smaller footprint than the hothouse variety because it takes a lot of energy to keep a greenhouse warm during the cold months.”

• Prioritize root vegetables, winter squash and hearty greens—they have long shelf lives and can last well into the winter even after having been grown and harvested locally over the summer. “And many greens can thrive under covered, unheated greenhouse conditions, growing fresh well into the colder months without the need for carbon-intensive heating.”

New Work in Belmont MA

Just starting work with a superfab family in Belmont MA to rework the everyday entry to their house and reimagine several of their most frequently used living spaces: The kitchen, solarium, mudroom, outdoor deck/patio/garden space and the garage. Priority #1: Eliminate the daily need to use a 4’ high door to access the mudroom. Since we’re already maxed out on lot coverage, it’ll be a game of inches if we want to avoid a variance process. So we’re starting with a planning effort to understand just what the other top priorities are and how they affect one another and the overall net effect on Lot Coverage. Should be fun!

On a Roll in Kittery

And just like that, 3/4 Cape in Kittery is finally underway–in a major way.  Staying out ahead of two significant deadlines (winter and the arrival of a new baby), the project is nearly closed in.  New dormers in front and back provide generous living space and natural light for two proper bedrooms, lots of storage and a family bath upstairs.  And the water views!  Can’t wait for this new family to have the space they need.