Get the Scoop on Residential Building Science Updates

Over the past decades, residential building science has changed significantly — and some of these changes have extra relevance for the Southern California coast, with its unique climate benefits and risks.

What is Building Science?

Building science is an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to building design that considers aesthetics, function, sustainability, site-impact, and long-term performance. It contains the perspectives of architects, builders, engineers, systems analysts, interior designers, neuroscientists, psychologists, environmental scientists and more. Often, lay-people think of building science as something that primarily applies to commercial construction, but as building codes get more complex, and climate extremes grow more pronounced, residential building science has attracted increasing attention. 

In the decade-plus that we have been building comfortable and well-designed coastal California homes, we’ve seen residential building science morph from a nerdy industry term to something clients have heard of and are curious about. As premier builders, we have always kept up with residential building science. Because this is something the general public is becoming more interested in, we thought we’d outline some key updates of the past decade. 

The Intersection Between Residential Building Science & Health

For a while now, the impact of buildings on physical health has been a key component of building science. In this past, this has largely been concentrated on issues such as material off-gassing, air flow, and HVAC systems. These issues remain critical but today, the impact of buildings on mental health has become a big part of the conversation. 

We know that aspects of design, such as the amount of natural light, the color of the walls, and the dimensions and textures of a room can impact our moods and sense of well-being, but the intersection of interior design and residential building sciences goes deeper than that. There has been serious, peer-reviewed research dedicated to the impact that angles of a room and the height of ceilings have on our well-being. 

However, because municipal codes limit things like the overall height of residential buildings, sometimes creative design comes into play when you’re trying to create a certain ambiance and cater to mental health, while remaining within legal restrictions. 

Other considerations are aesthetic choices, such as art, furniture, built-ins, and customization. Comfort concerns include shared spaces that are either customizable or can accommodate all the inhabitants of a home. 

A More Holistic Approach to Residential Building Science

These days, construction and design professionals are working together earlier and more intimately. In the past, an architect may design a home without the insight of a contractor, engineer or site analyst, and then need to go back and modify those plans. But now, folks from different disciplines are talking earlier and more easily. Various professionals may even work for the same firm. Definitely the best contractors and architects have a network of trusted collaborators, and they prioritize building science from the beginning, leading to more time and cost-efficient processes and materials. 

An Emphasis on Eco-friendly, Sustainable, & Ethical

As global temperatures rise, keeping a home both energy-efficient and comfortable has become a larger concern. This requires professional collaboration on multiple levels; it’s about site and window orientation, about alternative solutions such as solar panels, and about choosing the right appliances, among other factors. 

Beyond that, clients want homes that are sustainably and ethically built, both in terms of the raw material’s environmental impact and in terms of keeping the entire supply chain free from forced labor. 

Sustainability means creating homes that will last generations and will have minimal impact on the landscape. It includes material selection, craftsmanship, soil analysis and more. 

How’s the Air in There?

Air tightness (a building’s “envelope”) and air quality are other important facets of residential building science. California codes uses a measurement called HERS (Home Energy Rating System) to set air movement requirements, and they require blower tests for multifamily homes. Your building’s envelope is especially important in a humid environment such as along the California coast. A solid seal keeps moisture and mold from getting places it shouldn’t — along your interior walls, your basement, in sensitive components in wall-assemblies. 

However, you also want good ventilation and air flow inside a house, to move out pathogens and toxins and keep the air from growing heavy and stale. Many of us grew even more concerned about indoor air quality during the early days of Covid. A builder who understands residential building science will be able to advise you on if you need whole home ventilation or some other solution, in addition to which building materials are safest for your family long-term. Local builders will also be familiar with the local exterior air quality (and how to incorporate or purify exterior air coming into the home) and concepts like radon levels, which can vary significantly, even for adjacent counties.

Residential Building Science & Smart Tech

Incorporating smart tech into residential construction is one of the biggest changes in building science in the past decades. Building Information Modeling has been around a long time, but it has become increasingly sophisticated with the advent of virtual reality that allows you to truly inhabit a room that doesn’t exist yet, and to make decisions and changes prior to the construction phase. 

Beyond that, automated processes that memorize preferences and allow remote access over things like home temperature, lighting, window shading, and other aspects of residential comfort, are often baked into the design in the pre-construction phase. 

As modeling and building tech gets even better, homes will become more earthquake, tornado and fire-resistant, more resource-efficient, and more customizable. 

Overall, it’s an exciting time for residential building science —both because clients are growing more aware and the industry itself is making moves to support the health and wellbeing of people and our planet.

Thanks for reading,

Brett Malkin