This Voices from the Industry Conference session from KBIS 2024 covered healthy homes, purification strategies and smart home technology.
By Nicholas Tamarin
Jillian Pritchard Cooke, the Founder and CEO of Wellness Within Your Walls (WWYW), an internationally recognized, award-winning informational resource group that provides education and certification for health and wellness in living environments, gave a highly insightful VFTI session during KBIS 2024: “Taking a Holistic Approach to Designing Healthier and Innovative Kitchens and Baths.” During this session, Cooke set out to prove that a healthy home is a happy one. The lecture was an all-encompassing look at an entirely holistic home through the lens of kitchen and bath design.
Cooke began by delving into her background, including her start in fine arts before transitioning to interior design and eventually pivoting to a focus on wellness after a cancer diagnosis. The designer then explored her sustainable methodology, including determining a client’s functional needs, aesthetic desires, budget and scientifical knowledge. She also covered the results of WWYW’s 20024 Healthy Home Check Up, which found that consumers want to have a greater understanding about how mechanical systems, materials, home furnishings and product selections contribute to healthier living environments. The session also covered::
- Tight Box Syndrome, which occurs when, in an effort to increase energy efficiency, tightly sealed homes are constructed without proper ventilation, resulting in the trapping of toxins.
- Ventilation strategies that don’t lead directly to kitchens or other interior areas in order to prevent toxic fumes from entering the home. In addition to operable windows and floor, wall and ceiling vents, these can consist of MERV 13 and HEPA filtration systems, humidifiers and dehumidifiers, and ensuring that garages are not attached to the home or, when they are, they are not next to the kitchen or living spaces, in order to prevent fumes and gasses from entering the home.
- Off-gassing, the differing rates at which new materials and products release toxins, which can last between 6 months and 5 years. Cooke also went into how this can be prevented through protocols including opening and airing out packages outside and testing for chemicals with monitoring devices.
- Purification strategies that range from personal air purifiers to water testing and filtration systems.
- Wellness focused smart home technology, which varies from automated window treatments and photochromic windows to VOC-detection fans and autonomous roof vacuums.
“It’s about educating the consumer on why healthy homes are important,” Cooke concluded. “And then it’s finding that middle path and forging ahead.”
