Optimized Living: The Fundamentals of a Healthy Home

Written By Dylan Ochala

In 2024, luxury living transcends the use of exquisite materials and smart home technology. The new defining luxury of a home prioritizes the health of its inhabitants by building high-performing and energy-efficient residences. At Tectonic Design Build, we focus on holistic construction, from frame to finish, to create comfortable interiors far superior than code built construction, the legal bare minimum.

For every project we take on, whether it’s a whole home remodel, a transformational interior design plan or a custom home addition, we take a holistic view that ensures there is seamless communication between each component of the project. This holistic approach requires a detailed look at the quality of the construction, the airtightness of a new home’s interior, the durability and quality of the finish materials, as well as the performance of a home. In order to achieve the highest quality with every project, we apply the principles from Passive House. This is a building standard that ensures a home is durable, comfortable, and provides a healthy indoor environment for residents. 

Here, we break down the 3 fundamentals of building a healthy home.

1. Well Insulated + Airtight Construction

When designing a new home build, we prioritize the airtight barrier of the home, which controls the air going in and the air going out. It is critical to have a tight building envelope with excellent windows and doors with mechanical ventilation. This type of ventilation intentionally circulates fresh air throughout the home as opposed to accidental air flow that occurs when there are weak points in the home’s construction. By mitigating weak areas in the home’s construction, we can reduce the moisture that collects inside the wall assembly, which can cause damage and lower the performance of the insulation.

To achieve this, Tectonic expertly installs windows and doors that are airtight.  Regarding heating and cooling your home, this envelope is critical to keep the interior temperature consistent across the space. This is especially significant during the hot, summer months and below freezing days in Colorado where the temperature indoors directly affects the comfort level of homeowners. Another benefit to well-insulated construction is the quiet, indoor environment it creates. By reducing sound from the outside, whether you live in downtown Boulder or in the foothills, the home becomes a peaceful sanctuary. 

Our Ridge Road House is an excellent example of how the Tectonic team was able to transform an outdated home with minimal insulation into a high-performing luxury retreat,  all without compromising the original Hobart Wagener hexagonal architecture. From drastic structural changes to optimized energy systems, the home serves as a statement of efficiency, comfort, and health. 

Discover the Modern Mountain Masterpiece at Ridge Road  

2. Indoor air quality

One of the most important aspects of a healthy home is the indoor air quality. The air we breath has significant impacts on our overall wellbeing, which is why we prioritize our home’s air quality by creating an air-tight envelope that allows fresh, filtered air to be brought in, resulting in a cleaner indoor environment. Conventional forced air systems and opening windows to get fresh air inside are not as effective as our mechanical systems that act as the lungs of the home to continually introduce filtered air for more balanced ventilation. 

These systems also help reduce the amount of dust and mildew that collect for a home; the result is noticeably cleaner and fresh feeling. 

3. High-Performing Home

High-performance homes that are energy-efficient are inherently sustainable because these homes will last much longer than a code-built home, in terms of energy performance and comfort. Our modern home remodel projects and custom home designs focus on more efficient systems that are better for the environment and for the homeowners. We integrate reliable heating and cooling systems, including radiant in-floor heating, which is a cleaner and more effective approach to warming a space. These systems also result in significantly lower electric bills. 

Our building practices work together to improve the home’s overall comfort level, including substantially mitigating the risk for mold, mildew, excessive moisture, and dust, resulting in cleaner indoors as well as a more durable, longer-lasting home that requires less maintenance. 

A healthy home begins with a holistic design process. At Tectonic, we consider each principle of Passive House, from performance to air quality, in order to create a residence that touches on every fundamental of a healthy home and is designed to last for generations. In addition to these important structural systems, we integrate timeless interior design that elevates every space of a home. By incorporating biophilic design into our projects, we look at the whole human experience, including the physical, mental, and emotional needs of people. On our residential projects, including the luxurious Newland’s estate, we have enlisted the plant care experts at Incrementum Co., to bring the beauty of the outdoors inside through live plants designed to optimize our  health, productivity, and peace of mind.  From the high quality of our materials to the color schemes, and textures, we can help you reach a whole new level of comfort and ease in the spaces that make you feel truly at home while supporting your prosperity and health.

Resourcefulness Done Right

We recognize that construction is inherently wasteful. In order to reduce as much waste as possible that eventually ends up back in the landfill, we partner with the locally-owned company Perks Deconstruction. Their full deconstruction services includes disassembling all materials from your project to be recycled and/or reused. With every project, they aim to keep at least 75% of the structure out of the landfill, including doors, windows, flooring, insulation, lumber, and more. 

Similar to Tectonic, they approach each project with a holistic view resulting in a seamless and thorough process. They begin with an initial review of materials to develop a recovery plan and scope of work, so the final step of facilitating an estimate of the donation value of your recovered materials is done with clarity and ease. At Tectonic, we know that by looking at a project as a whole, from deconstruction to the final walk through, we can significantly mitigate the waste from construction. This shared vision of responsible resourcefulness is what makes our partnership with Perks Deconstruction so meaningful. 

Recently, we co-hosted an event with Perks Deconstruction at Parachute Boulder to bring awareness to the process of responsible deconstruction. We loved meeting new people in the industry and seeing familiar faces from town, from architects to designers, to engage in the important topic of resourceful home building and deconstruction.

Building Healthier, Together 

Tectonic also partners with Resource Central on all of our projects to deconstruct more responsibly. Their materials reuse program and refurbishing process reduces both the environmental impact and economic cost of new buildings in Colorado.

We are also proud members of Good Future Design Alliance, Colorado Green Builders Guild and Emu Passive, who are all pioneers in the healthy home community.