What Is a Luxury Eco-Friendly Home Like?

You may be surprised by the title of this article, and the fact is that at Slow Studio we build eco-friendly homes accessible to everyone and accept projects of all types, from low-cost homes to large residences with substantial budgets.

However, the reality is that everything eco-friendly tends to be more expensive. If you are among those individuals committed to healthy eating free from pesticides, you are surely aware that entering an organic supermarket raises the average cart price by 30 to 50%. Beyond whether we can afford it or not, for many it is a matter of priorities.

In this regard, ecological architecture is no exception, and building with solid wood that has grown in controlled production forests with FSC certification and is free from anti-insect or fire-retardant chemicals is of course more expensive than pouring concrete—a product whose m² is much cheaper, probably at the cost of an industry that aspires to have us all living in false luxury based on toxins and chemicals that not only affect our health but also stem from a production chain that is unsustainable for our planet’s natural environment.

For this reason, we often recommend to our clients, when they have tight budgets, that they reduce square meters in favor of a healthier and more efficient home. This is our constant endeavor in most projects: to achieve homes built with natural and healthy materials, free from toxins for people and the environment, that generate a healthy interior atmosphere and have minimal energy consumption provided by renewable energy sources.

Therefore, today we want to discuss what a luxury eco-friendly home is like in the sense that the client has a sufficiently generous budget to achieve everything anyone dreaming of building a home could desire: a plot with little slope and abundant sunlight, a home spacious enough for the entire family, a high level of efficiency reaching zero consumption with self-generated energy from renewable sources, and the use of natural materials free from contaminants with a zero ecological footprint.

What Is a Luxury Eco-Friendly Home?

1- A luxury eco-friendly home is a residence located on land free from environmental pollution. A plot in the center of a large city where we constantly receive toxic and carcinogenic fumes from heavy traffic, especially from diesel vehicles, will not suffice.

2- Furthermore, it should be relatively flat land to achieve a good relationship with outdoor spaces and enjoy them, and have good sun exposure throughout the day (south-facing orientation).

3- The size of this home will not determine its definition as a luxury eco-friendly home, but the reality is that with more generous budgets come more spacious areas and a greater presence of intermediate spaces such as winter gardens like greenhouses, patios, or semi-outdoor pergolas.

4- Regarding energy efficiency, a luxury eco-friendly home is designed passively, which means that the architecture itself and its construction systems achieve energy efficiency of approximately 90% compared to a conventional home. This is accomplished through solar gain (south-facing openings), heat storage in walls or other elements with sufficient thermal mass (heat storage capacity), and continuous, thermal-bridge-free, breathable insulation to prevent condensation.

5- We must not forget that a luxury eco-friendly home will be built with natural materials free from toxins and chemicals hazardous to health, that breathe and do not generate condensation, and that have a zero or nearly zero ecological footprint throughout their entire manufacturing, transportation, use, and recycling process.

6- Finally, a luxury eco-friendly home will have a healthy interior environment at appropriate temperature and humidity levels without generating an interior atmosphere that is too warm or too dry, in order to keep our immune system alert.

Characteristics of a Luxury Eco-Friendly Home

Having said this, let us delve step by step into the conception and design of a luxury home. Let us see how to find the ideal location, what the design characteristics are, and its qualities in terms of energy efficiency and health.

1- Where to Build a Luxury Eco-Friendly Home

As we have seen, the land on which a luxury eco-friendly home should be located must be a clean site, without environmental pollution and without toxic elements in the atmosphere.

The number of cars and motor vehicles in large cities is not usually the ideal environment for building a healthy eco-home, unless we employ Passivhaus systems in which the air entering our home is constantly filtered and therefore there is no direct transmission of contaminants between exterior and interior.

In any case, the reality is that nowadays it is very difficult to find a plot that meets the necessary characteristics to build a home connected to its natural surroundings and well sunlit in the center of a large city. Generally, we will look for plots on the outskirts. If we work in the center, of course, we will need a well-connected development, and this tends to increase the cost of the land.

Distance from the city does not, however, ensure a contaminant-free environment. Factories are usually located on the outskirts of urban centers, so one should not situate oneself near companies or plants that produce radiation or polluting fumes.

2- What Should a Plot Be Like to Build a Luxury Eco-Friendly Home?

Once we identify the appropriate land on which to build our eco-friendly home, we must perform a series of on-site checks.

First, we must verify that the land is relatively flat. This achieves a good relationship with outdoor spaces.
A luxury eco-friendly home must be able to enjoy the terraces, porches, and patios it has. Furthermore, the absence of level changes on a single floor will facilitate communication between rooms and allow us to achieve more spacious continuous spaces. It is also important to consider the home throughout our family’s entire life. Perhaps at some point we will have elderly people living in the home, and a single-story house facilitates mobility and accessibility of spaces.

The second basic check will be that the land is well oriented. The plot for a luxury eco-friendly home must have good sun exposure throughout the day—that is, it must be south-facing. This way it will be possible to heat the home naturally and reduce heating consumption.

Additionally, we will perform some additional checks such as the proximity of neighbors or vegetation that might block sunlight or generate unwanted views, or the presence of electrical transformer stations or high-voltage lines that could interfere with our health and rest.

3- Design of a Luxury Eco-Friendly Home

A characteristic of a luxury home will be its outdoor or semi-outdoor spaces. Compared to a home that relates to the exterior only through windows, patios, terraces, greenhouses, or winter gardens can mark the difference between a conventional eco-friendly home and a luxury eco-friendly home.

These spaces are extensions of the home itself that allow for expanding usable area. In our Mediterranean climate we enjoy several months with pleasant temperatures, so the inclusion of this type of intermediate space in our home endows it with excellent spatial quality.

If we speak of luxury, we will surely also speak of spacious areas with double heights. It must be kept in mind that large spaces always cost more to heat, so they should be properly dimensioned to avoid generating excessive heating expenses.

Ample areas should be positioned strategically, facing south for example, where the sun can heat the room naturally. We must not forget either that, with a large window surface area, we must use sufficiently thick glass with double or even triple glazing, or low-emissivity glass that intensifies the greenhouse effect indoors by storing heat. Additionally, we must install a porch or pergola to protect us from the sun in summer. This also creates an outdoor space connected to the daytime area that allows us to multiply its surface area during warm months.

4- Energy Efficiency in a Luxury Eco-Friendly Home

Of course, a luxury eco-friendly home will also be efficient.

The first step, as we have already mentioned, will be to capture solar radiation to heat the home naturally. To do this, on the south façade we must install a glazed surface of approximately 75%. On the north façade, by contrast, glazing must be minimized since it is a cold façade that does not receive solar heat.

In summer the objective will be to dissipate heat, which is achieved through ventilation. The goal, in fact, is to achieve cross-ventilation, with openings placed on opposite façades. Since this is a luxury eco-friendly home, the best option is surely to work with interior patios to provide cross-ventilation to all rooms.

The thickness of the thermal insulation will be greater in a luxury eco-friendly home than in a conventional dwelling, since the objective is to minimize temperature exchange between the exterior and interior environments.

5- Materials for Building a Luxury Eco-Friendly Home

In all cases, we must try to ensure that materials come from the area. This fosters local production and commerce, but above all reduces fuel and transportation costs.

In a luxury eco-friendly home, not only are its materials natural and healthy, but the construction and manufacturing processes involved in a dwelling are also carried out in a manner respectful of the environment.

Wood

Although in our country there is no great tradition of wood construction due to the limited quality raw material of local origin available to us, the reality is that in recent years, companies have emerged especially around the Pyrenees—where the appropriate forests for obtaining construction wood are located—that are positioning themselves as pioneers in introducing this material.

Wood structures involve a simple transformation process that does not require much energy. It is a natural material with many characteristics that help us regulate the interior environment of our home.

One of the greatest advantages of wood is that it can be prefabricated in the workshop and then assembled on site. This achieves greater precision, since conditions are much more controlled in the factory through complex computer-controlled machinery. For this reason, when we want to build an airtight home we usually opt for wood as structure and enclosure.

Exposed wood brings warmth to a home in addition to being a very noble, high-quality material. Despite what is sometimes thought, it is a material that with proper maintenance has very high durability, lasting decades or even centuries. In this regard, it is important to avoid common chemical treatments and opt for natural treatments based on oils or salts, or simply through knowledgeable production processes that cut and dry the wood at the right time and in the proper manner to prevent it from being attacked.

Ceramics

There are different types of ceramics. Clays, earthenware, and refractories are porous and therefore permeable. On the other hand, stoneware and porcelain are considered impermeable. Additionally, the range of each type of ceramic involves a great variety of colors, decorations, and sizes.

They can be installed on both floors and walls. If installed properly, they have great resistance to impacts and constant weight loads.

Brick is also a ceramic material, but in this case it can be structural. It works well in load-bearing walls or even in columns, since it has high compressive strength—that is, the ability to support weight.

Stone

In a luxury eco-friendly home, stone can also be used, both as a structural material and in cladding.

Structures made exclusively of stone have some limitations regarding the distance between columns. However, it is viable to use it as a wall, since stone’s load-bearing capacity is very high.

On the other hand, its hardness makes it a very resistant material for both interior and exterior.

Earth

Earth is a very natural material widely used in traditional construction. It is a material that has good load-bearing capacity as well as a certain insulating capacity. A sufficiently thick wall of compacted earth, for example, does not need insulation.

Increasingly, compressed earth blocks, or CEB, are being recovered. These are formed into small blocks of dimensions similar to brick. They are used mainly in load-bearing walls, standard walls, or walls exposed to heat.

One of the things that differentiates CEB from brick, apart from its composition, is that it is not fired. This preserves its characteristics of humidity regulation and heat accumulation. The walls will therefore absorb moisture when the environment is humid and release it when the environment is dry.

6- A Luxury Eco-Friendly Home Must Be a Healthy Home

A luxury eco-friendly home must have an interior environment at appropriate temperature and humidity levels. Remember that in a healthy home the temperature should not exceed 20–22 degrees and humidity should be around 40–60%.

Even though we live in a luxury eco-friendly home, this does not mean we should spend the winter in a T-shirt at the expense of heating running at full blast. Our organism is designed to live in a rather cool environment, which is where we have evolved over thousands of years.

Fresh, clean air ensures cellular renewal and keeps our defenses alert. One need only take a walk in the countryside to see how well we feel.

To achieve this, it will be necessary to ensure ventilation that guarantees air renewal and the dissipation of internal heat. Interior patios and window placement will play an important role in the indoor air quality of the home.

Additionally, an interior environment at appropriate relative humidity will be necessary. An overly humid environment encourages the appearance of mold and germs, while an overly dry environment resulting from excessively high heating encourages airborne dust and dries out our respiratory passages, which weakens our defenses.

In this regard, the heating system par excellence in a luxury eco-friendly home is radiant floor heating or its variant of radiant wall heating.