When addressing the world's broader problems—such as the climate emergency, energy crisis, and housing shortage—, we often seek sweeping, grand solutions that could tackle them all at once. As alluring as these ideas may be, they eventually run into the thousands of complexities and interconnections our world presents. But what if we sought more decentralized and domestic solutions? Chicago-based firm Tom Bassett-Dilley Architects has been pursuing just this, focusing on sustainable design, carbon-free and energy-efficient projects for residences, historical buildings, institutions, and commercial projects. In their Manifesto: The New American Dwelling, they argue that the single-family home, once the great American dream, needs to be redefined to emphasize minimalism, efficiency, health, connection with nature, durability, and personal kindness, moving away from wasteful, artificial, and toxic practices. We spoke with Tom Bassett-Dilley, FAIA, CPHC, LFA, and founder of the firm, about some aspects of their work.
Eduardo Souza (ArchDaily): TBD Architects places a strong emphasis on creating spaces that support mental and physical health. Can you elaborate on your design philosophy and how it integrates elements that promote overall well-being in your projects?
Tom Bassett-Dilley: As architects, our broad philosophy is to create buildings that are good for their inhabitants, neighborhood (setting), biome, and the climate at large; our inspiration is the self-reinforcing system relationships of nature. Every project is an opportunity to advance our understanding of technique and artistry, always striving to integrate performance and aesthetics into a unified expression, as we see in living things. Fundamental considerations for the physical side of indoor environmental health include Passive House-style energy recovery ventilation with high levels of filtration (for all projects) and a non-toxic material protocol, using EPA Indoor Air Plus as a baseline, and relying on ILFI’s Declare label for third-party verified ingredient labels. While product offerings for things like sealants, finish coatings, and adhesives are much easier to source these days, some elements like cabinetry can be more challenging, requiring custom solutions. The psychological side is tied to the aesthetic, and here our philosophy is informed by biophilic design.
We have identified five elements of biophilic design as fundamental to the creation of places that feel safe and energizing, and these elements shape the design from the outset. One of these elements (that we call Complex Order, after Grant Hildebrand) could also be called “Good Design,” which we think of as balanced, organic, with a perceptible logic but still with surprise and delight.
An example of this is the interior of Acorn Glade, in which the wood trim becomes a lattice echoing the house’s planning grid, tying together the spaces.
ES: In designing spaces that prioritize health and well-being, how do you engage with the end users to understand their needs and preferences? Can you share an example of a project where user feedback significantly influenced the design?
TBD: Most of our work is single-family residential, so the process focuses extensively on the owners; user feedback significantly influences all our residential designs, from aging-in-place design to color and material choices. We begin with a questionnaire that goes beyond simply the functional requirements to dig into memories of past homes, formative nature experiences (“outdoor memories”), and preferences in art and food to establish some qualitative concepts. From there, early design work is collaborative, and in discussing potential site planning and room layouts, we begin to interpret owners’ preferences into architectural solutions.
In the Union Pier Passive House (Phius certified, currently under construction), the wooded location meant that sunlight access would be limited by the trees. As we discussed layouts with the owners, the indoor-outdoor flow to the patio and the location of the screened porch were balanced to allow the living-dining room to be a 2-story space for light and prospect (to the treetops and sky—the only long views available—and to the second-floor balcony), while the screened porch was tucked away from view behind the alcove-like kitchen. The back side of the living room has a lower soffit ceiling to provide a refuge zone, from which the tall space can be enjoyed. Like many of our houses, this one features first-floor living for aging-in-place, with additional flexible-use bedrooms upstairs.
ES: How do you incorporate natural elements and biophilic design principles into your projects to enhance this connection for the users of your spaces?
TBD: A lot of biophilic design comes down to sensory experiences—our subconscious needs to be receiving signals that the environment is friendly, and materials with natural patterns (wood grain, stone figuration) and textural differences can send these messages, as can the sound and sight of water, the sound of birds, etc. In our design work, we seek to use a minimum of about 25-35% natural materials in major rooms, often through wood floors, trims and cabinetry. We set up major rooms to enjoy a strong indoor-outdoor connection and incorporate water into this experience when possible.
A good example of this is the Net Zero Prairie Retreat, in which the living spaces of the house were oriented to look down over the pond, and all the roof water drains through a constructed stream to the pond. Crowning this is the two-story screened porch, a sleeping porch off the primary bedroom above. We find screened porches to be a great way to allow people to enjoy the outdoors more as we tend to have a lot of mosquitoes (especially with a pond nearby), and since it provides a hint of enclosure and rain protection. A more intimate biophilic room is the downstairs bath, with the stone-pebble floor and cedar walls. The theme extended to details such as the guardrails, built by the owner’s metalsmith brother and based on TBDA’s design linking to the visual pattern of branching in the trees.
Another favorite screened porch features a fireplace, extending the seasonal enjoyment of the room and connecting to a wood fire, which presents many problems inside a well-conditioned, healthy home.
ES: As energy efficiency is a key aspect of sustainable architecture, what are some of the innovative strategies and technologies you implement to ensure your buildings minimize energy consumption while maintaining a comfortable and healthy environment for occupants?
TBD: We use energy modeling in all of our work to understand the energy implication of our design decisions and to use space conditioning metrics as targets. By using the Phius metrics as targets, we know we are optimizing the energy conservation of the thermal envelope through appropriate insulation levels, minimized thermal bridging, and high-performance windows and doors. Many of these passive strategies are nearly invisible but can mean 75-90% savings in heating energy below code levels. We start with conservation, which has roots in tradition—since pre-industrial buildings needed to be easy to heat—and also leverages heat pump technology to deliver very efficient heating and cooling. Since these homes have such robust envelopes, they have a kind of thermal lag, a resilience against temperature change, making interiors comfortable and stable. I experienced this in my own home retrofit, insulating a 1919 bungalow to become a zero energy building (ILFI certified), where he noted that the psychological experience of the home is completely different from before the renovation—it feels much more secure and protective now.
While operational energy consumption is important, embodied energy (“upfront carbon emissions”) is likewise critically important; we can’t use lots of energy (in the form of materials) in the short term to save in the long term—we need to save in the short term as well. Low- or negative-embodied energy (carbon sequestering) materials are increasingly available, and we have been making greater use of them as we iterate our solutions. Some of our favorites are wood fiber insulation, straw insulation, cellulose insulation, and wood in many forms for structure and finish, especially local, salvaged, and FSC-certified products.
ES: What are the key challenges and strategies for achieving effective decarbonization in architecture? How can the construction industry become a protagonist in this effort?
One of the key challenges is retrofitting older buildings to be efficient. The trick is that, while the principles of conservation and fuel switching are the same, each building is unique.
TBD: This flowchart we created gives a sense of the complexity of the decisions involved. In this historic Phius retrofit, for instance, we had to devise insulation and airtightness strategies for framed walls behind both stucco and cavity wall brick, for a complex roof, and for the foundation and slab that lacked capillary breaks. Managing moisture properly is key, followed by airtightness and insulation. Once these are done, however, the base loads for heating and cooling are minimized, so the HVAC systems can be modestly sized. From a different era, this 1953 home was built in Illinois to emulate a California Case Study house; its overglazing and interior roof drainage had caused significant damage, but we were able to fix those issues while reducing the energy loads by about 70%. Another strategy we emphasize in homes is that these renovations are often an opportunity to update older homes to support a contemporary lifestyle; with minor remodeling or small additions for indoor-outdoor connections, homes can be much more accommodating and lovable for their owners.
ES: What types of knowledge should architects of the future have to face contemporary problems?
At a bare minimum, architects should understand the energy and building science issues that come with Phius certification; even if not certified, a project should optimize conservation using good building science and smart HVAC (with emphasis on the V of HVAC, since healthy interiors need good ventilation). Energy modeling should be in more architect’s toolkits. Embodied carbon accounting should be part of the arsenal as well, leading to a low-carbon ingredients list for buildings. Deploying these well will help avert the worst of climate change.
TBD: But ultimately we need to refashion our environment to become harmonious with nature—a tall order, but that is what sustainability means. Going beyond the energy basics, ILFI’s Living Building Challenge makes a clear case for regenerative design, with a comprehensive view that includes Equity, Place, and Beauty, beyond the fundamentals of building. If we’re going to accelerate progress, we need to go beyond “doing less harm” and create buildings and cities that are demonstrably positive.
This article is part of the ArchDaily Topics: Passive Architecture. Every month we explore a topic in-depth through articles, interviews, news, and architecture projects. We invite you to learn more about our ArchDaily Topics. And, as always, at ArchDaily we welcome the contributions of our readers; if you want to submit an article or project, contact us.
