Why are smart homes the future?

Borja Postigo, founder of La Rosa Arquitectos, explains to Airzone the keys to understanding that home automation is the most effective way to achieve efficient and comfortable housing.

Borja Postigo is from San Sebastian, Spain, and an architect by vocation. To him home automation is the future of efficient and comfortable housing while the comfort is something subjective. “There is no definition of comfort, but it makes us differentiate any house from our home". The efficiency, on the other hand, is a concept that depends on results.

Comparative figures show the amounts of waste generated by some building materials with respect to others, or that of the greenhouse gases associated with the operation of certain household appliances.

No matter how the words 'comfort' and 'efficiency' are understood, what is clear is that these are the terms that are in fashion, and for that matter they must be taken into account in new constructions, if we really want to achieve the 'green objective' the international press is constantly talking about. That, according to the European Commission, marks three key challenges that must be overcome by 2030: reducing at least 40% of greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990, ensuring that at least 32% of energy used worldwide are renewable, and energy efficiency improves by 32.5% compared to 2020.

Personalized spaces, the key to comfort

Borja Postigo has more than a decade of experience in the field of architecture, and his professional advice and opinions on sustainability and comfort are totally confirmed. At Airzone, we also ask you to express yourself not only as an architect, but also as an end user, since designing and building are activities that are done with people in mind.

"A space is comfortable when everything is focused on your tastes and preferences. When you have the distribution that you need, with an orientation that you like, with a decoration that makes you happy and, of course, with a temperature at which you feel comfortable," explains Postigo. "As I said, comfort is subjective. It is not enough to buy what other people consider as a comfortable sofa; I need to buy the sofa that is comfortable for me. The color I like or the materials that convince me the most".

And the same logic could be used with temperature. There is no fixed recommendation that can please everyone. The 24ºC that is perfect for an adult can be uncomfortable for a baby sleeping in a separate room. Hence the importance of home automation capable of turning houses not only into intelligent spaces, but also into personalized places. Home automation assures the satisfaction of every inhabitant with the standards it provides.

According to Postigo, a good indoor climate is one of the most important keys to make a person feel good in their own home, and "even more so in certain cities in Russia or Mexico, where the climate is increasingly becoming extreme both in winter and summer". Postigo does not hesitate and points out: "a good air conditioning is essential to enjoy the comfort".

Sustainability within everyone's reach

Regarding sustainability, Postigo emphasizes that an efficient and environmentally responsible project can be achieved in different ways.

On the one hand, he talks about active measures. That is, designing facilities that reduce energy consumption, such as air conditioning equipment or closed water circuits. On the other hand, it is possible to make a building efficient "passively". With this, Postigo refers to a series of measures to be taken when designing the building thinking about its future use. That is, choose the best options so that, in the long run, the building consumes less. These passive measures are, for example, the choice of materials with good thermal inertia, which isolate well from cold and heat and avoid excessive use of air conditioning, or that do not require manufacturing with too much ecological impact.

According to the architect, it is important to be conscious and responsible with the environment when designing and building. "We are going crazy trying to bring materials from far away. If we want to build a house in Spain, it doesn't make sense to bring a fancy stone from Brazil. That leads to crazy logistics and unnecessary wear and tear. We should bet on local materials from the area to build that fulfill the same function. There are lots more sustainable options out there locally", he says.  

Home automation, the solution that brings together the concepts of fashion

To the concepts of comfort and sustainability we must add the importance that the internet has acquired in new housing developments. "We are entering the age of the Internet of Things (IoT). We have more and more appliances connected to the internet. According to Postigo, home automation encompasses all these concepts (comfort, efficiency, and digitalization). So, taking into account the objectives of reducing ecological footprint and providing the comfort that humans already demand in their homes, home automation is virtually the only viable solution to have an 'all in one' in the homes of the future.

"It is already common to see technological devices that you can control by voice to give orders to some devices in your house such as air conditioning or blinds. The future is definitely aimed at further home automation," defends Postigo.

And before the definition of the concepts, people most likely wonder how far this future of truly intelligent housing is. We question whether the governments and the Technical Building Codes (CTE) that govern the standards to be met by new housing developments are really at the level of technological advances that affect the societies. To this Postigo responds: “there is a real effort to update the CTE as much as possible, but the renewal mechanisms should be a little more dynamic. The CTE is much slower than technology”, which means that the houses of the present do not perform as well as they should.

Meanwhile, those most aware of the environment fight to combat pollution. Committed architects adapt their designs to efficient proposals, and home automation acts to meet the world and its inhabitants. It seems that there is no alternative. The most viable option for not giving up on comfort is, according to Postigo, to bet on smart housing.