Winter

Basel after snowfall, from Bruderholz. January 2021.

Winter brings us inward, into our buildings, our homes and our places, but also into ourselves.

Winter is a time for slowing down, for taking stock, for collecting ourselves. We spend more time indoors, we share long, hearty meals, stories around the fireplace, jigsaw puzzles on the dining table.

In New Zealand, winter is relatively mild, bookended by the wet autumn and windy spring months. In a humid climate, winter can often mean dampness, the never-quite-dry, never-quite-warm feeling.

It wasn’t until I moved to Switzerland, a country known for its mountainous terrain and snow-blanked winter towns, that I realised how much that feeling of dampness I had experienced living in Auckland and Wellington isn’t just a question of climate: it’s also about how we build. Or, perhaps more pertinently, what we expect of our buildings.

In Switzerland, the construction standard of an average house or apartment is just, simply, better. There is an emphasis not just on insulating, but in creating a complete insulated skin to the building: a thermal blanket that wraps the outside, keeping the cold out, and stopping condensation from forming inside or within the walls. Windows are typically triple glazed, and are hinged to allow secure ventilation during the day. Heating is often built into the floors, linked to timer systems that require little thought or tweaking. Powered by in-ground geothermal heat pump systems, or solar panels, the whole system is not only efficient, but also based on renewable sources.

As climates shift worldwide, and temperatures not only tumble in winter but also rise to dangerous levels through summer, there is more need than ever for all our buildings to not only be built in a sustainable manner, but also to operate in a sustainable way, that promotes health and wellbeing through all seasons.

There is a lot to be learnt from across the world already, both now and in more traditional approaches to managing climate through construction. Sometimes, as I have found, the value of a certain approach might only be made visible through its difference from what we consider normal.