Breathing Easy

What do you think? Email us your feedback, and be sure to include your contact information and the subject line, 'Breathing Easy' with your message.

While most people would agree that a “healthy home is a happy home,” this seems particularly true when discussing the kitchen.

Health-oriented kitchens – especially those built on “green” design principles – can offer kitchen and bath professionals a chance to not only provide clients with health benefits, but also economic advantages, as well.

Indeed, this was the subject of the recent National Kitchen & Bath Association’s (NKBA) Design MasterClass Green Fusion conference held in Montreal.

“This is not a trend – this is the way the industry is moving,” notes Victoria Schomer, ASID, LEED A.P. of Asheville, NC-based Green Built Environment. Schomer, who co-lectured a discussion at the event with Lucinda Jennings, ASID, LEED A.P. and programming/resource staff director at the Office of University of Architect for Virginia Tech, adds: “Every major manufacturer is looking at their emissions and environmental policy commitment, and their bottom line, and they are realizing that it is smart to design green.”

So, whether it’s improving indoor air quality or supporting conservation, kitchen designers are finding that healthy designs can lead to healthier profits.

Another presenter at the event, Robert Blakeman, LEED A.P., architect and senior v.p. for Warren, NJ-based PS&S, explains: “Now you can market your company and hire people and retain people because of your green philosophy.”

He continues: “[It is important that design professionals] look very strongly on the kitchen side for reducing energy consumption by using Energy Star performance fixtures and reducing water usage in the kitchen and bath.”

There is quite a bit at stake, the panel added, noting that toxins and mold – which accumulate wherever moisture is present – can lead to asthma, allergies and other health hazards and infections.

In addition, formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds (VOC) in particleboard and other wood products can be irritants and are actually classified as carcinogens.

But a kitchen certainly wouldn’t be “healthy” if it didn’t promote the creation of healthy meals, adds Florence Perchuk, CKD of New York, NY-based Designs by Florence Perchuk, Ltd.

She explains: “The design of kitchens should include children working at food: preparing food and getting to know what food feels like instead of reheating it, taking it out of the microwave and not knowing what the ingredients are.”

To that end, she recommends establishing clear and accessible storage spaces that hold healthier choices, i.e. fruits and vegetables.
And just because a kitchen promotes health doesn’t mean it can’t be stylish, says Susan Serra, CKD, of of the NY-based Susan Serra Associates.

“Green kitchen design does seem to focus more on clean-lined, contemporary styling, but a design professional should be aware that other choices in style and theme are possible,” she says.

To that end, Perchuk notes that country-styled kitchens – which work particularly well around a healthy theme – can be made more efficient with labeled vegetable bins for easy access.

In fact, Troy Adams, CKD and president of West Hollywood, CA-based Troy Adams Design, believes so much in health-oriented designs that he has instituted a “FusionDesign” approach into his design philosophy (which marries the functionality of American products, the sophistication of environmental standards in European design and products, and the natural, Zen qualities of Asian cultures), and even designed his own kitchen with green-oriented principles.

“Applying an environmental philosophy to my work has become instinctual, and I am glad to see how the industry and consumers are embracing these ideals, which will ensure the planet’s survival for generations to come,” he concludes.

Who’s Driving Who?