Living in an Active Home: household dynamics and unintended consequences

Abstract

To meet UK decarbonisation and climate change targets, significant changes to existing and future housing stock will be required. The development of Active Buildings has the potential to contribute to meeting these targets. Active Homes, as a particular type of Active Building, alter how energy is produced, distributed and consumed, as well as how homes are designed, constructed and then lived in. Before occupation, Active Homes are designed and developed around imaginary users, yet residents do not always live in the homes in ways envisaged by developers. This paper draws on data from a qualitative longitudinal study involving in-depth interviews with Active Home inhabitants and developers across five UK case sites. Interviews elucidate how developers envisage future residents and their assumptions about how people will live. As the household is a particularly gendered sphere of society, three qualitative longitudinal case studies are then presented to explore the way gender interweaves with women’s experiences of Active Home residence. Expert visions do not always fully encompass the gendered household dynamics of everyday life. Implications are drawn from how these Active Homes are experienced and lived in: what considerations developers can give to the design, controls and information that are more tailored to residents’ needs. PRACTICE RELEVANCE This paper investigates the designers and developers of Active Homes, as well as the residents who live within them. The design of homes and the technologies they encompass have implications for the gendered dynamics of residents’ everyday lives. Areas are identified where changes could be made in future developments. This includes providing information to residents about the operation of different technologies within the home, as well as how they interact with one another to impact the home’s performance. The women in these case studies indicated a willingness to change their everyday energy practices, but wanted more information about their homes to maximise energy efficiency. Resident satisfaction will be crucial to the success of Active Homes, and insights from these early Active Home developments have important implications for wider rollouts.