Summer update.

We’ve been flat out during July with lots happening. We were invited to collaborate on a great article in FC&A Magazine by the lovely folks at QuietMark alongside some of industry’s pioneers who are working to improve acoustics in the built environment. It’s an interesting read and available here — head to pages 24 and 25.

We were invited by i-Build Magazine to write a piece for them on our Top 10 things EVERYONE should know when embarking upon a self-build project. Read it here.

In our last team session, we got into Street Wisdom; thanks to our coach @Kate Southerby for introducing us to it!  We took to the streets for answers and we loved doing it.  Read about our Street Wisdom experience and let us know if you’d like to take part in an event here

We were also thrilled to take part in the Quiet Mark podcast, hosted by Simon Gosling, recently listed in “Best start-up’s top 20 health podcasts of 2021.”
Find out more about “transforming construction with sound design” featuring co-founder Mike Jacob, now in the top three most downloaded episodes) here.

Over a year has passed since our first lockdown when everything slowed, and we were all given pause for thought.

Stephen Lovatt, author of, “How birdsong became the sound of lockdown,” suggests, “the Earth could hear itself think,” and others have described this time as “productive solitude.”

Whilst experiences of lockdown have been varied, one thing we heard time and time again is that our relationship with home was brought into sharp focus as we found ourselves spending more time than ever (doing more of our everyday activities) at home.

Our team’s working from home conversations often reflected on the balance of home, work-life, family and domestic challenges. It was clear that for each of us home had taken on new roles and meanings, and that what we needed from our homes pre pandemic was very different to what we needed when home was our only place of sanctuary.

Home had become school, workplace and entertainment hub. Plus, different members of our households were occupying the same space at the same time, bringing our relationships to the forefront. Conversely those of us on our own, really were on our own for extended periods.

In our story “How Covid changed our attitude to home design” we explore what the pandemic changed about the way we interact with our homes, and how the design of our homes might change as a result.

We asked some of our team to share their thoughts on what home meant to them and if they had dreamt of living in a Kiss House (and why) during lockdown, in “Kiss House team relationship with home.”

In researching these two stories we were struck by how much more our homes were expected to do. How rooms designed for one function — sleeping, eating, or relaxing etc, suddenly needed to adapt to facilitate a multitude of activities — teaching, working, playing etc, often at the same time!

We explored how some people were creating different zones within their rooms using furniture and fixtures such as lighting and shelving. We spoke to celebrated rug designer, Sonya Winner about using colourful rugs to zone areas and break up space. You can read about Sonya’s work and creative process here.

Having spent most of our time at home for over a year, we have become more aware of our indoor climate. It interested us that we each gravitated to particular nooks or crannies to do certain activities, so we decided to look at this in detail.

We listened to a brilliant program on BBC Sounds, “The weather indoors,” which both resonated with and inspired us. It made us think about how the spaces we were gravitating towards related to our indoor climate. Were we identifying warm spots and avoiding colder areas? Was the sun drawing us or the cold repelling us?

In our story “The weather indoors” we consider how our internal climate operates and how it has affected home design over the centuries — it’s a fascinating subject!

Now that many of us are getting our homes ready to welcome guests for the first time in a long time we thought it would be interesting to look at eco-cleaning products. We’ve put together a list of resources and brand recommendations, including how to locate product refill stations. We hope you will it find useful. Read “Kiss House focus on eco cleaning products” here.

One of the many things that the pandemic has reminded us of is that home matters, so we are dedicating two issues of Kiss Life to celebrating the home, if you are interested please subscribe here.

Thanks,

The Kiss House team