Living With, Living Well
The skies in southeast Wisconsin are partly sunny this afternoon, but we're being told that's about to give way to the yellow-brown haze already hanging over much of the Great Lakes and Northeast (noted as "apocalyptic" by my colleague in New Jersey earlier today). Smoke from hundreds of active wildfires in Canada and Minnesota has triggered air quality alerts across the region.
Days like this have me leaning into our conversation with Liz Miles, the residential lead of the International WELL Building Institute, who explains why healthy homes start long before the amenity list. Wellness begins in the ventilation strategy and HVAC decisions, and indoor air quality is an important element, Miles said. [Read the Q&A]
Architect Graham Irwin has been thinking about resilience through a similar lens. In a piece for us, he writes that wildfire design isn't just about defending against flames. It's also about protecting homeowners from smoke, poor air quality, and power outages that can affect homes hundreds of miles from the fire event.
Irwin is based in California, but this isn't a California problem. The smoke creeping over Wisconsin this week is proof of that.
—Pauline Hammerbeck
