IN FOCUS: THE CONCEPT OF THE SUSTAINING HOME By Nicole Kow 

With the recent rise of the new coronavirus currently known as the Wuhan Virus, cities in China are in the process of lockdown. Bustling cities are now ghost towns with most staying indoors. People in less affected cities like our little red dot of Singapore have begun stocking up on N95 masks, hand sanitizers all in attempts to avoid the virus. It’s a time that brings daily routine to a halt and instead survival mode is switched on. It’s times like these that makes our company think about how our homes can be converted into a plausible self-sustaining home. What if our country went into lockdown and no one went out to work, how do we survive within the confines of our home?

The most important and basic needs for us are – oxygen, food, water and shelter. This issue we look at potential features that can be adopted into homes or estates to carry us through trying times.

Water Harvesting

In a water-scarce country like Singapore, we should never take water for granted. Rainwater is one such source we can collect water from to reduce the need for water usage. Rainwater harvesting is a system whereby rainwater is collected and channeled into cisterns or water tanks usually stored underground. The collected water is then pumped out and used for watering plants, washing clothes and flushing of water closets. With the right filtration system, water can even be converted into a drinkable source.

Air Purification

Air purifiers filter the air in the home reducing pollutants and bacteria. Clean air reduces the risks of a compromised immune system. An affordable and easily accessible product, these plug and play items are a useful addition in cleansing the air in our homes.

An indispensable component to survival is air, more specifically, oxygen. Plants have proven to be a source of natural air purification and more importantly oxygen creation. Plants like Areca Palm and Chinese Evergreens are some of the top plants for increasing oxygen while the Peace Lily can produce oxygen in the dark.

Solar Energy

The price of Photovoltaics (PV) has become more affordable in recent years that more homeowners are installing them on the roofs of their homes. Not being entirely dependant on the grid lowers the electricity cost in the long run as well as gives you the option to work with nature to bring energy into your home. In the event of a power disruption, solar energy helps your home continue on with powering your lights, appliances etc. Landed property homes especially can reap the most value because of their roofs with the largest surface area for PV built space per household.

Vertical Gardens

With vertical gardening kits, growing plants, herbs and vegetables is much easier in a small space. Places like balconies and air wells are effective spaces to have your vertical garden up and running. Soil-less techniques like hydroponics, which uses mineral nutrient solution to grow plants as well as aquaponics, which produces vegetation through combining aquatic life and plants into one system create the opportunity for households to grow their own edible produce in a controlled environment. In addition, selecting quick-growing vegetables like beansprouts, for instance, ensures quicker harvest cycles.

With lifestyle and beautifying homes as the key focus for most at this point maybe it's time to push the envelope further to delve into maximising the home not just through volume but for specific purposes, tweaking the features and functionality into the spaces of the homes of the present to be equipped for the future.