Visitors to John Bautista and Pedro Salac's San Francisco home will enjoy a lap pool, sauna, and movie theater. But they also sense something else they value: the smell of clean air.
“The house smells new, and two years later it still smells new,” said Bautista, the attorney. “You know you're home because your house smells clean and fresh.”
The six-bedroom home, with seven bathrooms and two half baths, incorporates a sophisticated air filtration system to address the area's varying air quality. Tightly sealed floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding doors offer hilltop bay views and access to the backyard without compromising air quality.
Bautista plans to further upgrade the system this year, with the aim of filtering and recirculating indoor air rather than fresh outside air during periods of heavy pollution. Even though the air quality in the home is excellent, families may still experience changes on days when the outdoor air is filled with smoke. “We have suffered as much as most people in the Bay Area have suffered,” he said. “What we want is isolation.”
Gregory Marin, a developer specializing in wellness real estate, sold the home to Bautista for $32 million, plus another $5 million in fixtures and furnishings, he said.
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Luxury homeowners are known for splurging on fancy kitchens, custom décor, and art, but they're increasingly focusing on the less obvious. Increased awareness of bushfire smoke, pandemics, and sensitivities to mold and other irritants has made indoor environments a priority.
Many companies are investing in complex systems and flexible designs that promise healthier indoor air while also including spaces such as glass-enclosed rooms that make it feel natural to be indoors.
More and more properties are advertising pollution control features to attract home buyers. In Santa Rosa, California, a 13-acre property on the market for $15 million has air purifiers installed throughout the home. This spring, the Dovecote Building, under construction in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood, will offer six three-bedroom condominiums built to strict environmental and clean air standards starting at $1.5 million.
Mullin, founder of San Francisco-based Troon Pacific, which develops properties ranging from $15 million to $45 million that he calls Healthy Homes, focuses on the details that can impact air quality. He said he was there. He added that new tools can now more accurately measure levels of various particulate matter and carbon dioxide. “COVID-19 has changed the way people think about the link between air quality and health. [wildfires] It just reinforced it. ”
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Marin said his company's new homes have exhaust fans connected to ventilation systems in laundry rooms and under sinks, where a variety of pollutants and harmful detergents are present. Their garage has a separate exhaust fan that runs long enough for three air exchanges after the door is opened. An ionization-based filtration system is also included to remove airborne particles that are too small to see but can be dangerous if inhaled.
His home also features perforated plumbing with an in-line fan to exhaust air from beneath the slab foundation to prevent contaminated soil vapors from entering the home.
He said his company is looking at building to Living Building Challenge standards, where homes manage their own electricity, water and waste. He said there is a high demand for such standards, including passive home construction, which uses specific materials and energy-efficient systems that circulate highly filtered air to build airtight homes. He said passive home certification is expensive, especially for larger homes, and has limitations, such as large windows, that some homeowners don't want. But in the long run, eliminating most heating and cooling costs is probably worth it, he said.
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Elliot Gall, an associate professor of mechanical and materials engineering who studies indoor air quality at Portland State University, added that clean air is increasingly a topic for homeowners.
While high-rise buildings are often built with an emphasis on airtightness, there is now more emphasis on having windows that can be opened while adding better filtration systems, he said. Units with outdoor access may offer homeowners another way to control humidity and indoor air pollution levels inside their homes, he added.
Caroline Smythe, 67, imported hemp blocks covered in a lime and sand mixture for construction instead of standard bricks to improve air quality in her new home in Charleston, South Carolina. . Living in a humid area means moisture can lead to mold, Smythe said. Smythe said he completed the 2,400-square-foot home in the Lowcountry in 2023 for about $1 million, including $250,000 for the land.
By incorporating new materials, moisture is absorbed into the walls, helping to maintain a constant humidity level in your home. “It has a very earthy feel,” Smythe said of the thick soundproof walls.
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The home's two bedrooms and two offices are equipped with additional air filtration elements, including separate air filters in each bedroom. Smythe, a psychiatrist, chose bamboo kitchen countertops and mineral-based wall paint to prevent chemical off-gassing. “It makes a huge difference,” she said.
Homeowners have long been trying to improve air quality. In the early 1900s, homes with access to fresh air were essential to health, but by the 1950s some owners were trying to control outdoor air pollution by focusing on better insulation. More recently, the pandemic has put a renewed focus on indoor-outdoor living, making access to outdoor air essential.
Today's photos are a mix. Climate change has made outdoor air quality less reliable, adding to the challenge of long-lasting forest fires.
Gall says he has noticed that indoor air quality is often compromised by a combination of poor indoor airflow, activities like cooking and cleaning, and outdoor pollutants that settle in confined spaces. It is said that there is. Homeowners now want to better manage larger living spaces, including modifiable systems that address both indoor and outdoor pollution, he added.
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Jason Glatt, a commercial window contractor, and his wife, Lauren Glatt, a stay-at-home mom, of North Bethesda, Md., are building a $2.5 million home with a basement play area, a children's slide, and cigars in the attic. built a house Room and lots of entertainment space.
But the 11,000-square-foot home's most striking feature are the five HVAC units tucked inside utility closets and other closed rooms that regulate air quality and temperature in each part of the home. controlled by two thermostats. His $120,000 HVAC system at the company also includes UV lights to prevent mold.
Architect Seth Ballard, who worked with the Glatts, said individually controlled temperature zones and more return air vents will promote airflow. Costs can range from $100,000 to $200,000 for a 10,000 to 15,000 square foot home. “They're choosing this over kitchen countertops,” he said of homeowners in general.
The Charlotte of the Upper West Side building, which opened in Manhattan in 2023, will feature seven full-floor units, each with its own private entrance. The building has a highly airtight and highly insulated structure. Each unit has an independent heating and cooling system that filters fresh air directly into the home without being shared with other spaces.
The system can provide complete air exchange 13 times a day in normal use mode and more than 28 times a day in boost mode, said John Law, a building developer with New York-based Law Corporation. . Deflects the sun's heat and reduces energy usage on summer days.
Loh, who lives in one of the building's 3,570-square-foot, four-bedroom, 4.5-bathroom homes, said the air filtration system and rigorous Passive House construction increased construction costs by 15 percent. .
The building's three units are on the market for prices ranging from $8.35 million to $17 million.
He asserts that there is very little dust in the house and that the white hydrangeas he cut will take even longer to wilt.
