A house is a physical container that frames the experiences people have within. These experiences add to the qualities that make up the character of a home. Home is a place where we have an opportunity to be ourselves, to express our individuality and create memories. Home is a place that incubates, creates and replenishes dreams. Home is a haven far from the problems of the world. Home is a place that triggers the imagination.

Home is experienced very differently from person to person and that is the poetry of home…it has potential to allow thoughts to wander and to feel profound emotions. At Stand 47 we hope to share people’s experience of the place contained by its walls and roof and explore how they see and feel the qualities that characterise home in our case study house.

Tracking the performance of Stand 47 over time can be done in various ways, although none quite as descriptive as the experiences generated by changing seasons. The seasons are the best way for observe and tell the story about the house adapting to temperature differences, to light and air quality, to dry and wet conditions and to changes in the landscape that reflect changes in lifestyle. 

We begin the journey of experiences during Winter – a time of introversion and hibernation. It is therefore apt that we begin our living experiments at Stand 47 by reflecting on its performance when we need to spend so much time indoors. The passive design strategies in the home have considered how natural light can enter the house during the day to heat up the internal spaces and high-performance Saint-Gobain insulation materials ensure that heat will stay indoors after the sun sets without escaping into the sub-zero atmosphere through the floors, walls, windows and ceilings. We will explore how people staying at Stand 47 actually experience these benefits through a series of investigations into for example:

• temperature
• air quality
• energy use

For two years, the Stand 47 website has been focused on tracking the development of the ideas and processes that led to the construction of the final product we have come to know (and love) as the Stand 47 Case Study house. We call this phase BUILDING STAND 47. But now we are entering a new phase and our website is evolving from documenting the building phase to focusing on life at Stand 47. We’re calling it LIVING IN STAND 47.

Join us over the next year, as we test many of the ideas that we used to build Stand 47 by creating various opportunities for people to experience the benefits of living in a home like this one directly. Through this process we will be able to determine whether Stand 47 performs ‘better’ in line with our objectives and expectations.

To experience Stand 47 in ‘real-life’, please click here to request a tour of the property.