This past summer, JLC editor Clay DeKorne had a chance to sit down virtually with Allison Bailes to speak with him about his book, A House Needs to Breathe ... Or Does It? An Introduction to Building Science. The following is a portion of that discussion.

Clay DeKorne: If there’s one book on building science I would recommend to builders and remodelers, it’s yours. Here, I want to first give readers an overview of that book before we delve into a few of the topics I have previously found difficult to understand and that your book helps me understand much better for solving real-life building problems.

To begin, the book is organized into three parts, and the first is titled “Start at the End.” Can you explain what this means?

Allison Bailes: Well, if you start down a path and don’t know where you’re going, who knows where you’re going to end up. Now that’s a valid way to travel sometimes, but if you’re building something, you want to know what it is you want to end up with. It’s not just: What should it look like? It’s also going to be: What’s the experience of the people who occupy that building? I’m talking about residential—about homes—and these are places where people raise their families. It’s where they spend a lot of time. They sleep, they breathe a lot of air inside that house. They want to be comfortable, and they want to be able to have conversations without having to speak over the noise of the air conditioner. By beginning with “What’s the Purpose of a House?” I’m just reminding people why building science is important. As I explain in the book, I’m inspired by the work of Robert Bean, a retired engineer who had a big impact on me and others. And he always says: “Design for people and good buildings will follow.” For me, that is how we must begin. It’s good to remember building is not all about the joinery and the materials; it’s about the people who are going to occupy that house.

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