We spend around 90% of our time indoors, with 65% of this spent at home [1], so it’s fair to say that our homes, where we spend so much time, can have a significant impact on our comfort, health and wellbeing.

When DIYers or those with limited building experience try to improve the insulation of a home, they need to ensure that they do so in a way that will not create problems with condensation either within the structure of the building fabric (called interstitial condensation) or on the inside surfaces of rooms due to the unintentional creation of cold spots – called ‘thermal bridges’

To function well our bodies need a core temperature of around 37°C and a skin temperature of between 32 and 33°C. That said, everyone tends to have slightly different criteria for what’s ‘just right’ for them so it’s always useful to have greater control over the temperature of a space so that it can be tailored to a specific individual.

Stories of disputes over noise regularly make the headlines, but how does noise really affect our daily lives?Here are four ways that sound can make a difference, according to academic and scientific research:

Following his speech at the Healthy Homes and Buildings All Party Parliamentary Group meeting last month, Saint-Gobain technical director, Mark Allen shares his thoughts on why we’ve only started the journey to protect our health and wellbeing.

Timber is a great building material to use when you want to limit the impact of your home on the environment. Its versatility means you can use it for everything from roofs to floors, it can allow homes to be built much faster, and the natural visual variation of timber means it looks good too.

Professor Kevin Lomas of Loughborough University has warned that the UK is facing a public health disaster if the issue of overheating in homes is not tackled.

Daylighting is the relationship between architecture and how natural light is optimised in a space or place for greater health and wellbeing benefits.

It’s a simple equation: improved acoustics = greater sense of inclusion + attainment.An optimal sound environment is a basic necessity if all students are to learn effectively. Modern teaching practices put greater emphasis on group communication and collaboration which often increases the overall noise level. When the sound environment provides the best possible support for students and teachers, it will improve comfort, focus and the quality of teaching and learning.

When we think about heat loss in the home, we immediately think of walls and roofs as the main problem areas. And while these can account for up to 40% and 25% of heat loss respectively, they’re not the only culprits.

Bartholomew Barn, part of King’s Hawford junior school, in Worcester, is the first completed Multi Comfort building in the UK.

To create a thermally comfortable home which also protects the wellbeing of the occupant, careful consideration of both design and installation of thermal bridges is required. Here we look at what thermal bridges are, what impact they can have and how you can prevent them.

The generation born between 1981 and 1996 – dubbed Millennials – have been the focus of many media reports over recent years, particularly when it comes to housing

Everything in our lives is the built environment – where we live, work, learn, shop, get our entertainment. As well as the buildings we spend time in, it’s also the space in between these places – how we get from A to B and interact with the world around us.