Introduction

Article 1 : The Transatlantic Divide: Building Science Across the Pond

Building science, or building physics, has always fascinated me, the way buildings respond to their environments, the materials we use, and the decisions that shape how we live within them.

Over the years, my work as a practising architect in the UK and as a contractor in the New England states of the US has given me a unique vantage point. Moving between two building cultures, I’ve come to appreciate just how differently we think about constructing the same thing: simple, comfortable, and efficient buildings.

At a first glance, the principles seem universal, insulation, airtightness, ventilation, comfort. But the moment you look closer, the variations are striking. The regulations along, from the UK’s Building Regulations to Massachusetts’ State Building Code, reveal two distinct philosophies. What’s considered standard practice in one country can be a curiosity in the other. Even the most ordinary details, a bathroom layout or wall build-up, can expose decades of divergent climate responses, construction traditions, and cultural expectations.

In the UK, we tend to build with masonry and layers of insulation, prioritising compactness and energy efficiency. Across the Atlantic, timber framing dominates, and comfort often means more space and more mechanical control. Neither is inherently ‘better’, they simply tell different stories about how we’ve adapted to our environments and economies.

This series is my attempt to explore those stories. It’s not a textbook or code manual, but a place to share observations, research, and reflections on how we design, build, and occupy our spaces. Some articles will be technical; others more anecdotal. The aim is to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and between the two construction cultures that have more in common than they realise.

Whether you’re an architect, a student, or someone simply curious about why buildings are the way they are, I hope these notes offer both insight and inspiration. I’ll touch on everything from thermal performance to material choices, from the quirks of US bathroom sizing to the science of airtightness (if I can unravel that!) and perhaps along the way, we can start to see how the two worlds might learn from each other.