Solarpunk Urbanism

Nice cat airlock

Fun fact: The german term I learned for his literally translates to the "windcatch".

Edit: It's "Windfang" in German

It's interesting that all the old houses used every method to save energy and costs including multiple doors, heavy curtain around windows and strategic tree placement to keep homes cool in the summer and warm in the winter. All these ideas which were super common just got forgotten or ignored. Adding these back with new better insulation materials can make a huge energy saving. Dumb that we stopped

Well businesses use them because there is so much traffic coming and going. Hope you don't have that much at your place.

I could only think that we have better weatherproofing around doors now (and better doors themselves too with better insulation). And the rest of the house is better insulated and air tight too, so less of a need. We used to have screen doors that cut the wind as well, don't see many of those but those could come back. Interesting idea but I can't really see them coming back, especially with many new houses being those small skinny houses.

So I started this comment as a reply, but I felt like people would also like to hear about this as someone who cares about mud rooms when ~~pretending I can afford to buy a house~~ window shopping.

I grew up in a rural/small town area where mud rooms are still highly valued to this day. Small houses will also occasionally have mud rooms, even if it's just a weird little hallway. In this area, the mud room usually has built in shelving and enough space to put a shoe rack plus sometimes the washer/dryer. Most commonly, it's about the same sqft of a full bathroom if the washer and dryer aren't in there; only a little bigger if they are.

I usually see them with hard wood, tile or linoleum floors to make them easy to clean, and a cheap, rough rug from Menards gets thrown on top to wipe and leave shoes.

Another, and probably more common, thing is a covered and insulated all-season porch. Usually it has screened, cheap windows and spans most of the length of the side it's on. This has less insulating power than a mud room, but with the trade off being a socializing space while semi outdoors and bug free. In the 150 yo house I grew up in, it even had a bathroom because it was a farmhouse. This house didn't have any screens, it was honestly more like a mud room than a porch; however there's also a local terminology thing about size being important in the distinction between mud rooms and porches.

In at least parts of northern Japan, a lot are set at 90 degrees to each other so wind doesn't blow straight in (along with the snow/dirt)

I've had two houses over a hundred years old. The first was a "shot gun shack". As soon as you'd open the front door in the winter the thermostat would click. Had some front doors installed dividing the living room from what we called the foyer. It made a big difference. My house now has a mud room at the side door. I've kept the original door which I'm sure isn't energy efficient so it cuts down on draft

If only the sq ft of living space was affordable enough to have a shoe and jacket room. Nevermind getting two people into a space like this.

In the US it's required by commercial building codes in certain situations

Basically every dutch home has one. Both houses and apartments. We call it the gang. Or hallway? It's usually where the coats are hung, toilet is and stairs are.

Great for keeping the heat and cool air in, and the bugs out

In India, we call these "Veranda". It is quite common here and are bigger than these.

Door city over here

I knew some folks who had this beautiful old Victorian house with a mud room. They covered the entire arched ceiling in wine corks and the floor in $153.82 in pennies.

Also, I can't wait to see the Technology Connections video on this amazing energy saving technology.

@Blair Older houses in my country also have them, and they're called just like that: vestibules. And what's interesting is that the buildings from the communist era also have them. I grew up with them being called simply "holul de la intrare" (literally just "the entry hallway"). Indeed, it's a place where everyone leaves their jackets and shoes so that they do not bring all the dirt inside the house. In fact, my studio has an entry hallway as well, but I rarely close the door fwiw.

Newer buildings, if I recall correctly, tend to blur this demarcation, as they try to turn everything in an open space (so that it looks bigger) - as such, there's usually no door that leads to that little hallway - probably because having an AC makes it less important to have another door after you get inside the house. But I saw that it's still properly marked by walls, so you know in your mind where to leave your shoes, your jacket etc.

We call them porches in Ireland.

Quite common in Lake Tahoe (❄️🎿 California)!

It is very common in Montreal, that's where you take your boots and jacket off close the door behind you before opening the other, don't let the snow in.

As a bird owner I would love this feature. Like a second set of doors to prevent any accidental escapes

Around me the main current use case of these rooms is for landlords who have broken up a bigger detached house into multiple units to separate these units with 2-3 doors leading off into different units.