Smart Home Design: How Tech is the Secret to a Healthy Home

HEDSouth - Villa Valencia

To understand the true well-being of a modern healthy home, we spoke with Jan Vitrofsky, founder and CEO of the company HEDSouth, who is seamlessly bridging technology and wellness features into sophisticated residences across Florida and California. Vitrofsky’s 35 years in the industry with clients including Disney and Sony, and HEDSouth’s innovative approach to healthy home living, results in dynamic homes with cleaner air and water, lighting to coincide with residents’ circadian rhythms and smart systems that actually help to align your body and mind.

“The world doesn’t need another control system, what the world needs is to deploy these wellness solutions,” shares Vitrofsky, who has emphasized his passion for making these systems accessible to all who want to be healthy at home. “In the last few years, product offerings that were once an uber luxury, are now offered at different price points for a range of products,” shares Vitrofsky.

HEDSouth - Hucker

With a wellness narrative rooted in technology, Vitrofksy has collaborated with Delos, the leading company in wellness real estate building modern commercial and private healthy home residences. Even wellness advocate and famed meditation coach Deepak Chopra sits on the board of Delos and has informed some of the brand’s residential designs.

Under the Delos company is Darwin, the world’s first home wellness intelligence platform that improves everything from water to sleep quality. HEDSouth is the first Miami/California-based integrator able to procure and install Darwin, and the first to integrate Darwin into a condominium project in the US as well as executing the first single-family home on the East Coast to feature the system.

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There has never been a more crucial time than during this pandemic to turn a mindful eye to our personal well-being, both emotional and physical, and focus on being healthy at home. And because 70 percent of our health is determined by our physical and social environments, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is important to look at the health of our home’s ecosystem.

With years of serving the luxury market with clients who have the highest expectations, Vitrofksy understands human beings well; allowing him to forge relationships with each client to achieve their healthiest home possible, because optimizing our health is a process from sun-up to sun-down.

HEDSouth - Villa Valencia

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PURER AIR AND CLEANER WATER
“You have to think of all the different pillars that are involved in writing the proper prescription for healthy living at home,” says Vitrofsky. Because air and water are two elements that play an essential role in our health, HEDSouth utilizes a Darwin system that is constantly monitoring particulate matter in the air and sending a command to an air washing system that works on a 24-hour cycle. By intelligently targeting allergens and pathogens in the indoor space, residents can increase the health of their respiratory, cardiovascular and cognitive health.

Using best-in-class technology to test the on-site water at a property, they are able to deliver the purest drinking and bathing water to the residence. Vitrofsky notes that there is no reverse osmosis or mineral stripping that happens because they value the natural minerals that our bodies need.

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NATURE REIGNS SUPREME
Indoor-outdoor living has become a design mainstay in many contemporary homes as our connection to fresh air and green space can uplift our mood while grounding us to the natural elements. “We want to try to bring the outdoors in for more creature comforts as well as bringing the indoors out, by adding luxury amenities, like sound systems built into the foliage and water features,” says Vitrofsky. “Being close to water is soothing to the psyche and healthy living at home. We want clients to be able to sit outdoors and be one with the landscape.”

In addition to opening up walls and adding in large-frame windows that open to the outdoors, other nature-centric features in a home may include house plants that aid with improving air quality and stunning green walls inside that refresh a stagnant room. And HEDSouth takes it to the next level. With the help of Naava, active green walls use air naturalization to add humidity and reduce harmful chemicals in the air.

HEDSouth - Villa Valencia

“These walls have fan systems that suck the air through the root system of the plants and filter out toxins while the plants produce more oxygen indoors,” says Vitrofsky.

Other wellness approaches include implementing biophilic design throughout the home space, like using specific materials and nature-centric patterns. Imagine artwork reflective of your favorite landscapes, hardwood tables, textured flooring and wall installations meant to soothe and de-stress.

HEDSouth - Villa Valencia

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YOUR HOME, YOUR SANCTUARY
A quality of life for many begins before the shades are even drawn. HEDSouth is addressing pillars of health through the Dawn Simulation system, which coordinates a healthy home’s technology to fit the natural circadian rhythm (or body clock) of the inhabitants, allowing one to step back to a time when the warmth and color of the sun woke us up naturally.

The thermostat can be set to automatically warm your sleep sanctuary, master bath and closet while lighting is set to replicate the sun’s color during early dawn. Blackout shades can also be added to sleep in total darkness, and then slowly lifted in the morning to gradually fill the room with natural light.

Vitrofsky dares us to ditch the alarm clock, saying “you have started your day and woken up in the most natural way possible.” Regarding his morning routine, Vitrofsky himself uses Josh.ai to check things like the weather and ask what’s on his schedule for the day. The voice-responsive tech speaks directly to you, answers questions and knows your daily habits for a more proactive morning.

HEDSouth - Hucker

Regarding the daytime light settings, Vitrofsky recommends utilizing the energizing light options, especially in your healthy home office, that helps our circadian receptors to receive more energy and remain focused. This feature can be used in mirrors as well to shift the temperature throughout the entire home. They also employ high-end tech throughout homes, like wireless home audio products from Sonos and smart home systems from Crestron Electronics.

Come evening-time, the lights slowly dim so your melatonin increases, and you begin to tire. It’s like the night shift setting on your iPhone, but for your home. Vitrofsky recommends turning screens off during this wind-down time and opting for some relaxing background music instead. The room’s temperature can be set to cool down a few degrees, tempting residents to their plush beds (fitted with the best mattress, of course) for another night of sleep in your healthy home.

Simply put, “we’re creating a sanctuary for the homeowner,” Vitrofsky says.