Have you ever wondered why so many large chain stores have two sets of doors? No, it is not just to store shopping carts.
Where I live, any home that is around 100 years old (that hasn’t seen any renovations) will very likely have two front doors. Putting it simply, you open one door, step into a small space, and there will be another door in front of you.
(Image Sources: Image 1 | Image 2)
The space goes by many names, including: arctic entry, mud room, breeze room, vestibule, airlock, foyer, and more. For sake of simplicity, I am going to call them “entry vestibules.”
Entry vestibules create a buffer between the outside and the inside of the building, preventing drafts. This can help greatly with temperature regulation in both the winter cold and summer heat. I can’t find number details on energy saving, but the fact that large chains still build them may hint of their importance for money-saving.
In homes, this space also typically serves as the mud room ( a place for shoes and jackets).
In the name of “first impressions,” and open concept designs, vestibules are often the first thing to go during renovations, and I think that’s a real shame.
As a bird owner I would love this feature. Like a second set of doors to prevent any accidental escapes
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.
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
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.
In India, we call these “Veranda”. It is quite common here and are bigger than these.
