“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it”. This line from George Moore will touch us all somewhere deep within. Home is perhaps the only place in the whole world that does not question us, does not force us to behave artificially. Our home is the reflection of who we are. What choices we have made in life and what we stand for. Homes do not have a unique DNA structure but each home is unique. Its aim is to answer to the needs, lifestyle, budget and the short and long term plans of its owners. If it fails to do so, it is the designer who has erred. There is a mistake either in his vision or in his execution.
There are many designing traps that a home may fall into. There are many things a home should not be. Here, we will talk about the opposite idea; what homes should be, before all else. I am sure that you will find the ideas discussed below highly relevant. Also, I have talked about that one compelling factor you cannot ignore while getting your home designed. Read along!
Designing a modern house starts with talking in-depth with the homeowner
Before designing any home- and why designing -I would say even before creating a blue print of a design, it is crucial that a home designer sits with the owner and hears him speak his heart out. Home is not something you get yourself built everyday. Unless you are a hardcore investor without any emotional interest in your properties, you are likely to discover that your home is an idea you are already in love with.
It may be a figment of your dream, your greatest aspiration or your one deep desire “cast in stone”. Whichever way it is looked at, there is no denying that each homeowner has a given set of ideas in accordance with which he hopes his home is built.
Home designers definitely know a lot more about building houses than a homeowner who is expected to be a layman but they should never lose sight of the fact that they are designing it for someone else to live and the needs and aspiration of “that someone else” is important to understand first. Ideally, I would say, every designer should make it amply clear right at the outset that he will look forward to opinions from the homeowner, that he will be eager to take the owner’s view into consideration while working on the project and that, shy of the point of compromising on form, scale, or structure, he will try to incorporate the owner’s vision as much as possible.
New House designs in NSW can suffer from trust deficit
Even homeowners know that the professionals they are trusting are men who have control on their craft and thus only a very few turn out to be the interfering kind. Homes mushroom best when the trust factor between a homeowner and a designer is of a very high degree. I have been meaning to write a lot more on this subject because, when you come to think of it, it is this trust deficit, above all else, which creates an irredeemable psychological barrier that finally causes the ruin of many great house plans.
Now, let us say a rapport is built, trust is gained and it is time to actually execute one’s brilliance as a designer. So, what’s the standard grind? How to go about the task? Here, let me reiterate what I began with- each home is unique and it can be best built in one particular way. It is not a story of hits and misses. There is an urgent need to get the execution bang on, right from the beginning.
Split-level home design is a beyond-the-box idea that works
It is for a designer to make a decision as to what may suit a house best. In my career, I have often taken unconventional steps because they appealed not only to my impulse but also to my rationale and my hard-gained beyond-the-box thinking. An example which comes to my mind immediately is when I recently designed a split-level kitchen area for a client of mine. Sometimes, because of the slope of the land or some other deficit in the plot (may be an encroachment), you will feel restricted with the floor plan.
Two storey house plans can be tweaked unconventionally
In such cases, you may not be able to work out some of the improvisations you have in mind. But if a designer focuses well and not be swayed by the mindset crime of one-size-fits-all, he can easily find the way ahead. If the traditional route of designing is blocked due to some plot restraint, it does not mean that something new and even more beautiful can’t be created.
Based on what the owner craves for, the plot itself and your vision of the task at hand, you can tweak the norms or stick to it. For instance, when designing a two storey house, you can create living spaces on the ground floor and bedrooms on the second storey. Alternatively, you can also play with the idea of both- living area and bedrooms -on the second storey and entertainment space and extra bedrooms on the ground level. Again, it may depend on the level of privacy needed by the owners.
House floor plans: open floor plan is a wonder-kid
Those who have toddlers at home often want the living area within monitoring distance from the kitchen. While I am on it, let me not miss out on talking about the open floor plan. The last decade has been instrumental in booting home this unique idea. Open floor plans cut down formal spaces and blend one area into another, thereby adding not only to the flexibility of design but also to the personal ambience of a home.
Why do you think the traditional dining halls are vanishing? It is because open plan living gives us the leverage of mixing the dining area with the living area. Remember, we live very hectic lives and often, it may not be possible at all to have a conventional dinner in the dining hall together. So, how can such families unite and share a few light moments together in each other’s company?
Surely, they can do it better if it is all about rolling on the living room lounge and gossiping till it is time to move a few feet and fall right into the dining zone (on one side of the living area, itself). And there is no end to how much the idea can be stretched. You can create a split-level kitchen or extend the countertop till the gourmet area.
The point I am trying to make is that a home can become a far warmer place without traditional compartmentalisation. And to come back, if you have toddlers, it is far easier to monitor them this way. This said, the point about the unique needs of a home cannot be ignored either. So if privacy is that “unique demand” of the homeowners then you can give open plan living a miss and create well-segregated spaces.
There are certain homes where all the generations live together. Instead of a kept-aloof granny flat, extra accommodation is built into the home itself through some strategic extension. Such homes may ask for separate spaces for grandparents, parents and adult children.
I remember working for a client last fall who wanted a home office and a lot of privacy for his was an academic work. Of course, I could not suggest him open plan living, could I? I can never really overstate the need for a home designer to soak in at the very beginning all the possible requirements, lifestyle needs ( maybe he is looking for how to downsize) and long term/short term plans of a homeowner.
Modern homes swear by a few constants
Few things remain constant though. Having worked on a large proportion of projects that fell in the Bush-Fire prone land, one constant has been my scrutiny of the Bush-fire relevant necessities. You cannot create a timber deck if the home lies in the flame zone, after all? I have never ever given up on being double alert when it comes to nature’s wrath. A dozen times better to be safe than sorry!
New home designs: orientation is crucial
Also, it is good to be focussed on the orientation, the direction of the wind, and the techniques of maximising sunlight and ventilation. Human brain is not like radium; it cannot shine in darkness. It needs sunlight and one reason why the LED lights have received so much affection from us is that they replicate natural sunlight. At times, I have deliberately chosen dormer-style windows because they add light and volume to the adjoining space. Also, I have found that when light percolates through the centre of the house, it adds to the perception of space.
I think it is not off the mark to talk a little bit about orientation here. We live in the Southern Hemisphere. Using Sun path diagrams, we can find where the sun will hit us at 6 am in summer and winter and how its rays can thus be maximised. It is crucial to shield ourselves from the summer afternoon sun falling on the western flank of our homes. For the purpose, we can create laundry room there or perhaps a well-insulated wall. We can also use various types of awnings and shades for mitigating the dangerous effect of such sunrays.
House plans must consider summer shade and winter warmth
It is also wise to keep big windows towards the north where sunrays can penetrate generously during the afternoon hours during winter. During summer, the sun shines at an angle of 67 degrees but in winter, it hits us at 32 degrees. If our northern windows are higher with awnings used in 1:2 ratio, we will find warmth in winter, thorough shade in summer and of course our fair share of privacy, too. Talking of privacy, some like a private nomadic retreat in their backyards.
Home design idea: Blending outdoors with indoors
There are homeowners who want their outdoors to be an extension of their indoors. While it is a challenge to blend in both, given their different structural needs and requirement of materials, a designer who knows his craft can always do it nicely. For such undertakings, remember that there needs to be a transit area which, in a sense, takes the design from the inside to the outside without breaking the homogeneity or the momentum. It is like tightrope walking. You have got to get the balance perfect. But if you can succeed in doing so, the indoor will flow into the outdoors just as it does in an infinity pool.
Modern home designs: three top mantras
Living in present times, we cannot bypass a few new absolutes. These are our “sermons of the Mount”. I am talking about energy-efficiency, eco-friendly building and following thorough insulation code (linked with home energy audit). Let me begin with the last among these first.
Insulation
Poorly designed homes bleed energy through their attic spaces, ceilings, floors and walls. It is because designers fail to answer the basic questions of insulation that the homes suffer from uncomfortable damp zones and high utility bills. It is important to assess which insulation may suit a home best. It is not that any among batt insulation, spray foam or the SIP is a one-size-fits-all model. You need to understand the R-value requirements and what the strength and depth of the load-bearing walls and the other walls is, how the ceiling sits on the structure and so on.
Eco-friendliness
Eco-friendly design has become a mantra of our times. Our gross negligence has already cost the nature dearly. We just need to look at the depletion of the ozone layer to figure this out. Reducing carbon footprint should then be among our top priorities. We had overslept but to our credit we have woken up and have not been lazing around since. There has been a clear departure of trends. Home designers are finding many more homeowners who want their homes built with nature-friendly materials, a nice proportion of recycled materials, too.
In our homes, we are giving a push for ideas like green walls/vertical walls which gobble up harmful bacteria, reduce Sick Building Syndrome, improve Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) and bring down home temperature in general. Off the note but as an interesting aside, it is heartening to note that we are not averse anymore to the idea of electric cars because we know they can reduce carbon footprint.
Energy-efficiency
And now, a few sentences on energy-efficient housing. Over the last decade, I have met with an impossibly high number of queries where homeowners have wanted an energy-efficient home. Not only are they alert to the looming energy crisis but they also want to take steps towards sustainable homes; those which can produce more electricity than they consume.
Solar panels have definitely been the main draw but we can also hear a round of applause for LED lighting. Together, these two warriors have brought down our energy costs a great deal. And now, when I hear of inventions like ventilation optimiser and Learning Thermostat (Nest Labs), I feel redeemed and also vindicated (I remember pressing for energy-conscious homes when it was only a vague idea floating in the air).
Cost of building a house
I have talked about various perspectives but no article on home designing can be complete if it does not delve on the costs. Irrespective of whether you talk about new home designing, renovation, extension or adding a storey, there is always a threat of overcapitalising. If your idea is to sell the home on a later day, overcapitalising can reduce the profit margin a great deal. Even otherwise, it can put pressure on you and force you to extend your feet beyond your sheet.
How much to build a house within: say NO to hidden costs
One way this threat can be eliminated is by hiring a designer who lays great stress on ethics and swears by the moral code. Of course, it is nearly impossible to restrain the costs to what had been initially discussed but a 10% addition and a 50% addition is two different things- as different as chalk and cheese. No homeowner is unreasonable enough not to understand a logical addition (a nominal one) to the cost but when it becomes a case of too many hidden costs coming into the picture, one begins to feel cheated in the selection of the home designer.
Ideally, the designer should prepare a cost structure in detail in the very beginning and get it reviewed by the owner. The owner shall then work out how much he may have to extend his mortgage (or some line of credit) and if it is a bargain he is prepared for. If not, it is always good to say so to the designer and seek fresh ideas out of him which cost less.
A home design effort is only victorious if it brings joy to those who live in it
Home is where our heart is. While it is too ambitious to ask for a mansion spread over acres of space, flushed with all the possible modern-day amenities, is it too much to ask for a home which serves as a cocoon for our battle-weary bodies in the evening and a receptacle for our sunlight-hungry hearts in the morning?
I have made it my mission in life to create homes which are a joy to live in. The great pride and contentment I get out of designing homes and then coming backstage and seeing the owners basking in delight is a priceless feeling. If you have one such home in mind; unique in its structure, form and design, and answering to the needs of your lifestyle, budget and long-term plans, feel free to contact me today. I will be more than glad to walk together with you on what could be a real joy ride.
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