Renovation Solutions: Life-centered design improves lives through remodeling

Residential architecture is more than just making a house look pretty. Function is a critical feature of any home and must be given equal or even greater billing than aesthetics.

Residential architecture is a unique branch of architecture because clients are also the end users. When designing a large commercial or institutional building, architects have the end users in mind but rarely talk to them during the design process think bank officers versus bank tellers or school district authorities versus teachers. Design is directed with an eye to policies and procedures, rather than to individuals. With a home, the design can be tailored to individuals.

In our office, we discuss what we call life-centered design. We work to design spaces that improve the everyday life of those who live in and visit the home. Personal life, interpersonal life and social life interconnect in a home, so it functions best when each of these areas is addressed in the design process.

Personal life relates to places in a home that are frequented by specific family members, such as parents in the master suite, perhaps one or both parents in a working office area and whoever takes charge of everything that happens in the laundry room.

Interpersonal life refers to how the family functions as a unit or, in other words, refers to shared family spaces. Childrens bedrooms may be in this category, along with areas such as the kitchen, dining area, living and family rooms, mud room, and so on. When these spaces are sized and organized to accommodate all who use them, it makes for a more calm and peaceful life.

A familys social life will affect the public spaces in a home. This includes some of the areas listed above, such as a family room, but not areas that are unavailable to guests, such as a mud room. Understanding which spaces will hold many people as opposed to just family members helps to create them in the right sizes.

There are many ways a home functions. Some people store toys in individual childrens bedrooms and use them as play areas when friends come over, making the bedroom a social room. Others reserve these functions for a designated playroom, which keeps the bedrooms in the personal category.

It is therefore critical that a client and architect spend time discussing and analyzing how each family functions to create a life-centered design. These conversations lead to adding unique spaces and interesting elements to homes that change and improve the way people live.

It is best if these conversations happen during programming, the beginning phase of design, when architechts and clients can discuss what is and isn't working in a home. The architect should get to know clients and their personal situations. This is the time to do a little dreaming, to discuss interests and hobbies as well as laundry requirements.

A few years ago, we worked with a family with school-aged children. The busy moms number one complaint was that her laundry room was in the basement. She also struggled with not having a place of her own to organize the family, pay bills and keep everyones schedule straight.

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Renovation Solutions: Life-centered design improves lives through remodeling