The secrets of a good Home Design: overcoming the obvious. This article is not your basic primer on how to choose your "dream home". It does not contain a list of "items to place designers"-these things can be found on every designer's website or Google search. Important as those items are, what we are going to do is to drill down into the design a bit, bypass the fan-fare and talk about some specific concepts can really make a difference in your life.
At your home for your lifestyle begins with the exploration of your needs and desires. Most home designers will have some type of "discovery process", which is used to identify the basis for your home design. We will start with the configuration of your lot and proceed through such things as privacy requirements, work areas, outdoor spaces, etc. Although this process is critical to your project, rarely goes deep enough to turn the project into a home that will serve your needs for a lifetime.
Here are two keys to good home design that need to be addressed up-front: a current needs assessment) of the homeowner, e, b) anticipate the future needs of people living in the House. Before saying "Yes, Yes ... I heard this all before!" Let's take a closer look at what "current needs" entails.
Almost all "discovery process" used by domestic designers focus on the requirements of use and space of the rooms of the House. This is good, but too little attention is paid to the personal needs of people who actually live in the House. Without carrying out a comprehensive assessment of the client's functional capacity, identifying areas of the home in which changes are needed is often overlooked.
For example, the needs of a child and his/her ability to live comfortably at home are rarely addressed at design time. It is necessary to assess the current capacity of the child and design an environment that operates and grows with your child. Some design elements easy adaptation should include adjustable shelves and rods in the closet. When the child grows up, the shelves and rods can be moved to better manage their scope. Appliances have a similar situation as it is required that the controls are accessible. Front controls mounted on washers and dryers will allow. Security comes into play. A child who tries to use a microwave oven instead in the lead is a recipe for disaster!
Of course, the example above is very simple, but it illustrates the point that design must be done from the standpoint of the individual and his or her ability to perform daily activities in the home. This is why a good designer to an assessment of the client and specify the necessary design changes.
There are a couple of tools that a designer can use to assess the needs of their customers. One such tool is the global assessment and process of Aging residents solution (Caspar). CASPAR is designed for healthcare professionals to assess their client's ability to perform routine tasks at home. This is also useful for determining the needs of persons with disabilities.
Anticipating the future needs of individuals can be a bit more complicated, but we can begin to understand the process of aging. We like to think of growing old or not, is inevitable, and functional capabilities of people diminishes over time. A well-designed House will easily adapt to these new requirements and allow people to stay in their homes longer.
Fortunately, "universal design" is beginning to take hold in the design for the modern home. Ron Mace, founder and program director of the Center for Universal Design (NCSU), we give the following definition of UD: "the intent of universal design is to simplify life for everyone by making the products, communications, and the built environment more usable by as many people as possible, with little or no additional cost. universal design benefits people of all ages and abilities. "Because universal design principles are inclusive to persons with disabilities, the application of UD in home design is appropriate and addresses many of the needs of people who want to" age in place ".
Adaptable design is different from the concept of universal design. Where universal design benefits people of all ages and abilities, Adaptive design allows the House to be modified for a specific need. An example of Adaptive design would be designing a two-storey house with "stacked cabinets" (a cupboard on the first floor directly