HOW TO MAKE A NEW HOME YOURS
How do you create a space that calms and revives you from scratch? We spend more time than ever in our home and require it to be comfortable and stylish. So as you begin your journey, I thought I'd offer some prompts to help you discover what that means to you, your place.
HOW TO MAKE A NEW HOME YOURS
How do you create a space that calms and revives you from scratch? We spend more time than ever in our home and require it to be comfortable and stylish. So as you begin your journey, I thought I'd offer some prompts to help you discover what that means to you, your place.
PART 1: Reflections and Visions
When starting your new home journey, it is important to be able to capture and communicate your ideas, wants and wishes for the house. It doesn't have to be comprehensive, just enough to create a high-level vision of what your home could be. Below are some things to simply ponder or jot down some answers for when you are ready. Beginning your design journey starts with a vision.
PART 2: Concepts and Imagery:
Pictures help a lot when communicating a sense of space, a feeling or style. What helps most is having your top ten. So just copy and collect what feels right, don't worry about connecting the dots. While they may seem unrelated to you, to the trained eye, they often have connections in colour, material, spatial arrangement, lighting etc. Just do it.
PART 3: Creating your sanctuary
The concept of your home as a refuge, the place you can just be, is an essential component of designing your new home. Studies in the neuroscience of architecture have shown how space can positively and negatively influence your mood. So as you move through your day, think about:
What works well in your home? These can sometimes be hard to spot because they have become automatic.
What doesn't work well?
How do you use your house each day?
What rhythms does a typical day have?
What's important to you in a home? What's not.
Is this a forever house, or just for a season in life?
How adaptable does it need to be over time?
PART 4: Connection with your world
Architects love to talk about a sense of 'place'. This is because it brings immediate meaning to our work. So we like to know:
What is it about the property that you love?
What's located around you and nearby that makes this place unique?
How do you imagine interacting with it?
How do you enjoy light or the sun? Wind or breezes? How will we create this in your new home?
When do you not enjoy these things and prefer to block them out?
PART 5: Connection to your people
It is rare to design a home for one. Even the most introverted amongst us realise that other people will occasionally have to visit our cave.
Who may visit you? Will it be brief or semi-permanent?
Who will live with you, and how will you interact?
Do you have furry friends, feathered ones?
PART 6: Having a positive impact
A home can easily be self-sufficient, zero waste, and productive, providing shelter, producing food and generating energy; this is my passion. It can also be beautiful, timeless and robust, perfectly adapted to its environment, though sometimes it cannot be all of these things. Let us not fixate on perfection and instead just on moving forward.
Rethink how a space can serve more than one function.
What could the building give back to its environment? Think birds, frogs, habitats...
Reduce energy consumption and disposable waste
Reuse waste through compost and gas, and invest in durable products that can be fixed
Recycle locally.
PART 7: Making it personal
What unique things or little quirks would you like in your home? Cool tech, clever minimalism, a nook for your hobby or a door for your furry best friend. Are you naturally ordered, or do you need a place just to dump stuff? Have fun with it.
I hope this is helpful, and if you have any queries, don't hesitate to reach out.
Alexander
