Houses
I like to create floor plans. Not detailed blueprint things, just different ways to put rooms together. It's a way of playing with the mind.
I like to think about the whys of houses. Why rooms are arranged the way they are. What the relationships between living and working spaces says about the people who design them and the people who live in them. How people use space. By manipulating different elements and thinking about why I arrange them thus, I've learned much about myself and about people in general.
For the past several months I've been toying with this image of a house. Recently I've realized that the reason I've been having problems arranging the rooms within was that I've been looking at the house from the outside.
So I scrapped the outside, deciding to let the interior determine the configuration of the exterior.
Once I went inside the house, I realized I was going to have to do some more thinking about how I wanted to live in this house. I needed to think about:
What was important to me?
What kind of activities would take place in which rooms?
How did I want to use space in the house?
What/where was the center of the house ... the place of living?
What would make this house a home ... a place of welcome and warmth ... a nurturing place that I didn't want to leave and couldn't wait to get back to when I was away from it?
What would make this a place where people would want to gather, just to be together?
I knew what kinds of rooms I wanted. The usual: kitchen, dining, living room, bathroom, bedroom.
And then a little more detail began to accumulate. I have grandchildren coming ... so I need at least one other bedroom.
I want a place to sew. A sewing room.
A laundry room.
I work at a computer. A computer room.
I've always wanted a sitting area in my bedroom. Voila! A master bedroom with its own private bathroom. Noise is a factor ... I prefer quiet cool darkness to sleep in .. no electronics ... a place with soft lighting, moonlight, open windows, moving air. So the master suite should be away from the main living areas.
If I live in an appropriate climate zone, I want a swimming pool outside my bedroom ... I like to swim late at night and in the dawn.
Main living areas: what did I see happening there?
I've learned from experience that I don't like being sequestered away in the kitchen, cooking, while everyone else is in the living room. I also want a window in my kitchen. And some kind of arrangement for informal dining, pick up meals, whatever.
I want linen storage in appropriate rooms ... none of this traipsing around the house to get a towel or pillowcase.
Over the years, I'd developed an irrational dislike of the "great room" concept. I really thought I wanted a big old farmhouse kind of thing with a wraparound porch. Or a chalet type house with a master suite in a loft area.
My new approach to this immediately precluded either of these ideas. I left them behind with no regrets ... having a pool outside my bedroom was too enticing and changed my whole mindset.
I drew circles on paper ... creating different clusters of them ... moving them around. Let's see ... if I put the kitchen here ... the media area here ... how about a wing at right angles to the body of the house? Noooo .... hmmm
Eventually I came up with a basic design involving a long open room that was formed by the kitchen area and living/media area, visually separated by an open dining area. To one side were rooms for sewing, pantry, laundry. The master suite was off to the side somewhere ... still undesigned.
But something was not right. I thought the problem was in the plumbing ... I kept trying to centrally locate the plumbing. I realized I had gone down the wrong road again.
I looked at the rooms again, and imagined people in them. What were the people doing? What was I doing? I mentally moved through a typical day, watching myself. Ouch! This whole house was soooo wrong.
Then I looked at the energy flows ... the geophysical orientation ... the feng shui aspect. Where did the morning sun fall? Where would the moon rise? I decided I wanted sunrise by the pool. That set the house on a east-west axis, with the back of the house facing east. So the living areas were in the southwest and southeast. Business belongs to the north, so an office or study goes into the northwest corner, separated from the northeastern bedroom by a sewing-craft room.
Looking at the energy flow patterns or traffic patterns was helpful. I watched people move through the house, interact. When they turned to talk to someone across the room, what did the space between them look like?
Eventually I became frustrated with these recalcitrant rooms and laid the whole thing aside. I did some sewing, read a couple of books, emailed, worked, started writing a book ... but this house kept beckoning. I picked up my pencil and started doodling again.
One day, I was thinking about my daughter's work environment and a comment that a friend had made about working in an open cubicle with no privacy. I got to thinking about computers and work stations and where to put the computer in the house. My first try was to put it in the great room, along the side wall somewhere. The more I sketched, the less I liked that idea. I don't like the distraction of the T.V. or conversation when I'm at the computer. Whether I'm playing a game, doing email, or writing, I don't like others hovering around. Hell, I don't like having my back exposed like that ... to anything or anyone. I've watched people in office environments, standing outside cubicles, quietly unobserved by the person they are watching, able to read over the person's shoulder as it were. This seems so invasive to me, like listening at keyholes, or window peeping. It doesn't matter what the intent is or what the unobserved person may or may not be doing, it is the act that bothers me. This led to the idea of an enclosed space for the computer, accessible to the great room, but not a part of it. Back to doodling ... how about a projecting wall here, and break it at an angle, thus and so ... hey ... that's pretty cool.
And amazingly, once I'd configured the computer area, the rest of the floorplan flowed into place around it. I now have a wonderful design that includes a surprise private garden in the front nw corner of the lot, a combination pantry/laundry room, a truly magical master suite with a curving glass block wall defining the master bath, and french doors opening on to the pool area. Upstairs in an area built over the kitchen, master suite, office/sewing area, there is an open loft area to serve as a reading/play space for the grandchildren. It shares the upper level with two guest rooms and a full bath.
The design may not be wholly innovative, but it is pleasing to the senses. It affords open areas for entertainment, privacy for the quieter side of life, good energy patterns, comfort, adaptability, grace of living. I love it. Hell, I may even build it one day, just for the fun of it.