Feb 17, 2014

Are small spaces easy?

Image via http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/tag/small-house/


Usually when you see a big house you imagine a giant budget behind it. Luxury is often associated with big size with imposing bigness.
That you look at it and go "wow this is so big there is so much space here!" But the average living space  has gotten smaller and smaller ever since the baby boom. We live in an era where efficiency is the most priced attribute.

Smart phones get slimmer and lighter in weight, they get more capacity better video and audio quality and we all favor this as the better thing.
We also now understand how much work it is to make something smaller more efficient. Designing a small space that has all the commodities that a person may need has become a race and more important every day.
Houses are particularly tricky since not many other projects have the special program that houses do. If you where to categorize and break down all the activates that you do in your home, you cook you sleep, you have friends over, you watch movies, you shower, I mean, hopefully....

Each of those things have to find a way to interact harmoniously and comfortably, and that is pretty hard to pull off, sounds easy but is not as I illustrated in this blog post related to poorly designed homes affect the life of the people living in it.
Any way so we know designing a house is not that simple, how space will interact with each other, now try imagining cramming all those activities in a smaller than normal space.
There are many tools in architectural design to ease the way into the process of designing small living places, and making them appropriate and comfortable; like diversifying the use of the same place, or gaining area by making multiple levels in a floor plan.
But the truth is, not all tricks work for all picks, and  the only way to know if a new innovative and efficient small plan design works, is by experimenting.
So to answer this post's question; no, smaller spaces are not easier to design, if anything, they present more of a challenge, but depending on who you ask, when done well, small spaces are just the best.

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