Synthesis of form and life.
Understanding how people live and what brings joy to their homes is a key to successful space adaptation.
Continuing from where I have left off two weeks ago, wondering about the posted question 'how a smart layout improves the quality of life?' I would like to continue by adding a few further aspects to this topic.
Our home becomes more than mere shelter once we start addressing and imposing our way of living arranging in a way that best suits our needs. It becomes a space we retreat to, a space that we identify with. Our own corner under the stars. Home in this sense becomes the living organism that grows and changes not only from summer to winter, but also as we expand and change our own needs over time and the change that is imposed as a reflection of evolving communities.
It could mean, that getting a baby girl demands adding a wall to create a private corner for the new-born. It could mean that your baby girl later moves away to college and the extra space creates an opportunity to knock out that wall and build a separate walk-in wardrobe you have always longed for. Perhaps, after having participated in a cooking class, you started enjoying hosting Sunday brunches for your friends, and that could mean shifting a few pieces of furniture around to fit in a longer dining table to seat a dozen.
I would say that a mix of designer's knowledge and experience in forming an enduring residential space and her or his strength to listen, understand and visualize an occupants' way of life, is the key in identifying parameters (architectural language) upon which a harmonious home can be realized.
One way of understanding occupants’ living habits is reflecting on what their belongings tell us about them. Be it a pile of pillows on a king-sized bed, a functional tucked away kitchen full of handy gadgets to prepare most demanding and exotic dishes, a great music collection accompanied by an old style record player or various wooden tribal masks carefully collected over many trips to Africa.
In this sense, when your home and your lifestyle need to merge into one harmonious, thoughtfully connected vessel for living, getting an expert's advice would surely pay off.