What Makes A Designers Can Create Flexible Homes?

By Alfred Tanya


Pretend somebody invented a camera that could take a picture of one's life. In case you took a picture of one's life for 5 years in a row, do you feel the images would alter somewhat? Not at all? A entire lot?

I believe we all know the answer.

Our lives alter quickly and continuously. Young children receiving older. Parents acquiring older. Spouses finding older (notice a theme?) too as job adjustments, losses, promotions, transfers all contribute to a alter within the housing wants.

Sometime about 2000, the property builders began to notice a trend, particularly here in Richmond, of folks finishing the 3rd floor of their house into a playroom or one more bedroom. The walk-up attic space that was filled with junk and boxes not frequently utilised was cleared out and some poor guy (several times the owner) had to drag drywall up 3 flights of stairs. Soon after the a lot of cubic volumes of drywall dust settled, the residence now possessed a brand new playroom (+/- 400 SF) that was accessed by way of the 3rd bedroom closet and operated at a 15 degree distinction than the rest of the home....however it was finished! When the obligatory window unit was installed, it was usable the majority of the year.

Excellent.

Builders began to take note of the trend and modified floor plans to supply walk up attics from the hallway (not the back of the closet) and would specify HVAC units to manage extra finished space (sort of). Quite a few times, the buyer could have drywall placed inside the attic for finishing at a later date. It has nearly develop into regular practice.

In impact, the industry known as for a residence with flexibility to manage the growing wants of the household. The builders answered.

But although we have achieved constructing flexibility into the housing stock, what we have failed to do is develop flexibility into the neighborhoods (using a couple of notable exceptions).

Quite a few suburban new household neighborhoods are basically a collection of lots developed to accommodate similarly developed, sized and priced properties. This really is unfortunate, mainly because although the houses may well provide some type of flexibility (see above), the neighborhoods don't.

1 of the very best examples in Richmond of a neighborhood that permits this really is Wyndham, situated in northwestern Henrico County along the 295 corridor.

Wyndham was a fairly new idea to Richmond in that it was 1 of the very first subdivisions to genuinely supply housing at all cost and style points. From entry level apartments to accurate starter properties to million dollar properties on the lake (and all points in in between), Wyndham could give a loved ones the chance to put down roots in an region, establish a network of buddies for themselves and their kids and have the ability to remain, regardless of how their lives evolved.

Most times, when a household outgrows a household, it calls for a alter in neighborhood or region. The buyers are lucky if they do not need to alter schools, but are nearly assured of altering neighborhoods. Wyndham provided the alternative of moving 3 to 4 times inside Wyndham and by no means getting a lot more than a brief bike ride from exactly where they last lived, generating the trauma of moving nearly non-existent. "Hey family members, we get a brand new and larger home but you get to maintain the similar pals and teachers." Which is a potent message.

I hope that the trend continues. Life adjustments and creating it straightforward to accommodate those adjustments is some thing that the marketplace will generally value.




About the Author:



blogger templates 3 columns | Blogger Templates