era | How to Design
How do you design architecture to be specific to you?
How do you design a home that works for you?
Geez, these are big questions! And they are important questions, because you will be spending a lot of time in your architecture or in your home. You want it to suit how you live, or how you wish to live.
But don’t worry.
Although the process may seem daunting, the steps to get you there are small, and you can achieve all of them.
The most important thing to remember as you embark on this journey is to block out all of the noise and listen to yourself. You have more knowledge than you know about how to design architecture that will be unique and work specifically for you.
Let’s get started!
There are so many ways to design!! Everyone has their own way.
You will find yours too, especially if you do this more than once!
I will be writing in more detail about how to put a design together in a later post, but this is the big picture.
These are the top things I have found work for me when designing any architecture.
A note about design.
Before we get into things, you may be surprised to know that the smallest part of designing is the design itself. As with so many little things in life, it is all in the preparation. If you skip the early steps, not only will you struggle to design, you will also not be designing to suit what the design is for.
01 Gather Information.
You can’t begin to design until you have all of the information.
Having all of the information specific to you, your place, your purpose, your program and your parts means that you can put together a design that will work specifically for you.
You really can not make up a design that will work for you without this information. In fact, it will be harder for you to design anything and follow it through to make decisions throughout the entire process, without having gathered all of this information.
Clarify your purpose, learn about your place, find out about who you are and what you want, establish your program for your time frame and budget as well as gather your parts.
02 Put the Information Together.
Look for patterns to find your unique architectural language.
Bring out all of the information you have gathered into one place.
When you take a look at all of the information you have gathered you will begin to see commonalities and patterns, that when combined speak your own unique architectural language. The individual words that communicate that language are design elements that create a dialogue of architecture specific to you.
Now you have a list to work with - a language of architecture that you can design with!
03 Existing Things First.
Don’t miss anything! Every little thing matters.
It is hard to explain how important it is to gather as much information about all of the little things that are existing about your place and you before you start designing.
The information that you collect about what is existing informs your architecture in so many ways, but also reduces the risk that you will uncover something unknown later down the track. If you know about it up front, you can address it early, rather than finding it when you stick a spade in it later on, or suddenly realise that you haven’t included that critical space you needed for your dragon boat.
So, before you start designing anything new, learn about all the little things that are existing, then put all of those existing things in their locations first.
You need to know what is existing and where it is existing before you can design to modify it, connect to it, avoid it, include it …
04 Think Big Picture.
Don’t be seduced into looking too closely too quickly!
When you start to put your design elements together and design your architecture, look at the big picture first.
Imagine you are in an aeroplane looking down at your place and take a look at the things around your place - how you arrive, how you move across your place, where all of the existing things are located.
Then put a parachute on, jump out of the place and zoom in.
Look more closely at your place, in more detail - where the best spots are to sit at certain times of day, where you would set up a campfire, how you would move from where you have arrived to where you put your shopping away.
Then land on the ground.
Start to walk through your spaces in more detail - where you hang your hat as you arrive, how you store your coat, where you stand to cook and what you reach for as you are preparing your dinner.
If you zoom in too soon, you will notice that you are struggling to work things out. The location for certain design elements won’t be falling into place for you. Don’t get flustered and start looking online for a solution for the best way to lay out a kitchen. Instead, zoom back out and look at your big picture again.
Although it may be hard for you to believe now, looking at your big picture will help you design the smallest part of your architecture.
05 See Yourself Objectively. Or try to!
it is hard to be objective about yourself.
Start by forgetting everything you think you know about yourself and how you live.
Try to see yourself objectively.
Consider that the way you live now and the SPACES you are living in ARE not necessarily right for you.
There are a lot of places where you see examples of what you think you should have or how you may think you should live your life. The number of bedrooms in a house or how your kitchen should look.
Turn off your brain to what you think you should have so that you can see what really works best for you.
Then, talk to other people. Sit down with a close friend and talk about yourself, your life as it is now and what you would like it to be. Ask them what they think would suit you.
This is a fantastic way to learn about you and your people, and therefore to learn how best you and your people will live within architecture specific to you.
06 Don’t Forget Your Keys!
Don’t forget your furniture! Where will you put each piece?
This not only helps to make sure that you can lay out everything to ensure it fits, and that you can move around it, but it will also help you to lay out your power outlets, lighting, and similar.
But it is not just the big pieces, it is all of the little things that you will do each day that you need to consider.
Where will you hang your keys as you walk through the door, where will you put your loose change or store your tooth brush?
Do a walk through your design in your mind and imagine how you will use each space.
07 Do what is right for you.
This is THE MOST important step.
And I know that I mentioned it initially, but it is so important that I am mentioning it again.
There is so much noise in the world about how you should design. So many ways that you’should’ do this or that.
Follow your gut.
The layout for your kitchen is a classic example. You know how you like to cook, or not cook, how you like to make your coffee in the morning - you know what works for you when you are in a kitchen. Don’t let outside influences tell you that what you already know is not right.
Do what is right for you! That is all.
‘You don’t spell it .. you feel it’
- winnie the pooh, AA Milne
For you to Save
Your Place.
I have set up a special place where you can find little things and little ways to help you design + build your place.
I will add things to this place as time goes by and I would love to hear if there is anything that will help you! Connect with me and let me know what would be useful for you to see there.
Til next time!
Start the process to find your architectural language and make your little ideas a reality.
Click here to see the little things I have made for you, or click here if you would like to work with me one on one.