All About the Small Things
After this week's discussion, something that stood out to me was the idea of furniture in a space. I have always been interested in the smaller details of designs, specifically the furniture or decorations in a room. Many times, it feels like we only give users one way to arrange a space nicely, and when furniture is laid out another way, it either causes poor circulation or creates a weird flow overall. I think that as architects, it’s our job to make spaces flexible and multifunctional to avoid these things in someone’s space. What may be ideal for one person, isn’t for the next and it’s crazy to think that a space can only be functional if laid out in a very specific way. How someone arranges their furniture and decor in a space tells me so much about that person so when we don’t allow the users to have that freedom it really is limiting and doesn’t spark creativity in those spaces.
I just found out recently that in Germany, when you move into an apartment you bring everything with you, including cabinets and appliances. The space essentially starts out as a completely empty box to allow people to choose which room is which in this space as well as how they want their kitchen arranged to be unique to them. I love that concept and definitely think we need to see that type of design in the US more. I see so many houses here that have the exact same floor plan and when I go inside, everything is arranged the same because we don’t have the opportunity to express ourselves like we want in those spaces. Architects often just think about getting things done as quickly as possible and then moving on to the next thing but forget the users.
I had no idea that this was the case in Germany. I feel as though the best architecture is one that allows for flexibility throughout a space in terms of furniture and flow. It would be an interesting concept to introduce to America. However, I feel like it would fall short here... Americans are people of convenience and people who like to have those decisions already made for them, at least most of them.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the half houses from the Alejandro Aravena Ted Talk. The idea that architects can deliberately design with wiggle room for the user to express themselves into it. There's another great allegory for this in Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language which is a section talking about the use of thicker than average walls in a home so that they can be carved into overtime. Common gypsum walls are shallow and impersonal, while deep walls can be used to create shelves, seats and reveals, custom created overtime by different users. I've included a link to the excerpt for those interested: https://www.iwritewordsgood.com/apl/patterns/apl197.htm
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