What do I Know about Designing a House
It is interesting how many people who would dearly love their own home are put off the design process by their perceived lack of knowledge. We could equally say: “what do I know about walking”. Walking is a natural process, It wasn’t learned straight away. As children we tried and stumbled and tried again and stumbled again.
The ability to walk for most of us is an innate ability. As children we develop many abilities by a process of trial and error and of course play and imagination. Our ability to design and make a house for ourselves is innate also. There is nothing children love more than to create their own space ususally fashioned out of a few kitchen chairs with a blanket draped over. Somewhere along the line, we as adults decide that must want a ‘Wendy house’ and we march off to the toy shop and in doing so stifle our children’s natural shelter-making ability.
So what do we know about designing a house? Possibly a lot more than we think! We think we should leave it to the experts but the expert but the experts don’t always get it right. If they did, then everyone would be happy with the houses that they live in, our landscape and streetscapes would be pleasing to the eye, our children could play safely outside and we wouldn’t be concerned about what to do when the world’s oil supplies run dry.
Where do I start? I’d say spend some time observing children. Watch how they create a space for themselves with whatever resources they have to hand. Likewise we must concentrate on creating our space. Imagine our dream home (Be careful here that its not someone else’s ‘dream home), picture yourself living in this house – say in five years time. who is with you? What are you doing? What does it feel like? What does it smell like? Is it bright? Dark? Perhaps a big open living space with lots of friends around or a quieter space, somewhere to unwind, to meditate. A big flower garden perhaps? How will this look from the room that I spend most time? Somewhere to learn the electic guitar or practice the cello.
Write all these ideas down. Don’t make restrictions, be totally creative, let you imagination run riot. Start to sketch or use colours if you are in any ways artistic
There! If you have done this, then you have applied more design criteria than most of the houses you see around.
Like the process of learning to walk, we must set off with ‘baby steps’ before we can run. A next set of steps is to become informed. Talk to people who have designed or built their own houses. Assomeone who has designed and built my own home I can assure you that people are more than happy to share their experiences, even going so far as to blog about it!!
Have a look through the website here, check out our section on ‘green books’ or even have a look through the shelves of the local library or seconhand bookstore for books on self-building. Also check our calander on courses. We have courses here primarily for Ireland but also for a few in the UK, USA and elsewhere. Think about doing an experintial eco-building holiday, where you get to work on a building project
