When deciding how much space will be roofed over:
1. Arrive at the number of rooms you want. The six types of space were discussed in the previous chapter. Figure out your ideal number of rooms: what they are, their sizes, and then, just to be safe, also determine the minimum number of rooms you can get along with (keeping in mind you can add more at a later date). Read more...
Your ideal house, a dwelling that’s both handsome and practical, is much more than simply a collection of great rooms. Certainly, a well-designed house that offers plenty of living security, enjoyment, and pride of ownership should feature memorable individual rooms. But that’s not enough.Read more...
The general aims at this stage are as follows:
- Translation of sketch ideas into viable forms of construction.
- Selection of appropriate and economical forms of construction and materials.
- Preparation of essential detailed information needed for costing, measurement and construction.
- To control the development of detailed design work in accordance with agreed initial budgets and cost planning.
- To maintain communication between all the members of the design team co-ordinating detailed design development work.
- Incorporation of all mandatory statutory requirements.
- Work towards maintaining the design development programme.
The significance of cost to the designer has been considered in terms of economy of design. The estimated cost of the scheme should broadly be in line with client’s available budget, and wherever possible, proposals should avoid or eliminate features which are unnecessarily wasteful. At the construction information stage the design team are engaged in producing information to enable contractors to tender for the work, or are part of the contracting team organising themselves to start building. The framework of the building is set, and it may be too late to fundamentally change the design to achieve better economy, but the selection of materials, components, assemblies and finishes is still open to examination and determination, influenced by practicalities, appearance and cost.Read more...
Simply put, a house’s living and recreation rooms should contain enough space to satisfy the needs of its occupants. It means enough space for general and specific leisure activities such as entertaining friends, watching television, listening to music, practicing musical instruments, gaming, reading, studying, writing, bookkeeping, children’s play, and plain old relaxing . . . all in comfort, and, if need be, privacy.
Living and recreation rooms must also be adequate in size to hold sufficient furniture for comfortable seating. At the same time they should be large enough to permit the rearrangement of major pieces of furniture into a variety of positions while still maintaining good traffic circulation within the room.Read more...