Six ways to build homeliness into your design

It was a three-bedroom Victorian terrace on a busy main road and it had been empty for two years.

Faded wallpaper from generations past hung from the walls. The scullery floor was brick, apparently laid on bare earth, and half the power sockets appeared to have been wired to the lighting circuits.

Describing it as a wreck would have been an act of mercy. But to my wife and I, it immediately shrieked ‘home!’ I’d lay odds that a remarkable number of homeowners’ best-loved houses have produced a similar reaction on first viewing. Which is fine if you’re looking for a renovation or a conversion. But what about a home you’re designing from scratch? How can you be sure it will feel like the right home for you when it’s finished? What are those elements that ensure homeliness?

This was the question posed by The Science of a Happy Home, a recent report commissioned by online architectural practice Resi. “We need,” it argues, “to shift from evaluating our homes as property (by number of rooms and size) to personal environments (how they perform for well-being).”

The report was based on a survey of 4,000 UK residents and 16 interviews with home improvers. From the results six key qualities of a happy home were identified.

It should be secure – a place where you can live for as long as you want; relaxed – somewhere to feel calm, comfortable and at ease. It should be adaptable – easy to reconfigure to meet changing needs, and connected – a place where it’s easy to socialise with both fellow residents and visitors, and to interact with the outside world, via a garden or balcony. A home should also mirror the occupants’ personalities, and be nourishing, ie adequately heated, well ventilated with pleasing views.

The report recommends 16 ways to incorporate these qualities into a home, many of them aspects of interior rather structural design. But the structural recommendations have echoes of an earlier attempt to define homeliness.

In the late 1970s a group of California-based architects published A Pattern Language, a book identifying over 250 aspects of buildings and spaces that instinctively felt ‘right’. Rather than using surveys, they studied successful vernacular architecture, buildings, including homes, built by the people who used them.

Here, then, are six suggestions, culled from both sources, for designing a homely house.

1.  Open-plan living provides the most adaptable layout and is especially favoured by families with young children. But build in the ability to divide up the space, allowing for different activities to occur simultaneously, or for later changes of general use. Site windows on two walls so light won’t be blocked by dividing screens, shelving units, folding doors or later partitions. Raised or sunken areas can have a similar effect.

2.  Create an ‘intimacy gradient’, starting with a public area for visitors, such as a good-sized lobby, then, as you go further inside, gradually more private areas – living room, kitchen and finally bedrooms. This gives a sense of entering a refuge and allows visitors to adjust to what may be an unfamiliar space.

3.  Set the central family area just off the main route through the house, so it’s not disrupted by passers-by, but they can look in to check up quickly on other household members.

4.  Make room for nooks in unused walls, corners or below staircases for work or quiet relaxation. In the central living area, these allow spaces for individuals to carry out their own activities while still together with others. Built-in window seats, especially with a good view, are particularly appealing.

5.  Try to give every room windows on two sides to avoid glare or contrasting shadows, which make faces harder to see, or read. If that’s impossible, make the windows as tall as practicable, ideally with splayed reveals to spread the light.

6.  Both A Pattern Language and Resi recommend maximising internal daylight with skylights, light wells and sun pipes where windows aren’t possible. But Resi found that homeowners’ satisfaction depends less on sunlight levels than the outside views. Think, then, about adding greenery to an overlooked yard, side space or balcony. Or add interest to a garden view by creating a partly enclosed relaxation area just outside the house which both frames the view and provides a point from which to enjoy it. A large, blank space, argues A Pattern Language, tends to make people uncomfortable and they will instinctively look for a sheltered spot in which to sit.

March 2020