Designing harmonious homes for the future
17 January 2006
Together, but apart. Space seems to be the key ingredient for harmony in the home according to the findings of Project:LIFE, a major research project undertaken by house builder, David Wilson Homes, in conjunction with the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester. The project also revealed the territorial hierarchy of the bathroom and why some teenagers prefer to do homework on the sofa.
In order to investigate how a family uses different rooms and to explore the effect of house design on people, the Parnell family, chosen from 70 volunteer families, has spent six months ‘test driving’ a research house in Sheffield designed with an unusual four storey layout and equipped with the latest technology. And instead of being subject to intrusive ‘Big Brother’ style cameras, for three two-week periods during the research the parents and two teenage daughters, wore radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to monitor their movements in the house.
David Wilson Homes wanted to evaluate usage of rooms not normally found in a traditional newly built home: a family den; a laundry linked to floors above by a laundry chute; a boot room entrance for muddy dogs, children or gardeners. And with building land becoming scarcer, to accommodate this number of extra rooms, the house was built downwards as well as upwards over four storeys, and included a basement.
In addition, the company wanted to assess whether new technology in the home would actually be used and with what success. Manufacturers volunteered their leading edge equipment and technological and environmental elements were included for the family to assess their value and test them under real life conditions, from self-cleaning windows to automatic shirt ironer to energy-saving ventilation.
The research project benefited from collaboration with the University of Nottingham and University of Leicester to provide not only a statistical analysis but also a behavioural interpretation. Dr Mark Gillott at the University of Nottingham’s Institute of Sustainable Energy Technology provided significant technical advice in the development of the house and his PhD student, Richard Holland, subsequently collected and analysed the data to form the basis of the findings. These were then enhanced by Dr James Fitchett, a psychologist from the University of Leicester, who drew valuable conclusions as to how the house layout defined the family’s behaviour.
Commenting on the project, David Wilson Homes’ development director, James Wilson, said: “Volume house builders tend to be conservative. There were many aspects of house design which we wanted to trial one day but which we would not have risked in the commercial marketplace, acknowledging that some elements might not be successful. We called it our “one-day” house. In Project:LIFE our objective has been to update, in the most real life way possible, our understanding of how house design impacts upon people’s lives.
“This research is unique and, unlike other House of the Future projects, it has not been intrusive. It has benefited from the six month period which allowed the family to experience the house over two seasons and settle back to their normal living pattern, but within the research house environment. The statistical tagging data combined with the behavioural findings has provided us with a valuable insight into the usage of the Project:LIFE house. We recognize that this is a sample of only one family but this project will form the basis of further research by the University of Nottingham and we await with interest the forthcoming reports on the energy and environmental findings and the household waste study.”
The findings from Project:LIFE have been immensely valuable and are already benefiting David Wilson Homes’ designs which will roll out this year and elements of the research house will be found even in much smaller homes.
What worked well?
The Parnell family has loved living in the house, even more than expected, and shortly before they moved back to their own home, Sue Parnell announced that she didn’t want to leave and had decided to become a squatter – in the en-suite with sunken bath, her favourite room. Her other favourite was the laundry whilst her husband, Nick Parnell was a fan of the den in the basement, closely followed by the hot tub on the sun balcony.
Design success
Nicknamed the Tardis, the house is much larger than it appears from the road and visitors are immediately struck by an overwhelming sense of space and light. Its four storey design, using a split-level construction, allowed unusual floor layouts and features. The open-plan ground floor layout, the dramatic high ceiling lounge and the light flooding into the rear of the house, hall and stairs through extensive glazing, all contributed to the spacious feeling. And the windows are self-cleaning too.
An important hub for the family was the kitchen living room, where they met for meals before dispersing to their own private spaces. It was fitted with the latest equipment and the family quickly got the hang of the technology.
The more unusual features that tested successfully included the boot room entrance; the basement den and the laundry, linked to floors above via a laundry chute. There was no dog to test the theory of the boot room, but Nick Parnell’s daily commute by cycle into the centre of Sheffield demonstrated its value. “It was great - I entered the house through the boot room, dropped my wet outer clothes onto the tiles and, with the underfloor heating, by morning they would be dry.”
The laundry was used mainly by Sue Parnell and it was her second favourite room in the house: “I know it’s sad, but I loved the space to sort the clothes before and after washing and the laundry chute meant the girls’ rooms were tidier – well relatively.”
The secluded den in the basement had its own plasma screen and was home to the family computer, Nick Parnell’s guitars and 14 year-old Hazel’s drum kit. It had been thought that father and daughter would get together there to compose music, but apart from parties, this room was generally used by one person at a time – father watching late night TV and Hazel MSN chatting with friends.
A major talking point was the glass floor on the landing, which dramatically allowed light to cascade through all three upper floors down into the entrance hall below. Equally impressive were the remote control windows for passive ventilation which automatically close when it rains.
Equally appreciated were the many balconies and terraces bringing the garden into the home and the home into the garden and the balcony outside the kitchen was popular for summer meals and a favourite quiet space for Sue Parnell.
Equipment success
The family and dog owning visitors were enthusiastic about the effective underfloor heating, made even more cost-efficient by linking with an external heat exchanger. Mood lighting to change the look of rooms was popular, as was the multi-room sound and TV system. “I just loved Saturday mornings wandering from room to room with Jonathan Ross,” said Nick Parnell.
A gadget fan, Nick Parnell was initially fazed by the array of remote controls: “Normally you acquire one new gismo at a time, and it was a bit daunting to be faced with so much technology in one go – but we soon mastered it,” he said.
For ICT teacher, Sue Parnell, her favourite room was her en-suite bathroom with a television set into the wall at the foot of the sunken bath. Her tag revealed a high usage and she confesses to using it at all times of the day. “I wanted to take the sunken bath with me when we left,” she said. “I loved the luxury of unwinding in the bath after school, watching the TV, and if anyone rang the doorbell I could switch to CCTV to check whether I should get out of the bath to answer it.”
On the IT front, the house benefited from wireless connection, which sometimes led to discovering the lap-top tucked under Hazel’s bed. In the kitchen the drop-down TV and computer screen fitted to a cupboard door was especially useful for easy internet browsing, watching the news and checking the CCTV for unexpected visitors whilst cooking.
In the laundry, in contrast with the low tech laundry chute down which clothes were dropped from the floors above, the automatic shirt ironer became a star, particularly with Nick Parnell. His morning routine was to slip a clean shirt onto this inflatable mannequin, head back upstairs for a shower then return to his freshly ironed shirt. “I never thought I would use it,” said Nick Parnell. “But it is terrific – I just wish I had room for one in our own home.”
For Sue Parnell the portable air filters brought relief to her rhinitis and she noticed the difference on returning home: “I sneeze much more compared with when we were in the Project:LIFE house.”
The spa steam shower, with built-in massage jets and radio, was popular with most members of the family and was the prime reason for Hazel claiming the family bathroom as her territory. Surprisingly, the hot tub was not used much by the daughters but Nick Parnell was enthusiastic: “I would use it a couple of times a week in the good weather and although you can use it when it’s cold, it’s less appealing when it’s wet and windy in Yorkshire!”
What worked less well
As anticipated, some things worked less well. The single bedroom on the first floor, fitted as a study with a drop-down bed in a wardrobe, was hardly used. The electronics for the multi-room sound system were located here and were too noisy for bedroom use. As a study, the family found the room was too remote and this was revealed as a major issue by the behavioural research.
It was predicted that the option room might not be used as a dining room, as the Parnells like a more informal approach to family meals and entertaining and this was indeed the case. It became 17 year-old Lucy’s base for GCSE revision, and was preferred instead of her own study bedroom as the room was within earshot of the rest of the family.
Unexpectedly, the door between the walk-in wardrobe in the master bedroom and the family bathroom was hardly used and the space would have been better devoted to storage.
Behavioural Findings
Living together but apart
Initially the researchers were concerned that the family structure had been fragmented by the sheer size of the house. It appeared that many living rooms were being used by only one person at a time. The reality was somewhat different as the open-plan design of the ground floor allows people in separate rooms to be within talking distance of each other. “We call it ‘living together but apart’,” said James Wilson.
Only in the den in the basement, a floor away from the main living floor, would the lone occupant find a truly secluded space.
How the family used space when they were alone is interesting. A member of the family would choose to be in either a ‘secluded’ or ‘in-touch’ space, depending on why they wanted to be alone – for leisure or work. For example, the secluded den was regularly used alone for leisure not only by Nick Parnell to watch late night TV but also by Hazel for MSN chatting with friends or playing music.
Conversely, when there was the need to buckle down to work such as school homework or marking of school work, everyone eventually ignored the den, the study, the option room, even a study bedroom, and ended up either working on the sofa in the lounge or on the dining table in the kitchen living room. In both instances they were able to keep tabs on what the rest of the family was up to, presumably making the job in hand more palatable.
Bathroom hierarchy
Researchers identified a distinct hierarchy of territory when it came to bathroom usage, based on privacy and luxury. Sue Parnell regarded the sunken bath as her special sanctuary and each member of the family took ownership of a specific bathroom; it became their space.
It was the luxuries, such as the sunken bath with built-in television or the spa steam shower, which attracted users to a particular bathroom even when it was not especially convenient to access. Each morning daughter Hazel would descend three half flights to claim the family bathroom with its steam spa shower, ignoring a conventional bathroom en route and although her father would normally use the master bedroom en-suite, he would also use ‘Hazel’s’ bathroom for its special shower, despite inconvenient access.
Family dynamics
The family found that there was a wide choice of places to be apart and the space has undoubtedly provided a calming backdrop to family life. Indeed, the parents remarked that there was less bickering between the teenage girls because they had their own space.
What next?
Whilst recognizing that this research is a sample of one family, nonetheless there have been valuable learnings for all the research parties. Already David Wilson Homes is starting to incorporate successful elements from Project:LIFE into their design philosophy and these are influencing designs which will emerge soon across the country.
The Project:LIFE house has even more to reveal in terms of environmental performance and household waste management and these findings will be published early in 2006. In addition, the University of Nottingham will undertake further research, based on its original findings, with a survey across a wider audience, details of which will be made availabe on www.projectlife.info.
The house will go on sale during 2006 through Sheffield agents, Saxton Mee.
