Trends:
Floor plans are the heart
of any home. A beautiful home can lose its liveliness
without a working floor plan. Most people dream about
floor plans long before they even go on the market for a
new home. They imagine large open kitchens, extra
bedrooms, and fewer stairs with room arrangements that
reflect their priorities. Every household has a pattern
of life that needs to be accommodated with the perfect
floor plan.
The latest trends in
new-home construction are helping buyers grab hold of
the most ideal floors plans. Floor plans are now
offering more flexibility, adaptability, and plenty of
room to develop. Enticing floor-plan trends are
increasing in popularity. Below are some of the most
desired features for future floor plans.
Areas:
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Living -
-
The living or social
areas provide places for entertaining, recreation
and daily living. The living areas include the
dining room, living room, deck, patio, family room
and entrances
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Sleeping -
-
The sleeping or quiet
areas consist of bedrooms and bathrooms. These
rooms offer a setting for sleeping, grooming,
resting, dressing and relaxing.
-
Service -
-
The service area may
include spaces inside and outside the home. The
kitchen, laundry, utility room and garage are
usually part of the service area. A home office may
be included in the service area. Lighting for the
tasks to be done in these rooms is a very important
safety issue. Usually, the kitchen is used more
than any other room in the service area. The major
activities of the kitchen are food preparation and
storage (with the refrigerator as its center);
cleanup (with the sink as its center); and cooking
and serving (with the stove as its center). These
centers are most efficiently arranged in a
triangle. The most efficient triangle should be no
less than 12 feet and no more than 22 feet around
the perimeter. Some of the most common kitchen
arrangements are the one-wall, two-wall, L-shaped
and U-shaped. Variations of the U-shaped kitchen
include a peninsula layout and an island layout.
The U-shaped kitchen is considered the most
efficient.
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Sight Lines:
- Does
the line stop in that room or does it pass
through several?
- Does
it intersect a featureless wall or will you get
a glimpse of a window and the courtyard beyond?
- What
will you see from the dinning room table?
- What
will you see from the family room sofa?
- What
will you see from your bed?
- What
will you see from the kitchen?
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Traffic Pattern:
Traffic patterns should be designed so that
the people in a house can move about easily from room to room
and from inside to outside. The paths that people follow in
moving about throughout the house are called traffic patterns.
When arranging furniture, consider the activities that will be
going on in a room. Major traffic patterns should not move
through the quiet zones. Activities like watching TV, having
conversations, and studying should not be interrupted. Traffic
patterns through work areas should be designed to avoid
accidents.
-
be convenient and direct
-
provide adequate space without
wasting it
-
provide easy access from the
entrances to other parts of the house
-
separate traffic to the work
areas from traffic to the quiet and social areas
-
avoid cutting through the middle
of rooms
-
avoid interfering with a good
furniture arrangement or interrupting activities within a room
-
avoid interfering with the
privacy in areas of the house where privacy is expected
-
avoid cutting through a kitchen,
work area, or any other hazardous area
-
give the kitchen easy access to
all areas of the home
-
provide a direct access from the
service entrance to a cleanup area
-
provide access from the service
entrance to a quiet area without going through a social area
-
provide direct access from
utility area to the outside service zone
-
allow room for doors to swing
open, drawers to be opened and chairs to be pulled out
Interior Designs
Kitchen:
Work Triangle
Floor Plan Symbols:
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