HOW TO CREATE PLACES WHERE PEOPLE WANT TO LIVE - PART I

Architecture is one of the rare professions that requires us to use both sides of our brain simultaneously. We have to balance our desire for beautiful spaces with the requirement that it meet building code. We struggle with the push and pull of form versus function. And we’re constantly tested to keep up with the latest trends while adhering to traditional building practices. To say it’s a challenge is an understatement.

So, why do so many of us flock to the profession and why is it so romanticized in popular culture?

Because it’s fun. Because it’s ever-changing. But mostly, because it’s important. Architecture is ubiquitous…it’s literally everywhere. It provides us with the spaces where we spend our entire lives. We’re born in architecture, we live in it, it surrounds us at work and it keeps us safe from the elements.

So, we know architecture is a challenge and we also know it’s fun, but how do we, as design experts find the common ground between those two seemingly opposing forces to develop spaces where people want to spend their lives?

DO YOUR RESEARCH

Before we ever put pen to paper, the most important thing to understand is the competitive landscape in which the project will be built. In homebuilding, we need to know who else is in the market, what they’re doing and how they’re articulating it. For a recent project in California, my team was tasked to design a series of five new homes all with a very specific program: all Master Bedrooms on the second floor with large Walk-In-Closets that had a door with direct access to the Laundry Room. That seemed like a typical request, until we visited some other builders in the area. Everyone else had Master Suites on the second floor, but almost all of them located the Laundry on the first floor. This made us ask ‘Why?’ Upon further investigation we learned that most of the competition was from out-of-state and, instead of doing their due-diligence, they simply brought in plans from another part of the country. This led to part two of the process.

Once we had a forty-thousand foot view of who was doing what in the area, we looked at customers’ expectations. It would have been very easy for us to design something that we thought was successful, but without aligning it with what our buyers want/need, the exercise would have been futile.

The nice thing about homebuyers is that they are always willing to tell you what they think. So, we put together a couple focus groups, brought in a couple designers very knowledgeable with California trends and had some very interesting conversations. We asked them about those competitors who designed the Master Suite and Laundry Rooms on different levels and the feedback was almost unanimous: ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’ We also learned that our targeted buyer demographic prioritized the quality of space over size and desired two story volumes at the entry Foyer and Great Room. We also learned that many of our potential buyers were buying a new house because they had aging parents moving in with them. Of course, not all the feedback was consistent, but at least we now had a better understanding of what we needed to do to make these homes desirable to the people we thought were going to buy them.

Typically, one plus one equals two, but not in architecture. Even though we knew what everyone else was doing well (and doing wrong) and what our competitors wanted, we needed one more piece of the puzzle before we started putting pen to paper (yes, some of us still sketch).

Again, thinking about that left/right brain balance, we needed to juxtapose what we wanted to do with what was allowed. We researched local codes and thumbed thru the neighborhood HOA docs to see if there was anything that caused us pause. Most of it was typical accommodations for seismic requirements (this is required across the entire state) and life safety, but something in the HOA docs really caught our eye: every home was provided three trash cans (one for compostable trash, one for recycling and a third for recycling) that could only be seen between certain hours one day a week. We realized we needed to design a very specific place in the home where we could store these that was easily accessible from the Kitchen and adjacent to the front of the Garage.

PUT PEN TO PAPER

Finally, we were ready to switch from research to design. We knew we had three main goals: Developing a strong relationship between the Master Suite and Laundry Room, two-story volumes and a space for those required trash cans. We engaged with the designers who helped with the focus groups and split the work to speed up the process. A couple weeks later, we had a first pass at the five plans and met to develop a strategy to present to the California team.

We all had similarities in our designs. Every home had a two-story Foyer, each had a dedicated space in the garage for the trash cans, but one plan had a very interesting solution to address the location of the Master Suite and Laundry.

At Beazer Homes, we have a program called Choice Plans? that allows customers to personalize certain areas of their home at no additional cost. It’s a great way for buyers to put their own personal touch on a home to match their individual style. Typically, the program focuses on Kitchens and Master Baths (these are spaces that generally sell homes), but this one plan took the concept and flipped it on its head.

What this plan offered was a Choice Plans option that allowed customer to choose the location of their Master Suite: it could either be on the first or second floor with the Laundry Room downstairs. After our initial curiosity wore off, we asked the designer why she designed the home that way. She explained very eloquently that, in the focus groups customers only said they didn’t like that the Laundry and Master Suite weren’t on the same floor, they never said they had to be upstairs.

“But what happens when they choose the Master up option?’ I asked, unaware that she was anticipating my question.

‘That’s the beauty of it.’ she explained. ‘When they choose the Master Up, the space downstairs turns into a private small Guest Suite for those buyers moving in with aging parents.’

‘And?’ some interjected. ‘How does that solve the Master/Laundry problem?’

‘It doesn’t.’ she answered. ‘But what it does, is allow the parents, who are mostly likely retired and at home all day the chance to pitch in with the housework and do laundry.’

I considered my mind blown and I wanted to see if this new idea would have the same impact on our potential buyers. We set up another focus group, presented the idea and were happy to find that the group shared our enthusiasm. Of course, not everyone liked it, but enough showed interest that we decided to move forward with the Master Suite Choice Plans option in one plan.