Category: Conversion Design Advice March 18th, 2010 by mbc
I was invited to a talk by Christopher Day in Cardiff so thought I’d take a look at his work to see just what he was about. Can’t say I established that fully, but I did find an very interesting article by Christopher that feeds into the research I’ve been undertaking recently into my sons bedroom. The article, Environment for Children by Christopher Day gives some useful guidence in designing an environment for small children.
I recommend that you read the article for yourself, but my summary follows:
“Childhood is, essentially, the journey of growing up [...] Small children need
protection from the wider world, whereas adults are only fully alive when engaged in it.”
Small children need:
- As “small children live in a world between fantasy and fact” they need somewhere to retreat to, somewhere not too well lit, somewhere that provides a daydream inducing twilight.
- A secret place, a calm, safe, protective place. We all remember our dens behinds settees or under cushions - a place to hide, play or simply retreat to.
- Angles, edges and regularity are for the adult world, small children need spherical, soft edged, womb like places.
- “Infants don’t think. They experience - with their whole bodies and through all their senses.”
- Touch-friendly, tactile materials in their surroundings. Natural materials such as wood, clay and stone have a tactile vibrancy and ‘life’ not found in ‘unwelcoming’ man-made materials such as concrete or plastic.
“Even in unpromising surroundings, we can create environments for children.”
These needs are best provided for in out-of-the-way places in cellars, attics or under utilised parts of the home. Children want secret territories, adult unfriendly environments.
“The reassuring substantiveness and visual softness of curvilinear cob walls, for instance, suit infants, whereas exposed timber posts’, beams’ and struts’ visually explicit logic suit teenagers’ intellectual curiosity.”
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... construction material, requirements for attic space?...
Consider the following: Do you need to replace the roof?
The answer may be a resounding and obvious YES...
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Built in bed on March 12th, 2010
I've been considering what to do with the second bedroom in the barn.
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Step 7 = high level design on February 23rd, 2010
Your design ethos will be the very highest level of your design.
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Logs on October 8th, 2009
I've really enjoyed Roger Deakin's 'Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees', the book takes you on a gentle journey, part biography, part manifesto, part travelogue.
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Tiling - Starter for 10 on August 24th, 2009
From, often painful and time consuming experience, whilst not claiming to any kind of authority, I suggest the following sequence to tiling (others may have...
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Category: Conversion Design Advice February 23rd, 2009 by mbc
As the building progresses so some of the clean lines that I’m so fond of start to emerge. Below are some of my current favourite examples, more can be seen in my Picasa web album - (following a couple of technical hitches flickr seems to have abandoned me for the time being…)
They are to be found in many places and take many forms…
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Of course, not all clean lines are new and ’shiny’ they can also be old and organic.
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From Clean Lines |
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It’s not all old either. This picture shows the high-tech face of clean lines - solar panels and modern ‘heritage’ velux windows set against original welsh slate roof.
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From Clean Lines |
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This picture is a favourite of mine, with its sharp technical (clean) lines tempered by the decorative (but functional) oak beam. I’ve always been proud of the fact that the beams are both decorative and structural (they bear much of the weight of the first floor).
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From Clean Lines |
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Visit my Clean Lines photo album on Picasa>>
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Clean Lines |
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Attention to detail... May 2009 update on May 19th, 2009
You (still) can't beat a good list (see the bottom of this post for the previous ones) - this is the current position:
In Progress
Flooring and...
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Lammas ecovillage update on September 1st, 2009
I wrote about the Lammas ecovillage back at the start of the year.
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VAT for barn convertors - Update March 2009 on March 8th, 2009
It's been a while since a VAT update so I thought I'd review the current position, especially in view of the pre-Christmas credit-crunch fuelled reduction...
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Attention to detail... October 2008 update on October 21st, 2008
You can't beat a good list - this is the current position:
In Progress
Flooring and tiling We've bought slate wall tiles for both bathrooms and will...
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Category: Conversion Design Advice December 24th, 2008 by mbc
What we now consider as high quality, high cost choices for building with, traditional materials such as limestone, sandstone, slate, hard woods, steel, dressed stone and hand-made bricks; were once standard. These materials are what contribute to those elusive but seductive and often valuable features of buildings often referred to as period charm or character.
Any building built before World War Two (and many built after) is likely to contain such materials. These will be from the days before mass transportation and the desire to move dense heavy materials over vast distances to be used at locations where similar materials exist, but cost a little more to extract, process or prepare.
Whilst current building practices necessitate the need for modern materials in a renovation project, it is important to respect an aged structure and the materials from which it was originally constructed. Use modern where necessary, use traditional were possible but only where fusing the two can be done in a harmonious and sympathetic manner.
The glass-half-full approach to this is to take the opportunity to work with materials that just don’t fit into modern buildings - 4 inch thick flags or oak window frames are a waste of time, a waste of money and a poor design decision when placed in a 1980’s house - in a renovation of an old building, in context, they can shine…
I’m sorry, but uPVC and dressed stone just don’t work in harmony for me!
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Air Quality on May 20th, 2007
Air quality is determined by the composition of the volume of air under consideration.
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Category: Conversion Design Advice October 2nd, 2008 by mbc
I’ve given my opinion and explained the pragmatic approach to project management (some might call it a lack of management) that I employ. I’ve also described some of the tools that I use … Google documents & Basecamp … and some of the questions to answer when deciding ‘how to manage your project‘.
Progressing with this [...]
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Category: Conversion Design Advice August 21st, 2008 by mbc
When I started out writing this blog (now over two years ago) I intended to both share my experiences and to provide advice to other people considering following a similar path. The advice has been a bit slow coming, but now as things are progressing I thought I’d start to share. Not so much hard [...]
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