Architectural Patterns: Defined Space

When spaces are poorly defined, people don’t spend time in them. Define them, and their occupants flourish. What makes a space well defined? Thinking about possible reasons, I identified the following three features:

• Separate spaces with different functions
• Join spaces with common functions
• Build the room only if it achieves its intended purpose

Separate spaces with different functions

If two spaces flow into each other with separate purposes, such as a living room flowing into a family room, then one usually subsumes the other. A new home in Menlo Park’s Willows had the following floor plan:

Join spaces with common functions

When spaces that are commonly used in conjunction, such as a living room and dining room for formal entertaining, are divorced from one another, then the flow is interrupted. Or said another way, the casual thought of moving from the dining to the living space is less natural.

Instead, join these spaces. When these spaces are put together, the “entertaining space” is both defined and protected. Or consider the great room. The most common great room joins an open kitchen and casual eating space with the family room. People love intimate socializing and watching TV (sports, film, favorite shows) with food. Also, imagine a family at work: one child watching TV, one child doing homework at the kitchen table, and the parents(s) making a meal. All three activities, albeit separate, are joined by a common purpose: being together.

Build the room only if it achieves its intended purpose

This concept is less defined that the previous ones. Ultimately it stems from rooms that feel designed as if they were an afterthought. Or the room was designed without thought of its actual occupants.

Again, I refer to the living room. My thought on the living room is simple: its used for entertaining guests. I find conversations between guests ebb and flow between smaller conversations, one on one or one to few, and group conversations where all are involved. In order to accommodate this, the room must provide enough space for multiple seating arrangements. Imagine a central, primary seating area (with two couches facing each other) surrounded by groups of one or more smaller areas (two or three chairs). The problem I see, within most new construction, is small living rooms. If you’re going to build it small, don’t build it at all. Why? The room accommodates three couples or less. If the group is that small, then its likely casual, and casual groups instead choose the intimacy of the family room.

Well-Defined Space: Physical space (actual shape) must be congruent with social space (how people actually use and spend time in a room).

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