While water flow is certainly a hot issue at the moment, this week I’d like to talk about floorplan flow. This is a topic that can be hard to describe but is very easy to understand and visualise when you walk through a house.

Modern-day living demands open and flexible spaces with plenty of natural light and a good floorplan will help achieve this.  An easy path from the front of the house (or the entry) to the rear of the house, good zone separation, wide hallways, tall ceilings and few, if any, turns, all contribute to good floorplan flow.

There are also plenty of architectural tricks to help achieve good flow: long curved passage walls, clever room zoning, screen walls, variances in ceiling heights and wings of bedrooms on either side of a central hallway are just some examples.

Good house flow is both horizontal and vertical. Internal staircases can contribute to bad flow: for example, a two-storey Victorian row terrace with a multi-level staircase and narrow landing, while quite romantic and charming, is often seen, these days, as awkward and impractical. Multi-turns and narrow hallways can be very dangerous for young children or downright awkward when bringing a lot of people through your house – single filing is never an enjoyable experience.

A good example of bad flow exists with some renovated Art-Deco or Californian Bungalow homes where a central kitchen is incorporated or the main bathroom is located at the end of the house, well away from bedroom areas. Walking through the middle of a kitchen area as an everyday exercise and/or as a necessity is not a great situation, particularly when entertaining guests. Equally, having to traverse the whole house early morning or late at night to use the bathroom before or after bed is never ideal.

Be aware that an open floor plan and wide spaces do need to be balanced with intimacy – no-one ever likes the idea of having an entry door opening right on to living space.  It is possible to go too far and make things too open, which brings its own set of problems, such as acoustic and visual privacy and control of heating and cooling.

Good flow should never cost any more in the scheme of a renovation – it is just common sense.

Design Smart.