Planning a Residential House: Planning Considerations

There are many points to consider in planning a residential house, or basically any structure. Some of these are, zoning laws, height, electrical and mechanical facilities. But in this part, assuming that all we need is a basic plan and design, without other complexities like electrical and mechanical layouts. The author extracted the ones that will greatly affect how we lay things out on our plan. And these are circulation, orientation, light and ventilation and minimum space measurements.

Circulation is very important in planning any kind of structure or institution. By analyzing the actual circulation of users of the structure, we can design a more efficient space, and having a more comfortable and organized traffic.

Orientation dictates how we place the different spaces of the house in concern with the cardinal directions (north, east, south, west). From the direction of the sunrise and sundown, to the wind patterns, orientation plays a major role in influencing how the users would feel in the different parts of the house.

Light and Ventilation is not in this list for no reason. Who doesn't want natural light and air circulating the house. Not only that, natural light and ventilation gives several benefits against its artificial counterpart. It helps save energy, first with lights and secondly with the overall temperature of the structure. This part primarily concerns our placing and positioning of windows and doors. Where should they be, how huge or small, etc. We must always pay attention to this in our every plan.

Superstitions sometimes are obstacles or something that makes planning a bit more complicated and confusing. Like Vitruvius said, "in order to reach the holy ground of architecture, one must have, at least, a dip into all knowledge and arts". And one of these, unfortunately is superstition. This concerns the placing of windows, doors, stairs, complicated numbers and the like. Feng shui is one strong example of this.

Minimum Clearances, if not taken into consideration, will really push the red markers to set sail on your work. Minimum means the least measurement that a space can have. So this seriously adds up to the headache and the research too.

Planning a residential house sounds really easy as this structure is very familiar to us, but it is not. So if you find yourself having headaches experiences, then you're on the right track. It is really confusing, but once you overcome the confusion and finally come up with a GENIUS solution, everything just suddenly feels great and drafting becomes fun.

Courtesy:  ArchiDumdum.com