Altering space: Conversions
Most buildings outlive their original occupants and, barring natural accidents and planning blight, many go on to outlive their original function. There’s nothing new about adapting a structure that began life with another purpose, but in recent times the attractions of living in a converted building have become ever more appreciated, gaining the hip architectural term of “adaptive reuse.”
The reasons are pretty clear. Whether the house you dream of is a turn-of-the-century Victorian, a 1960s split-level, a contemporary suburban builder’s stock-in-trade, or a sprawling pastiche on a cul-de-sac, chances are good that it’s in a neighborhood of houses cut from the same cloth. Chances are also good that the layout running through all these developer-driven houses is remarkably similar. The sheer predictability of knowing that the bathroom will be “first on the right at the top of the stairs” makes many people long for a change. Conversions can offer freedom of layout and room for the unexpected.
Conversions usually offer more space than the average domestic house. At the same time, they generally encourage flexibility in the layout and arrangement of the space and throw in unusual architectural detail for good measure. You may secure many of these advantages by buying or renting a space which has already been converted, and there are now many highly sophisticated makeovers on the market. True enthusiasts prefer to start with the bare bones. The downside is that, while many of the spatial considerations that apply to an ordinary house are the same, there are extra demands, both structurally and organizationally, and the sheer scale of such projects can be daunting.
First, however, you have to find your building. Unconverted light industrial or warehouse buildings are usually handled by commercial real-estate agents; many of these buildings, however, are in urban areas that have become derelict and offer few amenities, like basic grocery stores or dry cleaners. If you are a true pioneer, this won’t stop you, and it’s likely that there are others with the same determination to carve a new residential area to their liking out of the warehouse district.
Depending on the size of the building, the next step may be to find a number of like-minded folks to share the costs of renovating major building-wide mechanical and structural systems. You will need sound advice on financing and contractual matters right from the start.
Even more essential is to secure planning and building permits for both change of use and necessary alterations. If the building you want to live in is in an area designated for manufacturing only, you could be at a dead end unless you can obtain a zoning variance. Buildings are classified according to the functions they fulfill, with “residential” being only one of many categories. City hall’s response to your proposal to set up house in a former piano factory or nursery school will often depend on political issues, such as whether or not the powers that be are trying to encourage new business in the area.
If your scheme includes working premises, such as a photographer’s studio or a restaurant, you may stand a better chance of success. A prudent course of action is to make the sale or lease conditional on securing permission; otherwise you may find yourself the proud owner of a building that you aren’t allowed to live in.
Check with community organizations or others that have dealt with the same problems in the same neighborhood, and seek advice from an architect or engineer on the feasibility of your plans. The requirements for adequate fire protection are likely to be stringent. You may have to deal with any number of municipal agencies and bureaucracies, from a preservation commission to the planning board.
Naturally, it is easier to bypass such hurdles and look for a floor or loft space in a building that is already managed by someone else.
It is often difficult and expensive in these buildings to create heating and hot-water systems that can be individually controlled, but it is certainly worth exploring.
Dividing up space into private and open areas is another exciting challenge. The positioning of existing bathroom fixtures may provide a good starting point.
Some partitioning will be necessary, or you may find that your new home has all the intimacy of a football field.
At the same time, it is essential to acknowledge the scale and to play up to it; let the original character of the building show through by respecting existing features and structural elements.
Rooms for living: Halls and stairways
Entrance halls are important both from a symbolic and purely practical point of view. In a small house, getting rid of the hall to open up and enlarge the living space may seem like a good idea, but stepping straight from the street into the living room is a psychologically uncomfortable experience. It may extend your floor space, but it deprives you of the ceremony of entry, that brief period of transition in which you shake off the outside before you can truly feel at ease in a house. It’s almost as if coming straight in from the elements to the living room is too much of a shock to the system, because you are denied that breathing-space in which to adapt.
Because a hall is just such a breathing space, it is best not to clog it up with clutter. If it is very narrow, even coatracks, when fully loaded, can induce a feeling of claustrophobia. If it is wide enough for furniture but it is still very much a thoroughfare as opposed to a room, it is unlikely to feel comfortable as a space for sitting and relaxing but it may be a very good location for purely decorative pieces of furniture.
As an introduction to other rooms it is probably wise to stick with a simple decorative scheme. Fussy wallpapers and dark paintwork give a gloomy, overbearing first impression. Light, neutral colors are best, particularly as the hallway is often chosen as a gallery space for a collection of pictures.
Floors need to be durable and washable; consider the period and character of your house before deciding on the material. Architectural salvage yards are a good source for authentic flooring, but beware of getting carried away. Mellow 18th-Century Provenal tiles may be beautiful, but they will look totally out of place in a Victorian townhouse. Original encaustic tiles still exist in many Victorian hallways-if there are one or two missing from the pattern, there are companies that have revived the method and can produce replacement tiles to order.
Bear in mind the material and color of floor surfaces in the rooms which lead off the hall so that you can avoid any jarring contrasts. This is one obvious reason why the ever-popular black-and-white tiled floor never fails to look good, as long as you have got the size of tiles in proportion to the floor space.
In a house, the hall is usually dominated by the staircase, and this is often the first thing you and your visitors will see on entering. For most of us-living in standard purpose-built houses-a staircase is simply a place that leads up to one floor or down to another, and a lick of paint is about the most it ever receives in terms of decorative attention. But in modern, architect-designed homes the staircase often takes on a much more active part; accorded the status of something of an icon, its important role in linking different levels is given a sculptural form.
However, staircases that make a dramatic statement- which sweep into a room or suggest themselves as places to sit-are comparatively rare, and the potential to make something of the existing arrangement is limited unless you are having work done to other parts of your home. The average staircase is generally undistinguished rather than downright ugly, so beyond replacing missing banisters, it is likely a simple matter of deciding whether to strip, paint or polish the wood.
As for stair treads, if they are in good condition and are of elegant proportion, it is a shame to hide them under wall-to-wall carpet. Bare treads, nonetheless, are noisy, so a good compromise is a runner. Matting is hard wearing and visually appealing, but avoid materials that are too tough and unyielding-they will be difficult to fit properly and are often scratchy under foot.
Eating: Formal dining
In countries where the family unit is most secure, the notion of family meals eaten together around the table is almost sacred. The question is where should it take place?
Ideally, the setting for a meal should be as joyous as the sharing of it. One reason for the decline of the dining room is probably that it rarely felt comfortable. Rooms which are not used much lose that sense of animation that comes from being lived in-they become dead space.
If you have the space, a dining room can be a real luxury, though it should have some other function, doubling as a study or library, perhaps. Even if it is the place where children do their homework, it will benefit from the animation.
Eating: The open plan
The open-plan kitchen is brilliant for rushed family breakfasts and relaxed suppers but it has one huge drawback-the formal entertaining side. It requires formidable powers of organization and tidiness to present an impressive three-course meal within the same space that you have produced it-particularly if the table doubles as work surface.
In an ideal world, you would not have people come to dinner whom you felt it necessary to impress. But in real life it happens, and even the most relaxed among us feel the need to change tempo and have the kind of refined evening that demands something more exotic than pasta and candles in bottles. There is also the cynical but historically justified view that perhaps the open plan is fashion-motivated, and that we shall all soon revert to more formal lifestyles.
Whatever the reasoning, it is sensible to make your eating spaces flexible. If you are restricted to eating in the kitchen, this will largely be a matter of styling-replacing the cereal-splattered plastic cloth with white linen and dressing the table accordingly.
Lighting is an essential factor in defining spaces and orchestrating mood. In “A Pattern Language,” Christopher Alexander advocates a low-hung light, central to the table, with dark walls around so that the light acts as a focal, gathering point.
In the farmhouse-style kitchen, this has the added advantage of de-emphasizing the work surfaces and drawing the eye to the decorated table. The same effect can be created using modern, low-voltage downlights: position a narrow-beamed spot over the center of the table with wide-beamed spots providing more general illumination. The ultimate, low-tech solution is soft, flattering candlelight.
In a room where there is only space for a large table with chairs drawn up to it, the transition from formal to informal is difficult to make. A room that is elegant by candlelight and perfectly suited for dinner can seem cold and uninviting at breakfast. Even when the kitchen is cramped, people instinctively gravitate there in the morning. In a large room it might be possible to create a more appropriate ambience by setting up a smaller table in an alcove or by a window that catches the morning light.
By using different flooring materials, you can give some sense of demarcation to cooking and dining areas. It can work well, for example, to have the eating area fitted with wooden floorboards while the cooking and preparation space has some kind of tiled or stone floor.
Using the space: The bedroom
In many ways, those bedrooms that operate purely as a room for sleeping do not make sense in an age where space for many people is at such a premium. The bed is the dominant feature of the room and the space around it often tends to be rather awkward and unfocused.
For most of us, in average-sized bedrooms with a double-or king-size bed, the space we negotiate is that around the bed; quite often the fact that there is no easy circulation flow turns out to be what makes a bedroom such an uninviting, dead space during the daytime.
What can you do about it? Some futon mattresses can be rolled up and stowed away and sofabeds have the benefit of versatility, but as a permanent arrangement these alternatives are both time-consuming and demanding. Also, denying the existence of the bed is ultimately counterproductive-you have to work with it. The solution might be as simple as moving the bed to a different position in the room, though you will probably find that your options are fairly limited. Pushing a double bed into a corner may give you a more manageable space, but it makes access for one person difficult, is awkward when you come to change the sheets and limits space for a bedside table-though there are built-in alternatives such as a shelf or small alcove in the wall.
Psychologically, most people seem happier with their bed cater-corner to the door: half concealed behind it, rather than facing it. In the West this is a hazy notion, but in China it is formularized in the ancient science of feng shui, which guides building and interior design, and behind whose often mystic-sounding dictates usually resides much rational common sense. The bed, it is believed, should be positioned so that its occupant can see anyone entering the room; and the headboard should rest against a wall, not float in space, since the bed’s occupant will otherwise feel similarly unanchored in life.
Perhaps the main problem with bedrooms is that we try to cram far too many functions into them so that they fulfill none of them particularly well. These functions-from dressing and toiletry through general storage and maybe even work space-carry with them bulky, often ugly pieces of furniture-wardrobes, dressing tables and the like-that clutter up the traditional bedroom. Where possible, it is best to shift the emphasis of some of these functions to other rooms. Many of us, for example, dress in bedrooms simply from convention; it may make sense to make hanging space elsewhere.
A combined study and bedroom is a practical combination. The space is used day and night, though some believe that it is unhealthy to keep a computer in the bedroom because of electromagnetic radiation. There is also no doubt that electrical office equipment attracts dust, which certainly does not make for the healthiest sleeping atmosphere.
For some, the ideal sleeping space is an elevated platform, accommodating only a bed; this works well in a large open-plan space, but is not a solution for the average house.
