Free Lessons in Remodelling Floor Plans
Home Buyers Learning the Tools and Language of Design
May 29, 2009
John Brown, architect and professor of design, is the founder of the Slow Home Design School. His work has been inspired by the slow food movement, which encourages people to progress from being passive consumers of fast food to active producers of nutritious, locally produced meals.
Participants in Brown’s design school can log on to the Slow Home site five days a week for Brown’s latest lesson in house design. It’s free of charge. Homeowners can even send him their house plans, and have the expert review what works and what doesn’t in the existing plan.
Brown’s inspiration comes from Julia Child. In the 1960’s, Child and her husband pioneered the televised delivery of lessons in French cuisine to a mass audience.
Child’s genius was in using the medium of TV to translate the mysteries of French cooking into a language the average North American could understand. She empowered a generation of people to step beyond the way their mothers cooked (tinned soup and instant macaroni dinner) to embrace delicious home-cooked food.
Brown’s goal is to introduce his audience to the language of design. Because this language has been traditionally restricted to design professionals, most people are unfamiliar with the lingo. The Slow Home Design School is changing this scenario, educating a new generation of homeowners.
Slow Home Philosophy
Brown is determined to encourage people to develop a new relationship with their homes. Rather than purchasing the latest in suburban palaces, Brown believes people can learn to live in and enjoy smaller, better-designed homes that are more sustainable.
Brown holds weekly design classes online as well as drop-in classes at his studio shop, housebrand. It’s all free, a public service on Brown’s part to encourage better design of homes and suburbs.
Each Slow Home Design School lesson begins with the investigation of a cookie cutter residential plan produced by a developer. The plan is dissected to understand what’s wrong with it. Using a webcam, Brown addresses his audience online, engaging participants in discussion and debate about why a particular floor plan doesn’t work and how to fix it.
This is an interactive process facilitated by Brown’s application of software from Microsoft that runs on a tablet PC. As Brown makes changes to the plan online, participants can follow along. In the following lessons for the week, participants watch avidly as the plan in question is adapted to meet the needs of the home owner who submitted the plan.
Participants in Brown’s weekend classes at his studio are quick to ask questions and make design changes. They are learning the language of design as they do so.
Revolution in Teaching Design
The radical idea underlying Brown’s efforts is his conviction that homeowners are quite capable of understanding and applying the principles of good design. Slow Home’s mission is motivated by the belief that a house is a home, not a consumable. And if a home is more than a material acquisition, making it comfortable to suit the occupants’ lifestyle is paramount.
Pointing to the example of the home of Charles and Ray Eames, at a mere 1500 square feet, Brown reminds homeowners that smaller floor layouts, with good flow between spaces and ample natural light, can replace badly-designed piles.
A slow home does not need to be sized like a palace, nor does it need to be bigger than the neighbors. Good design renders bigness obsolete.
 |
 |
