Home as the foundation: Building or renovating for your growing family
Good design benefits today’s lifestyle while meeting tomorrow’s needs. We’re for designing intentional, strategic and future-ready spaces for families like yours.
We’re often called to design for young families. Whether a renovation or new build project, there is something about this life stage where there is a desire to build solid roots - committing to a place and a community where the family can grow and thrive together.
Our family clients are often working with their second home - the optimism of living in their first home replaced by a desire by for something more permanent, more cohesive, more thought-through. By now they have lived experience in layouts and settings that don’t really work. They desire something that’s uniquely catered to them - desires, family dynamics, values and way of life. More than that, this is the time to build a base - a home ready to grow along with their family over the coming years.
Does this sound like you? This article is a bit close to home, because we’ve been in a similar place ourselves. Here are some tips we’d love to share to help you on your way.
Is this the right place to commit and build?
Building or renovating is a long process, so often the first item to consider is whether your property is the right place to develop. Within this, there are different questions to consider:
What do you value? If your idea of luxury is big spaces and plenty of it, an architectural build may not be the right choice for you. On “price per square metre” an architectural project is not within earshot of a cookie-cutter template home. This means that architectural responses have to be inherently more intense, more interesting, with more overlap between functions - doing more with less space. We want to be upfront about this - for some, the big space of a template home is exactly what they are after. We are here to look after those who yearn for something more intentional, meaningful and bespoke.
Why do you feel “at home” here? Is it a nice view, a moment in the day; good neighbours, a great area to live in; school catchment, greenery, or something else? We always feel like there’s beauty to every site if you go looking for it, but the architectural response is more interesting when there is something to respond to - a framed view, a tree, a sloping site. More than that, architecture doesn’t sit within a vacuum - good social connections are important, and we always hope to create welcoming homes that foster and enable better relationships within the family, and with your other loved ones.
What are you trying to achieve as you pursue this project? More than just a trophy home or a desire for the unique, we believe the power of architecture is found in the impact of the work. Beyond aesthetics, we see our home projects as an opportunity to shape how families live. In other words, along with the process and the outcome - both of which we hope you’ll enjoy and love - the impact of the project is the real measure of our success.
Is there a sentimental reason to build? We love working for clients who feel an attachment to their home or a place. Some feel strongly about a type of house (memories of playing in the undercroft of Queenslanders, for example), feel attached to an area, or are committed to extending the life of an older home. Storytelling can be part of the architectural response - and we love making something that reflects, and means something to, our clients and their families.
Designing for the future
As the family grows, we want to design-in the capability of the house to evolve with emerging needs. Kids may have stayed close to the parents while they’re young, but as they move into their teens, will these connections still hold? The spaces used to be repositories for toys and knick-knacks - will they become homework spaces, or something else? We want to help families be front-footed about foreseeable future needs by designing homes that evolve to future needs over time. This means pre-planning for:
An Adaptable Space - an interconnected part of the home with a kitchenette that can function as a home-office, granny flat, or teen retreat. For example, our project in Sunnybank has incorporated this in the Ground Floor, where through the configuration of sliding doors the Granny Flat can be sectioned off as its own entity, or linked with a second Bedroom. In Blade House, a central linked Laundry allows half of the house to be locked off for independent living. Deck with a House has a near self-contained space downstairs, which at different times has served as movie room or gathering space, hosted friends in need of temporary accommodation, and housed in-laws moving between homes.
Spaces for Screens and Homework - this is an area that some parents have paid particularly attention to, considering the times we live in with real concerns about online safety. For some families, computer usage is allowed only in a shared Family Study - no screens in the Bedroom! Others request dedicated spaces for tutoring, music teaching or other activities.
Laundry - we’ve had a whole range of Laundry requests over time - starting from Euro-style laundry cupboards, to larger Laundries paired with Pantries, Mud Rooms, or even on the upper floor close to Bedrooms. In Forest Lake, with accessibility a critical requirement the Laundry is part of the walk-in Pantry, with provision for ceiling mounted indoor hanging, paired with moisture-sensing ventilation fan. In an older project in Jindalee, the Laundry was at a critical junction between all Bedrooms to minimise lugging clothes up-and-down the stairs; an upper-floor balcony was included for hanging. TVs, integrated ironing, steam cupboards, dehumidification, and laundry chutes can all be factored in. Others have much more modest requests - including the Laundry in secondary Bathrooms, for example. As a space that impacts the everyday, we feel this is an area that needs to be planned for early, especially with Budget in mind.
Housing parents or in-laws - as cities grow multi-generational living becomes more prominent and mainstream. Whether it is parents visiting from interstate or genuinely needing a space long-term, we believe that multi-generational living needs to be designed carefully so that there is sufficient private space for retreat, but also a compelling experience and joy to gathering. An Adaptable Space is one solution that could possibly function as a Grandsparents’ Retreat for a time, but become something else in the future. In fact, with property values the way they are, it’s quite common for parents to speculate that their kids might need a space as they grow into adulthood. The Adaptable Space leaves them ready for whatever life will bring.
Knowing what’s truly important - We like to think that we’ve walked this path ourselves, and understand the tension between committing funds to a house build, and what sacrifices will need to be made in return: schooling, holidays, the kids’ activities etc. Every house we work on has reflected our clients’ values, and we go through a thorough briefing process to understand what really makes each client tick. Getting these foundations right is critical as they directly inform our design response. For example, Deck with a House is a celebration of subtropical living - a large deck area grounding life amidst nature from beginning to dusk. With this as the “hero space” of the home, more costly internal spaces can be left relatively modest in scale and finish. This is a direct response to a love of nature and a desire to focus funds on the more ‘public’ parts of the home.
Tips for achieving bang-for-buck
At Ever Architects we are used to working with everyday clients. There is no short-cut to it - when resources are somewhat limited, the need for good design becomes even more pressing. This is why Concept stage is so critical to the success of the project - and we commit time and effort to all that we do, regardless of scope or whether the project is mid-range or high-end.
An ideal intervention is well thought through, structurally efficient, and feels great because of connection to nature; refined through hard work, usually solving multiple challenges in a single step. If these elements are present, the expression of the idea becomes less pressurised. In other words - a great idea doesn’t need the expensive finishes and attention-grabbing “bits” to make it work. We work hard for every client to uncover a great Concept so that the expression itself can be simplified.
There’s no way around it: every square metre is thousands of dollars. We take the responsibility of making the best use of resources seriously: it’s our ever-present goal to do more with less. This applies even to high-end projects - if the budget was free and it opens up new possibilities in architectural expression, we want to apply the same mindset of clever, intentional thinking to ensure great bang-for-buck, even at higher price points.
It starts with a coffee and chat.
These are some high-level comments, but what we would love to do is to catch up with you - to meet you in person, hear your ideas, answer your questions, and see if we are best placed to help. Every project starts with a conversation. Get in touch today - we’d love to have a chat.
