The design of a home is more than just how it looks. It should have a function, be functional, provide a space to live, and reflect the desires and dreams of the inhabitants.
Humanitarian design is not the same as “humane” design in that it is not about taking a human life (or death). It is about creating a space that is comfortable, functional, and functional for human beings to live with. I think both design and construction have evolved in the last few decades to the point that the two fields are becoming merged.
One way that I have seen this become more prevalent is in the design of facilities. The idea that a building should be designed to maximize human comfort and minimize the space that is needed for the occupants is becoming more and more common. I think this is especially true now that we have more and more amenities and services in our modern society.
We have had a few instances over the years where we have had to remodel a building to get it up to code. For example, in our office building we recently had to reconfigure our office floor plans to make them suitable for our tenants. The first challenge came when we found out that we needed to move the offices into the basement because the existing office space was not large enough.
As a developer it’s easy to get excited when we hear about a new feature that’s coming to our clients’ projects. But I think we should be more cautious in our expectations. Many of the features that have made our clients happy in the past have been a direct result of the design process. For example, the client of a large corporate client recently discovered an out-of-date water pressure system, so we redesigned the entire building to include a new water system.
In other words, they had to “design” an entire building around a problem that had to be solved. Now, they have a beautiful new water system, but not everything that makes them feel good is just a direct result of the design process. It’s not just designing a new water system, but also redesigning the entire building to make it more conducive to the design process the next time.
I think this is why we don’t see many companies doing things like this. Its not just that they don’t have the resources, it’s that they don’t have the motivation. I mean, if you don’t have the resources to make a new water system, don’t design a new water system. But if you don’t have the motivation, then don’t design anything.
For me, the most important part of designing a new building is designing a new building. The whole reason I designed a new building was to make it more conducive to the design process the next time. I don’t mean to say this is a bad thing. It just means that it has to be designed in such a way that the new owner doesnt have to redo the entire building.
I like to think of this as being like driving a car, and when you design a new car you are designing a new car. A lot of designers think of this as a design process, but it’s not. It’s not like you design something and then get the materials and design the entire car. If you design a new car, you are designing the chassis, the body design, and the suspension.
So the new car you design has to be designed with the same consideration for its occupants. It does not have to be a car that you just throw together and drive off the lot. It has to be a car that you can live with for the life of the car. Think of it as the car in the movie The Fast and the Furious. That is the car you design, that you can live with.