The Psychic Contractor

My architect Joel and I have a little inside joke.  Almost every time we meet with clients to find out what they need, they use three phrases.  They say, “We want lots of light.”  and “We want clean lines.” and “We want it to feel really open.”

Sound familiar?  Yeah, you aren’t the only one.  We joke that we should act like we are a psychic contractor/architect team and have their three wishes written in some sealed envelopes like Penn and Teller (Joel can be the quiet one).

So, now for the really interesting part.  Do you know what these three things have in common?  (I’ll pause for effect).  That’s right, they are all visual.  

See what I mean?

So why are the three most common requests we get visual?  And what does that really mean?  I think the better we understand, the better we can make the house feel just right.  

Humans are very visual creatures.  Dogs might sniff each other’s butts, but humans make music videos about butts.  We don’t say a “whiff” is worth a thousand words (although my son’s feet seriously cause some words to come to mind for me).  Did Hayley Joel Osment say “I feel dead people” in the movie Sixth Sense?  No.  No he didn’t.    

When it comes to “home”, all of our senses are important in making it feel right, but the eye is especially important in helping give us a sense of place.  It is literally how we locate ourselves in space.  

So why is this important?  

It is important because the visual structure of a house makes us feel a certain way.  The shape of a room can make us feel too big, too small, or just right.  The location of walls can make us feel closed in, exposed, or safe. These types of issues are sometimes overlooked when people plan their home.  They are thinking about which rooms they need, or where furniture will go, but not as much about how the space will make them feel.  

What does the word “open” mean?

The word “open” is a great example.  Many times people will mistake this word to mean “no walls”.  Usually, it turns out to mean “line of sight”.  We want to be able to see what is going on around us–and especially–to see each other.  

Put walls in their place

Walls still have an important role to play.  They help tell us when one room starts and another ends.  They help keep areas private.  But we have just changed what we mean by private.    There has been a huge shift in how we live in the last 75 years (when many of the PV houses were built).  Preparing food was something that happened behind a wall.  The comfortable “family” room was separated from the more formal “living” room.  

We don’t feel the need for that separation any more.  Now some of us are cooking while some are watching the Royals win, while some of us are doing homework.  Yet we like to stay connected.  And that connection is through one sense in particular: sight.  Remember when you were little and you were at the park with mom?  Did she say “stay where I can smell you”.  Nope.  Or “Stay where I can hear you”.  Of course not.  It was “stay where I can see you”.  We want that in our houses.  Keep some walls and transitions to help people know where they are, but protect those lines of sight.  They could make the difference between a space that feels great and one that just works.  

You can also view this column with our partner PVPost.com