Speaking to a new client this week, they advised they would like flexibility in their spaces. I think they want multi-functional spaces. Rooms that are flexible to changing circumstances. Such as, guests or the arrival of children. So how multi-functional can a room actually be.
Broken living versus open living
Once upon a time the idea of multi-functional spaces wasn’t really an interior design consideration. Well not for the rich anyway. For wealthy people, in history, a room had one function.
The kitchen was separate from the dining room. The dining room was separate from the sitting room, what we now use as the living room to watch TV.
A bedroom was just a bedroom, you didn’t have a TV or treadmill in the bedroom. A room for each function is what is known as broken living. The idea of broken living floor plans as opposed to the more familiar open plan living is now mostly redundant.
As modern architects and developers have embraced open plan living for various reasons. Primarily cost but space and density also play a role.
If you’ve ever spent time in an open plan environment, you would have noticed something. That you can’t easily perform all the functions suggested.
For example, you can’t have one person cooking, and watching TV at the same time. The noise of each activity gets in the way.
How many functions is to many functions in any one room.
So while open plan aims to be multi-functional, in my opinion it fails. So how many functions can a space accommodation? I think no more than two functions.
For example, kitchen and dining work and complement each other. But watching TV should be in another room.
Watching TV and doing a hobby such as knitting or crosswords can work. But watching TV and talking to guests doesn’t or working doesn’t.
A home office and guest room can work. But there needs to be another place for the work function to take place comfortably for when guests arrive.
Bedroom and exercise doesn’t work. They’re not complimentary. Bedrooms are for rest and relaxation. But home office and exercise, for example a treadmill could work.
When thinking about multi-functional spaces, consider if the activities are complementary or opposing.
Consider how often each function occurs. Design for the primary functions first. Then, build in the flexibility for secondary functionality.
I understand that spaces need to be multi-functional. But when a space is asked to service too many functions, it fails. We can ask too much of a space. Why it fails is due to the furniture being too heavy and not easy to convert or move around.
Furniture needs to be easily moved or transform to support multiple activities in one room and sometimes this gets tricky. Especially if a spare room is a hobby room and a guest room as well.
If your hobby is placed on the sofa bed, then moving the hobby can get annoying. For one client, I specified a king single for guests in his home office. This choice ensured it would be easily used.
So I think the bottom line is two activities. How multi-functional can a room actually be to be useful depends on whether the functions are complementary. Other key factors include the size of the space, and how easy it is to convert or move the furniture.
