Matching your house to your lifestyle begins with an exploration of your needs and wants. Most home designers will have some type of "discovery process" that will help identify the basics for your home design. It will start with the configuration of your lot and proceed through items such as privacy requirements, work areas, outdoor spaces, etc. Although this process is critical to your project, it rarely drills down enough to transform your design into a home that will serve your needs for a lifetime.
Here are two keys of good home design that must be addressed up-front: a) assessing the homeowner's current needs; and, b) anticipating the future needs of people living in the home. Before you say "Yeah, yeah...I've heard this all before!" let's take a closer look at what "current needs" entail.
Almost all "discovery processes" used by home designers focus on the use and space requirements of the rooms in the house. This is good, but too little attention is given to the personal needs of the people actually living in the home. Without performing a comprehensive assessment of the client's functional abilities, identifying areas of the home where modifications are necessary is often overlooked.
