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Nobody Talks About the Hallways
Everyone briefs a house in rooms. We’d like to talk about the bits in between.
By
Sam Whitfield
Ask for a dream home and you’ll get a list of rooms. But how a house feels depends on what happens between them.
So we draw the walk first: where you enter, where the bag lands, how a child gets to the bathroom at night.
In defence of the corridor
Circulation is usually treated as wasted space. Yet a hallway with a window at its end, or a landing wide enough for a chair, costs no more floor area. It just makes moving through the house a pleasure.
Squeeze, then release
A low, narrow entry that opens into a tall, bright room makes the room feel bigger than it is. It works in an apartment as well as a cathedral.
Open isn’t always better
Open plans can leave nowhere to retreat, with every sound and smell travelling everywhere. We think about sequence instead: what you see, and what you discover.
Generous and private
A screened dining nook, a sliding door to the study, a change of level between kitchen and lounge. Openness without losing privacy.
A plan isn’t finished until you can walk it in your head, from front door to bed, without hesitating.
