Sprawling, bright living spaces have become a modern trend with the
number of kitchen-diners rising by almost 50 per cent in the past decade.
One in three homes now features a kitchen-diner, and one in five Brits plans to blend their separate living room and cooking spaces into a single area, a survey found.
One in three homes now features a kitchen-diner, and one in five Brits plans to blend their separate living room and cooking spaces into a single area, a survey found.
The growing popularity of open plan spaces applies to all types of
property from new homes to Edwardian, Victorian, and Georgian era houses,
according to the survey of 2,000 home owners.
One third of all work carried out on period properties was to create an
open plan kitchen and dining room, while one in three applications lodged at
eight randomly chosen councils related to opening up indoor space.
One in ten home owners has spent more than £35,000 making alterations in
the past ten years, with half of those spending more than £50,000.
But of those who tried to convert their homes, one in five caused damage
in the process costing an average of £8,000.
A separate survey predicted in 2008 that the traditional dining room
with a dinner table and special cutlery could become obsolete by 2020.
Simon Hamilton, International Director at the British Institute of
Interior Design, said: "The inside of homes are starting to look very
different. Houses, especially older ones, were designed with set rooms for set
activities.
Paula Llewellyn, of Lloyds TSB Home Insurance, which commissioned the
new survey, said: "Rather than moving, people are adjusting their own
property to create their dream home and the living space they need.
"It's clear to see that open plan living is what modern families
want."
What do
you need to think about when designing an open plan kitchen?
You
really have to consider all the activities that will take place in the room,
and how they can work together in harmony. Preparing meals, watching
television, surfing the net, doing homework, paying the bills, relaxing with a
magazine and chatting with friends – you have to make sure these can all
happily co-exist in your open plan kitchen.
To cater for all
these different needs, it’s always best to create an individual, custom-built
kitchen. And to do that, it’s wise to choose an experienced designer. An
experienced kitchen designer is used to helping homeowners maximise the space
and functionality of a room and ensure there is a seamless feel between all
parts.
What are the practical
considerations?
Open plan layouts often struggle to meet building regulations requirements for fire
safety: the
regulations are very prescriptive in nature and often mandate undesirable compartmentation.
UK regulations allow the use of fire suppression to compensate for poor compartmentation,
but many homeowners instead opt for the cheap solution: create a protected
corridor, have Building Control sign it off, and remove this “dummy wall”
shortly afterwards. This leaves everyone uncomfortable, with homeowners paying
for pointless and illegal changes to their home and loft converters risking
their reputation.
Approved Document B, offers an alternative stating that:
Fire safety engineering is a recognised method of achieving
adequate fire safety in a building. It takes into account the entire fire
safety engineering package and is sometimes the only viable method of achieving
a satisfactory standard of fire safety in popular open-plan kitchen-diners.
It
is this approach that can often be coupled with a volume protection system to ensure
homeowners can create real value in their homes without aesthetic trade-offs
and Building Control officers can be assured that a modified home is a safe
living environment with no limitations on use that may eventually be
circumvented by the occupier.
Hi there Safety Officer,
ReplyDeleteCould you tell me what your source for the following is: "One in three homes now features a kitchen-diner, and one in five Brits plans to blend their separate living room and cooking spaces into a single area, a survey found."? I was looking for data on this - number of households with a kitchen / diner - and hit a blank wall intially.
Regards,
Anthony
Hi Anthony,
DeleteHere is the source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8995676/Rise-of-open-plan-living.html
Best regards,
The Safety Officer