Extended shelf life

When a buyer moves into a new home one of their first DIY tasks is likely to involve buying a set of B&Q shelves and fixing them to the bedroom wall. They don’t do it just because the homebuilder has not provided enough storage space for their treasured knick knacks - a Glasgow research project has found that such fixtures are essential in transforming the bare walls of a house into a cosy home.

As part of the Homes for the Future project being undertaken by Glasgow 1999: City of Architecture and Design, Glaswegians were asked what they thought transformed a house into a home. The interior of a room, furniture and storage space emerged as significant factors, with the mantelpiece highlighted as being almost synonymous with character. Survey respondents said such features were important both in defining the people who lived in the home, and in creating a relaxing atmosphere within a room.

Glasgow 1999 has taken that research and used it as a brief for 11 designers whom it has invited to create concept interiors for some of the homes being developed on the Homes for the Future site at Glasgow Green. It is putting the end results on show in the exhibition ‘Picture this - design that’, opening on the site next week. The prototype designs being fitted into Glasgow’s prototypes for 21st century living range from lighting systems and chairs to space-saving fitted furniture, including a modern interpretation of the much-loved mantelpiece, with most of the concept furniture made from painted MDF for economy.

But even before Glasgow 1999’s designs go on show, homebuilders are recognising the ability of specially designed fixtures to define a space, set a style, differentiate their product and add value. At 145 Drury Lane, Taylor Woodrow Capital Developments gave scheme architect EPR a brief that extended from the large-scale conversion of the former office and warehouse buildings to the small-scale design of the bathrooms’ vanity unit, to ensure that the fixtures were in keeping with the apartments’ modernist interiors. “There are so many elements to the bathroom that are specifically designed, that these just followed on naturally from our conversations,” says Sam Chapman, marketing manager with the developer.

Chapman picked up the idea of having a plinth unit from a stylish London hotel, while the architect thought of making the plinth a practical cupboard. The plinth is veneered in trendy wenge, and topped by a Belfast sink. The developer doesn’t usually have its vanity units designed by architects, or hand-crafted by an individual joiner as those at 145 Drury Lane will be. “I’m sure someone does manufacture them, but it was easier for us to get a craftsman in to make them for us,” says Chapman, who adds that it was not noticeably more expensive.

Fitted furniture is central to the Smartspace concept being marketed by homebuilder Mullion at its developments. In a single room maybe 14 ft square, Mullion packs a desk and filing cabinets to make a workspace, a fold-down bed to make a guest bedroom, and a sink and fold-down table to make a hobbies area, as well as shelving, CD racking and a digital wall safe. The furniture, and the home automation technology that is also central to the Smartspace, is included in the homes’ selling price, rather than as an extra.

“We couldn’t have created the multi-functional room without furniture,” says Michael McCarthy, managing director of Mullion.

The homebuilder prototyped the Smartspace in its own offices, the MDF mock-up made by a local joiner to McCarthy’s sketched design. The final version, in maple and contrasting dark colours, comes from several manufacturers in Germany and France, although so protective is McCarthy of Smartspace that he keeps their identities secret.

Smartspace has so far only been tested on buyers at Mullion’s Bibury Stud scheme in Gloucestershire, where 2000 ft2 plus homes sell at from £450 000, but McCarthy says the concept is already proving its worth. “People have been ecstatic or have been mesmerised by it. It catches their eye. Even if they have not bought a house from us they have gone away thinking that they would like to do that in their own house,” he says. A few buyers have asked Mullion to extend the furniture, among them an academic who needed more bookshelves.

“People comment on the interrelation between the kitchen and the Smartspace,” adds McCarthy. “We have two very modern rooms at each end of the house.” And while fitted furniture may be going out of fashion in the kitchen, it looks like it could be coming into vogue elsewhere in the home.