Since the new normal began amid the ongoing pandemic, architects are seeing more and more property refurbishments, as people are more at home, they want beautiful looking yet functional homes.
Mayura Chandekar, Director of architectural design practice MCAPS Global ltd in the UK told Asian Voice that Underfloor heating (UFH) is one such very common feature. Over the life of a building, UFH is known to be 15-20% more efficient than traditional heating systems.
Choices of heating appliances are also changing and UFH can be combined with heat pumps, condensing boilers and solar panels to make an excellent energy-efficient package. Along with the UFH and efficient heating appliance, the right heating controls which can monitor, adjust and optimise temperatures in rooms, can minimise energy consumption, making homes energy efficient.
Other than heating she has told clients who ask for PV (photovoltaic) panels to be installed on their roofs for electricity generation and have gone to the extent of installing batteries to put the extra electricity generated back into the grid. “We have had demands to design systems where rainwater could be harvested, starting from a simple water butt in the garden to proper tanks in the garden. Another interesting change is where we are asked to incorporate car charging points near the parking area of the houses,” she said.
Demands for Home Office space
According to Mayura, since the pandemic, the most common requirement is to have home office spaces. At least one and in most cases two, where both husband and wife are working. “The most common idea is to have an outbuilding, where office space can be set up. If not in combination as in alternative a garage is asked to be converted into a study. In addition, we hear a lot from people who have big loft spaces that can be converted into a study or additional bedrooms to free up rooms on the first floor to be converted into a study. All these examples typically relate to terrace houses, semi-detached or detached houses,” she told us.
Converting backyards into offices
Mayura’s clients are looking to build outbuildings. She said, “One can choose to have a built one like brick/block/timber outbuilding vs an assembled one like an insulated log cabin. Insulated log cabins are becoming popular due to lesser costs involved depending on the size, ease of installation and providing equally good space as a built one.”
The designer mentioned that typically design practices charge something between 5-13% of the construction cost depending on the scale of jobs/ projects.
Open kitchens
Mayura said that many times open-plan spaces are being avoided with a concern regarding the Asian cooking and odour. With powerful extraction systems, good ventilation such risks can be easily mitigated making the open plans a good feature, for families who like to entertain or spend time together with kids etc. “We have convinced many clients to go for an open kitchen who have given positive feedback in years that followed and have had no issues regarding the odours,” she added.
