Thoughtful Design

Our homes have changed a lot  since the 1950's. Way back then the average home was just under 1000 square feet. Three bedrooms and one bathroom were standard in most houses.  There was an eat in kitchen and a living room. These were the gathering places for families. Families ate at least one meal a day together. The way people lived back then supported real connections between family members.

Homes have grown to the 2000 square foot range. We spend less time than ever at home, yet we feel we need larger homes. And families are generally smaller today than in the 1950's. There is a disconnect in our thinking it seems to me.

To me a home is there to support my lifestyle.  Things like neighbourhood and demographics are taken into consideration.  Do I want to commute? What services are offered in the community?  Shopping, banks, schools and church are all considerations.  How close do you want to be to your neighbours? Do you want to do yard work or is a condo more in line with you? Is there an organic market close by? Green space? Walking and biking trails? Is it close to a gym? Whether you are an urban single, or a couple just starting your family or a baby boomer there are many things to consider.  Personally I think multi-lifestyle communities are the most interesting   After all living on a street of Joanne clones would get boring pretty quickly. These are all things to take into consideration when deciding where you want to live. But to me, there is a disconnect in our thinking when we build larger and larger homes for fewer and fewer people. To me a home is there to support my lifestyle.How do we bridge this disconnect? This is where my concept of Thoughtful Design that I have developed for my business comes in.

-->Thoughtful Design is living consciously rather than on autopilot.  Autopilot is being sheeple rather than people. An example, a few years back I was working in an office and it was coming up to Christmas. I was sharing with a co-worker that I did not buy gifts at Christmas. She was rather shocked and then carried on to say that her grandparents celebrated Christmas, her parents celebrated Christmas and she celebrated Christmas and her kids celebrated Christmas. She did not have s specific reason why she celebrated Christmas other than her family before her had done so. She was blindly following their actions without questioning.  Now if she had done so, she may have come up with a lot of valid reasons why she wanted to continue to celebrate Christmas. Doing so without knowing why is where disconnect comes in. Thoughtful Design is about questioning why you do what you do

As you take two minutes to consider peace for our world today, begin questioning why you do what you do.