Designing for How Families Actually Live

We often see the same “typical plan” for single-family homes across Metro Vancouver: on the main floor, a living room, a dining room, an office, a two-piece powder room, a large kitchen with a family room and an eating area. Upstairs, a large primary bedroom with an ensuite – a nice shower, a soaker tub, a double-sink vanity — then two to three additional bedrooms, each with its own ensuite bathroom. A basement, if the home has one, usually consists of a rec room doubling as a play area or a gym, a home theatre, maybe a wine cellar, and maybe a rental suite.

Is there anything wrong with a layout like this? No, not exactly. But over the years – even just within our own practice — we’ve increasingly seen clients ask for variations on that plan, and sometimes for something that abandons it altogether.

At JHA, the first conversation we have on any residential project starts with the practical scale of things — how large a home could be, what the site and construction budget can support. But just as early, we ask the more important questions: who will live in this home, how you’ll live in it, what your day-to-day actually looks like, and what your life might look like five or ten years from now. The details from those conversations decide how we approach each project.

We listen

That’s the whole approach, really. We ask our clients how they’d like to spend their time at home, how they envision their life once construction is complete, what they’ll need the home to anticipate for them down the road, and what the word “family” means to them. Then we design around that – not around a template.

Sometimes that means skipping the formal living room and dining room that would otherwise get squeezed into too small a house, in favour of what a client actually asked for: a sun-drenched tearoom at the south-facing front of the home, built for quiet contemplation or a deep conversation with close friends. Or a generous bar by the dining room for a partner with an extensive gin collection and a love of entertaining. Or a multi-user workstation beside the kitchen, so a parent can keep an eye on young children doing their homework while getting meals ready.

Sometimes it means something bigger in scope – elevators built into both the detached garage and the main house on a steep lot, so aging homeowners can stay in their home and keep enjoying the views the property has to offer, rather than giving it up.

That’s just the starting point, not a template.

However your family looks

Every home we design starts from the same place: understanding the people who will actually live in it. Multigenerational, blended, built around two people instead of four, still taking its shape – none of that changes the approach. It just changes the plan.

Interested in working with JHA on your next project? Get in touch to start the conversation.