The thing you’re building, who is it for?
The affordable housing development that’s being planned? Who’s it for most of all?
Now ask this: Who is getting the biggest benefit?
Are they the same person?
Priority
Innovation killers
Building good homes isn't expensive. The price reflects what a home worth living in costs.
If the cost is too much for some people to afford, the answer isn't to give up and keep building poor houses. Instead, reflect on what is driving up costs, and look around to see who else might be benefitting from having a healthier, more connected society who could (and possibly should) contribute to costs.
Doing good isn't expensive, its necessary.
Coffee, cost and rational passionate home design
Value is in the eye of the beholder and it seems that, these days, price is more reflective of value, than cost.
When we buy a coffee at a cafe, we're not buying a coffee, we're buying the experience of the coffee. The anticipating, ordering and drinking of the coffee, and the planning, thinking and enjoying the cafe.
So for the budget-conscious, the challenge is to replace this routine with an alternative that has equivalent value, at a lower price.
It's why bench-top coffee machines are a hit. It's why niche coffee-machines exist. It's what instant coffee advertisements try to sell.
Of course, it is a different experience. We can't replicate the cafe experience at home. What we're trying to do is replace it with a coffee-drinking experience of equivalent value.
If we can do this, we haven't lost anything, we've just saved money! It's a rational, passion-based approach to designing our experience, and spending our money.
We can apply the same logic to our approach property. Or at least, the budget-conscious among us need to!
Our questions is the same: How can we achieve the same result (realise the same value) in a building for a lower cost?
This might mean that our original idea (drinking a flat white in a cafe) needs to radically change (making an Aeropress at home). This is a question of design. It turns out, Architects can be very helpful with design. Especially when we don't know what we don't know.
It might mean that we spend time reflecting to distill the essence of what we value (e.g. the caffeine kick in the long black, or the velvety milk in the flat white) and realise we can still achieve the same outcome in a different way (e.g. instant coffee, or a bench-top coffee machine).
If we go on the journey, we might just find that the reason we want what we want, is because we value what others have. We go after what we know exists, and what we can get.
A value-based home might not look quite like every other home you see around. Unless of course, what you value is being like everyone else, at which point you're job is easy!
For the rest of us, there's some thinking to do.
What's more important?
Rank these as priorities for your own home:
- Warm
- Dry
- Lots of Wardrobe Space
- Close to shops
- Close to work
- Close to school
- Close to friends
- Close to family
- Purchase price
- Running costs
- Large bedroom
- Nice view
- Multiple bathrooms
- Double garage
- Vegetable garden
- Big lawn
- Well-regarded neighbourhood
- Spare bedroom
- How it looks
What did you spend your money on?