House plan traffic patterns

Ever planned a vacation that you've been anticipating for weeks or months. You spend every free moment strategizing each days activity from start to finish. Which way is the quickest route, what areas to hit first to avoid traffic and delays, etc. While that may be a stretch from home designing, the concept of traffic pattern planning is the underlining focus that coincides with creating your homes flow or traffic movement. Traffic patterns of a residence should be carefully considered in the design of each room layout with relation to the adjoining space.

A minimum amount of space should always be devoted to traffic areas, otherwise valuable square footage can be lost. I find that the most efficient design involves creating the illusion of hallway traffic patterns or passages using furniture placement. This is often seen in open flooplan designs which uses a minimum amount of interior walls to seperate rooms. It involves a bit of forethought by the designer and homeowner but, preplanning eliminates traffic pattern issues and furniture arrangement for the homeowner. Hallways and corridors should always be kept to a minimum. The only purpose it serves is to get you from one room to the next. Make sure that you also keep hallways short in distance. Avoid design options that require passage through one room to get to another. This is the worst type of hallway.

One way to effectively determine the traffic pattern of a house plan is to imagine yourself actually moving through the home. Take a set of plans or a brochure copy of the plan along with a pencil and trace a route through the home following your daily routine. Take into account a full days activity, including those of your entire household, when tracing traffic movement. By doing this, you can see exactly where the lightest and heaviest traffic will happen. You can also determine how and where to place furniture. Ultimately, this exercise will let you know if the floor plan design was effectively and functionally planned.