Getting Dirty
By Penny Dixon 12 October 2022
Early yesterday morning some of us from iB Architects arrived at Swinley Forest in Berkshire for an away day of single track biking, including training sessions, with RPS. We had a great time, but as we were driving home, the car full of mucky mountain bikes and muddy kit, I was reminded of the blog post I started (and never finished) in the middle of the pandemic when the Government was encouraging us all to venture outdoors.
“Hygge” was over and it was all about the Norwegian concept of Friluftsliv – getting out and about in nature, whatever the weather. The point that I think everyone missed, however, is that achieving the outdoor life in the UK is vastly different from achieving it in Scandinavia, and one of the reasons, ironically, is the state of our indoors. Quite simply the Scandinavians recognize that being outside requires equipment and clothing, and they incorporate space in their homes to accommodate it. Even apartment blocks have secure basement storage for skis. The differences between Scandinavia and the UK are cavernous however and I first highlighted them back when I was a student. My dissertation, titled “Where’s my bike?” focused on the provision of leisure amenities in UK developer housing. The wider argument was that UK developer housing catered quite successfully for the basic, physiological, needs of shelter, eating, sleeping, excretion; but fails to cater for psychological needs because little space is given over to leisure activities beyond sitting and watching the TV.
If your leisure activity of choice is sport or anything outdoors then the facilities provided to assist you will likely be grossly inadequate. The top ten sporting activities in the UK by participation all involve specialist clothing, footwear or equipment that needs to be cleaned, dried and stored.
The top activity is walking and recent research has confirmed what we all knew: - that walking is brilliant for your physical and mental health. If you have been out for a walk recently, you will probably be in a similar situation to me; we currently have 4 pairs of muddy boots in the hallway, along with 4 pairs of muddy trainers. In our utility room (yes, I know I’m lucky) there are various pairs of muddy trousers, and dirty wet jackets jostling for place among the cleanish/dryish jackets, drying laundry and the cat.
Also in the top ten is cycling, and all cyclists know the universal truth that the number of bikes you need is the number you have plus one. We already have too many and definitely need more. Just more stuff to store. Our homes, in the UK, are not equipped to deal with all this outdoor activity. Our homes are just enough to allow us to sit down, eat, and sleep after a long day at work.
It seems, therefore, that our psychological needs are not valued by those who make our home environments. A quick (and by no means exhaustive) survey of the three major housebuilders reveals that utility rooms are out of the question unless you can afford a 4-bed home (even then only 60% have them). I only found one 3-bed home surveyed with a utility room. This is worse than I discovered nearly 20 years ago, when 68% of 4-bed and 31% of 3-bed developer homes surveyed had utility rooms – and as I stated back then, this is surprising given that laundry is a reality of everyday life, not just connected to leisure activities. We are clearly expected to wash and dry our laundry in the kitchen, and really in these times of climatic and economic energy crisis should we even be encouraging usage of dryers at all?
Matters are no better if you have an indoor hobby that requires stuff – musical instruments, crafting supplies, tools and work benches, even simply children’s toys, as few new homes now have extra rooms. Dining rooms have given way to kitchen diners, and even garages have been squeezed out. Unless you have exercised restraint and not filled up your bedrooms with children, there will be very little space available to you to practice your hobby in peace, away from your family, who are all milling around that much-vaunted open plan living/dining/kitchen shouting over the washing machine that’s rumbling in the corner, and dancing around the clothes horse…
My conclusion is that housebuilders seem to see little value in encouraging any activity beyond sitting and consuming digital media. This is doubly disappointing when health issues such as obesity and depression are widely reported to be on the rise.
Browse housebuilders websites and you’ll find enticing photos of fancy show homes with grandiose interiors schemes. Scratch the shiny surface though, and you’ll see front doors lead into miniscule hallways, and living rooms with pale carpets open onto gardens. These touches show a lack of understanding of how most families live; of schoolbags and trainers, footballs and wellies, books and crayons. Or worse they encourage an aspiration of interiors perfection that is beyond reality for most people. I think we require a reset to a position where we value function, and where capital is spent on things that actually make life easier and better, rather than the sparkle that makes us think life is better. And with that I circle back round to the Scandinavians, because love them or hate them, those Ikea adverts really do portray a more realistic view of family life!
Photo courtesy of Ikea.com
References available on request
Other countries also have different ways to tackle stuff and laundry