Design Process
Building a Phased Home
In this regard, in today’s post, we wish to share with you the key factors to consider when building a phased home. However, before delving into the project’s specificities, we wanted to review the advantages and disadvantages of this process.
Advantages of Building a Phased Home
Financial Flexibility
Building a phased home allows you to divide the financial investment into intervals. This facilitates the construction of the house and makes it possible to enjoy it from the outset, without having to wait to secure the final required amount.
A practical example would be wanting to build a 200 m2 house in the long term, but currently only having the corresponding bank loan to carry out 100 m2.
In this case, building a phased home would allow you to start construction and have a home from the beginning, gradually expanding it according to emerging needs.
Design Evolution
Furthermore, the process of building a phased home takes into account that individuals and families evolve over time. Therefore, planning the growth of a house in stages simplifies the initial task of defining the boundaries of the dwelling.
This allows the house to be designed according to a family’s current needs, reserving space for future modifications. Our challenge as architects is to ensure that the entire architectural project maintains unity, despite being developed in different phases over time.
This is a complex task that requires the dwelling to be habitable in all its phases, with ventilated and illuminated spaces in its rooms.
To achieve compositional unity, the architectural project must consider the entire construction from the beginning.
Disadvantages of Building a Phased Home
The main disadvantage of building a phased home is the need for foresight and meticulous control of all details by the architectural team carrying out the project.
There are some delicate aspects to consider. On the one hand, it is very important to plan the complete project at the beginning of each phase. This way, if subsequent phases are not built, you will always have a habitable home.
On the other hand, it is important to anticipate the type of expansion that will be carried out, as the routing of installations can complicate and increase the cost of the second phase of the work. Sometimes the first phase can include provisions for installations, or the new rooms can utilize existing services or bathrooms.
Expanding a second floor or expanding on the same floor?
A disadvantage to consider is the location of the expansion. If we build a second floor of a house, we must bear in mind that in the first phase we will have built a roof, which is usually an expensive element and will have to be demolished to construct the second phase.
Conversely, an expansion on the same floor will convert facades into interior walls, which needs to be reviewed at a constructive level, but is certainly more economical than demolishing a roof. In this sense, the first phase can include covered porches that will only need to be enclosed later.
Sometimes, the expansion can be planned as separate from the rest of the dwelling, although this entails building a new volume with all its own facades and roofs, thus increasing the cost.
3 Key Factors to Consider When Building a Phased Home
1 Defining Needs
This involves defining everything necessary for the dwelling, that is, establishing a complete needs plan that outlines what the final house would be like: how many bedrooms it would have, how many bathrooms would be needed, or how many garage spaces would be required.
2 Defining Stages
Defining the stages of the process is key. This is where you need to be aware of your current life stage and be able to prioritize what truly needs to be built from the beginning and which other spaces can wait.
It is important to establish a hypothesis for the growth of the home, which will be closely linked to the growth of the family unit and the budget.
You can also plan this second stage yourselves, although professional advice will guide you at all times.
At Slow Studio, for example, we propose different types of eco-friendly homes that adapt in size and price to the needs of various families, allowing for subsequent expansion or modification.
3 Defining a Budget
Finally, it is essential to clarify the amount of money to invest in each phase and to forecast the future budget we will have available.
In this regard, our team of architects can advise you on the strategic definition of timelines to achieve a balance between the budget and the needs to be addressed in each phase.
It is also necessary to keep in mind the type of growth the dwelling will undergo, so that its evolution does not entail excessive additional costs.
For example, at Slow Studio, we always recommend our clients avoid growing vertically, as anticipating additional floors will imply an oversized structure and require demolishing and rebuilding the building’s roof, both actions incurring very high costs.
If you are considering building a phased home and have questions about the options and budget required to carry out the construction, remember that you can always contact us without any obligation, and we will be happy to help you resolve your doubts.