Housing and Space Management

Housing And Space Management 3(2+1)

Lesson 13 : Designing Group Spaces For Family Living

Group Activities in The Home

These fall into four general categories in terms of noise and movement. The full development of each type is best realized when the home is appropriately zoned.

1. Quiet, sedentary activities, such as reading conversation and predominantly cerebral games, involve little physical movement.
2. Noisy sedentary activities – eating, watching television, listening to music – deserve an acoustically controlled part of the group space that is more or less separated from those areas where tranquility is desired.
3. Moderately noisy, mobile activities, such as adult parties, generally imply constantly changing groupings and noise levels, suggesting space that allows an easy flow of movement and some separation from quiet zones.
4. Noisy, mobile activities, children’s play and physical games take as much space as can be found.

While planning space for group living, it demands that everyone’s needs and desires are considered. The multiplicity of lifestyles and life spaces available today both simplify and complicate the problem of providing for viable group spaces for the family.
There are three different group spaces which a family could use for group activities i.e

1. Those that coexist with private spaces, in a room apartment i.e., Single – room group spaces;
2. Those that share a larger dwelling with private spaces i.e Group spaces inside the home; and
3. Those that exist quite outside the dwelling community group spaces i.e.,. Community leisure and play facilities may consist only of children’s playgrounds and some open green space