If you're looking for a definition of living standard, you're going to have a hard time finding one. It is about the quality of life and the effective execution of living needs, as the name "living quality" implies. Housing needs are, therefore, the guideline and the basis of the quality of living. Poor quality of living always arises when housing needs are not considered in the planning of apartments and residential buildings. To make the right living decisions, it is therefore essential to know your living needs. Housing decisions are made when we want to build a house and when we want to buy or rent an apartment.
The main mistakes in housing decisions
You will now say that you know what you want to do, what you need, and your needs. That is also true, at least up to certain limits. And yet, for the following reasons, many wrong decisions are made that lead to poor quality of living:
Source of error complexity
The quality of apartments covers so many topics and areas that it is hardly possible to grasp this complexity. Making complex decisions without realizing the complexity inevitably leads to wrong choices, which can look something like this:
You may primarily think of the fundamental needs to you right now and overlook other conditions that may become more important later in life.
Since living encompasses so many aspects, try to reduce this complexity and tell us: "these are my most important criteria." Of course, other criteria will be lost.
Since the experts do not systematically record the complexity of living either, there are no guidelines for living quality.
Error source communication
Housing needs must be communicated if you ask for coherent solutions from experts or if you buy or furnish an apartment together with your partner. This is a difficult task and leads to a lot of mistakes:
You may be looking for a new apartment together with your partner, and you are also in agreement about what you like. However, they may not be talking about less obvious housing needs such as security, retreat, etc.
You have a house plan, and you have the feeling that your planner understands precisely what you want. In reality, they "only" have the same taste but have exchanged very little or not at all about your living needs.
Source of error manipulation
Manipulation occurs where two different needs meet. This is the case in every sales situation because the buyer wants high quality and the seller wants a high price.
You may like very much what is currently modern. Since fashion trends are always one-sided, this is the best guarantee for overlooking essential living needs.
The real estate agent may present the apartment to you so well that you can't help but strike. There are even specialists for this who operate what is known as "home staging." Apartments are specifically designed so that higher quality is conveyed, which may not even exist. The apartment in the Union Complex has the essential thing in the buildings which fulfill your requirements.
Nothing is as complicated as recognizing, formulating, and communicating your own needs. Many people feel the same way about their housing needs. You see, there are many possibilities where you can deceive yourself or be deliberately or unconsciously deceived by others. But you can protect yourself from that.
Prevent wrong decisions
To protect yourself against wrong decisions, you always need knowledge and usually a specific structure for applying this knowledge. We are probably all aware that grossly inaccurate decisions regarding housing issues are grave and cost us dearly. But how can you prevent it? To do this, we need answers to two questions:
What are housing needs, and which housing needs are particularly relevant in my situation?
How do you recognize whether the individual housing needs have been implemented in an apartment or on a plan?
Today we will deal with the first question, i.e., "What are housing needs and how do I record what is particularly relevant for me?" Housing needs are all the needs of our life that should develop in living. Of course, this also means that living needs include almost all of our essential needs and areas of life.
A brief overview
The living needs described here are the basis for the quality of living. While this is only a summary, it already provides a good overview.
Personal living needs
The purpose of living is to enable us personally to live an entire life. This includes all basic needs such as protection from the weather or the ability to meet the everyday needs of food intake and hygiene. These issues are usually not called into question, but other requirements are very much, such as:
The opportunity to find relaxation and regeneration in everyday life to surround oneself with healing qualities rather than stress
The possibility of personal retreat and privacy
The social and communicative housing needs
We, humans, are social beings. Therefore, many of our housing needs relate to living together with other people. So we also have the requirements for
A conflict-free and harmonious coexistence with our family
The possibility of maintaining and maintaining social contacts in the living area
The development needs
We, humans, are in a constant process of change. But developments need the right environment. Our apartments and housing developments should, therefore:
Provide an optimal development space for children
Offer the opportunity to grow older in an active and healthy way
Promote self-determination and personal development
You can read and download how rooms and buildings affect us concerning these living needs in the information brochure "8 levels of how rooms and buildings affect people".
Experts lack knowledge
As self-evident as the living needs described above are, it is not confident that they will be implemented in residential buildings. Here are a few examples: Many design features of modern facilities prevent recovery and regeneration in a very drastic way. Knowing what makes you healthy and what keeps you healthy is almost wholly lacking in the construction and planning industries. Most housing estates promote anonymity, isolation, and alienation. There is a lack of knowledge about which room arrangements enable communication without undermining privacy. There is also a lack of expertise in the construction and housing industry about what children need for healthy development. It's not just about the children themselves, but also about families, including the parents. Since the world of children expands more and more with increasing age, the child-friendly building is not only an architectural but also a spatial planning task. If you look at the current residential construction situation, you can see: "The experts lack knowledge." Housing is building for people and therefore requires extensive psychological knowledge. Residential psychology has slowly begun to fill this gap. Please refer to "The psychological gap in architecture education".
The task of residential psychology
Since living psychology is the only scientific discipline that has dedicated itself to research into living needs, its integration into the practice of building, planning, and design is essential. Residential psychology is the link between people and their facilities in that it makes the mutual effects understandable. To achieve this, residential psychology has developed a system with which it is possible to avoid the sources of error in building, planning, and design described above. Since the experts in construction, planning and design do not work with this system, it is the main task of residential psychology to pass this system on to the experts. This should be done in a user-friendly form. At the same time, I see a different task of residential psychology in providing support for laypeople or the apartments and houses' users to provide help when it comes to small and large housing decisions. With this system, residential psychology can help
Make the right decisions (apartment purchase, house purchase, land purchase, etc.)
To steer the planning process of a house in the right direction
To orientate oneself in all design questions to the living needs
The solution approach to achieve a living quality
To lay the foundation for quality of living and to align specific housing projects with needs, a system of housing needs is required that can capture the complexity and at the same time helps to simplify decisions. This system should be scientifically sound and, at the same time, easy to understand and easy to use. The Institute for Residential and Architectural Psychology has developed a system that can be used in many situations. Experts, i.e., planners or project developers, have the opportunity to acquire.
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