Adapting Projects to suit Social Value Groups

As part of our last lecture of second year, we were asked to take a design project from this year, choose two social value groups from a table we were shown in the lecture, and think about how we would change and adapt the project to suit someone with the characteristics of these social value groups.

At the moment, we are in the middle of a sustainable design project, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (or Upcycle). This project involves sustainably redesigning an existing property on Seafeild Road for a a client who is a book conservator. The existing building is a large victorian house with a big garden around it, and is currently derelict.

If I were to adapt this project to suit someone who fell into the Traditionalist group (averse to risk, guided by traditional behaviours and values, quiet and reserved, hanging back and blending in with the crowd) it would be important to have a traditional rather than contemporary approach to the design. Someone with these sorts of values would probably favour traditional and old fashioned designs over newer ones. For this particular project, the fact that the house is Victorian style would be of help, as keeping with this would be important to the person. This would mean trying to keep as much of the traditional look of the building as possible, therefore restoring the building to what it would have been like when it was first designed would probably be what this person would like. For this I would keep in all the original features of the building, such as the big bay window at the front and the large front door, as well as any internal features such as fireplaces, stairs and cornices and any original wooden floors and doors. By keeping as many of the original features as possible this would match the personality of someone in this particular group. I would also keep most of the outside and garden traditional by making any extra buildings such as sheds or extensions as in touch with the original architecture as possible.

To adapt this project for someone in the group Strivers (attaching importance to image and status, as means of enabling acceptance by their peer group, at the same time holding onto traditional values) it would again be important to keep some of the traditional features of the building but not as much, and it would need to be designed to look as grand as possible, and to have a feeling of importance and wealth about it, as these people want to look good in their neighbourhood and it is important to them for their neighbours and friends to know they fall into a high social class. Because of this, I would probably accentuate some of the original features, such as making the front door and maybe the bay window more prominent and grand looking, perhaps by putting pillars at either side of the door. The building could be painted white to stand out more, and the garden could be landscaped with an area for entertaining and maybe a garage. The gates could also be replaced to be more wealthy looking. Some of the interior features could be kept, again like the cornices, doors and wooden floors as well as fireplaces. The staircase could be rebuilt in a more obvious location such as in the hall which again would have a wealthy feeling.

The interior decoration and furniture would play a big part in the feeling of the house and designing it to suit each social type. The traditionalist would need old fashioned pieces, maybe antiques, as would the striver. However, the striver's furniture and decor would be more obviously expensive, and they would probably have quite a few statement pieces of quite a lot of value, whereas the traditionalists would blend in and be more subtle.