Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced this summer that as of 2011, all publicly-funded homes built in the British capital will be 10 percent larger than the Parker Morris standards originally laid out in 1961 and adopted in 1967. As post-war minimum sizes for apartments and new houses, they have been increasingly ignored by developers who now offer even smaller spaces than those of pre-war houses. We went from rabbit hutches to shoe boxes in three generations.

No longer. Boris is a hero for highlighting that space is essential to human dignity. Even though we are in a period of financial restraint, he has taken a stand for quality and basic standards, recognising that house walls last for not just a generation, but more like a century or even longer when constructed well.

These Parker Morris standards are not hugely generous, so how can we get the most out of them, now that our lifestyles are less formal and more amenable to open-plan spaces? As kitchens are no longer separate, back rooms but rather the hub of family life, we have been presented with a unique opportunity for spatial liberation.

The Unfitted Kitchen reduces the visual definition of the kitchen, as its esprit-de-cours is that of a living room. It uses free standing, non-generic, non-matching furniture and architectural fittings, in a relaxed, but ergonomic way and fits easily into many room types. This enables even small apartments to be opened up, dwellers to escape the oppressiveness of small rooms, bringing an air of civility to how one lives in them.

Dwellers can enjoy the sociability of family living through having at least one space that is big enough for multiple activities. The sense of ease associated with open plan layouts, mostly found in larger homes, could become available to all. How ironic that its takes a politician to do something that no architect or designer could have done that nonetheless is so integral to the quality of future, urban home design. Now it is up to us designers to ensure that the public get more dignified homes as and when they are built.

John Naish’s article, “What makes a house a home?” in the October issue of Psychologies Magazine begins with the proclamation: ‘You and I are never going to get on’. He was referring to a grand Victorian trophy house that he bought to fulfil what turned out to be a misconceived fantasy.

Naish then swapped his Victorian nightmare for an odd shaped, ramshackle but loveable London terrace house. In so doing, he learnt that aspiration and comfort are very different creatures indeed. Comfort is complex, hard to achieve and at the very top of the list of human needs.

Naish seeks out research from social scientists and writers to find out what it is that makes a house a home. At the beginning, he quotes neuro-scientist John Zeisel: ‘our genetically developed instincts make us feel relaxed around flowers, hearth and water’. Edward Wilson, professor of comparative zoology at Harvard, expands upon this statement by explaining biophilia, which is our need for organic surroundings.

Studies by Frances Kuo at Illinois University also found that women residing in apartments are less depressed when they have views of nature, while novelist Douglas Coupland is quoted about de-narration and the damage caused by banishing all references to personal clutter.

Frank McAndrew, an environmental psychologist at Knox College, Illinois says we prefer rooms with nooks and we like to survey our spaces from a safe vantage point so we don’t feel exposed. Meanwhile, author and professor Clare Cooper Marcus from Berkeley in her book House as Mirror of Self advises us to ‘ask the house to talk’ if you feel lost in what to do.

The quest for psychologically and physically comfortable homes is what we at JG studios have been striving at for years. We have updated our concept of the unfitted kitchen with the sympathetic application of neuroscience in our spatial analysis. We get a mention at the end of John’s piece as purveyors of Sofa Geography. Pick up the latest issue of Psychologies to more to find out what that is!

Check out columnist Katherine Salant’s recent piece, “Kitchens Where Every Last Detail Is Weighed and Measured”, in the April 10 edition of the Washington Post.

She eloquently explains how Johnny’s unconventional approach differs from traditional American kitchen design:

Grey’s unconventional kitchens are a radical departure from conventional American ones. They feature jazzy colors, original artwork, playful, custom cabinetry best described as “sculptural” and work areas that are carefully tailored to a client’s measurements.

She continues:

American kitchen designers tend to box up everything behind closed cabinet doors, but Grey prefers open storage adjacent to the place where an item is used. He maintains this is more convenient, eliminates unnecessary movement and makes the space feel lived in. He puts plate racks above the dishwasher, open racks below a cooktop for large pots and hooks above it for cooking utensils or smaller pots.

Read the full article here. Also check out her September 20, 2008 Washington Post piece on our Dexter kitchen at the Showtime Showcase House in New York last autumn.