Housing, Interior Decoration and Environment
Housing, Interior Decoration and Environment treats the house as both shelter and setting: site selection, planning principles, ventilation, lighting, decoration and the environmental duties of a household. Questions ask you to justify a site, arrange rooms, apply design elements and principles, and select a colour scheme.
Functions of a house and site selection
The house protects from weather and intruders, gives privacy, provides space for cooking, sleeping, study and storage, supports sanitation and expresses family taste. A good site has firm, well-drained soil, safe access, clean water, no nearby pollution, and proper orientation; a long axis running east-west reduces heat gain in a hot climate.
Planning principles
Orientation, grouping of related rooms, circulation without cross-traffic, privacy, flexibility of use, sanitation, safety and economy. Ventilation should be cross-ventilation; window area is roughly one-fifth to one-tenth of floor area; lighting may be natural or artificial.
Interior decoration: elements and principles
Elements: line, form, colour, texture, space and light. Principles: balance (symmetrical or asymmetrical), rhythm, proportion and scale, emphasis, and harmony or unity. Colour schemes are monochromatic, analogous, complementary or split-complementary. Light warm colours advance and reflect light; dark cool colours recede.
Worked example
A small, north-facing study is dim and feels cold. Choose cream or pale peach walls, a light floor and one deeper accent wall. Reasoning: light values reflect more light and make the room look larger, while warm hues offset the cool north light; too many dark colours would absorb light and visually shrink the space.
Traps
Elements are confused with principles; balance is not always symmetrical; too many patterns and colours destroy harmony; ventilation is not the same as air-conditioning.