Traffic Flow Wins Over Room Size

On a floor plan, traffic flow determines liveability more than square meterage. I acknowledge this is a counterintuitive idea, as we are conditioned to focus on numbers (square metres), but how people actually move through and live in spaces is what matters.

A 4.5m × 4.5m bedroom can feel spacious. A 4.5m × 6m bedroom with poor circulation (blocked furniture placement, awkward ensuite entry, limited wardrobe access) can feel cramped. 

The architectural ‘greats’ saw movement between rooms as a journey and treated circulation space with intention.  Some minimised partitions – the fewer the walls, the more movement could be implied rather than prescribed.  Others treated circulation as a journey offering ‘experiences’ along the way – picture windows, seating or controlled glimpses of a room beyond.  What they all agreed on was the path between rooms matters as much as the rooms themselves.

Here are some ways to think about circulation on floorplans.

•  A home that allows users to move in a loop through its common rooms will feel larger.  Whereas backtracking – in the way many hallways are designed - can diminish the experience of moving through a space.

• Branch rooms from central circulation points rather than chaining them in sequence.

• Look at where circulation can double up functionally.  If you're building narrow hallways, widen them for built-in storage.

•  Kitchens function well with a minimum of two entry points. One entry can create bottlenecks.

• Living rooms work best as ‘dead ends’, where circulation paths don't cut through them.

• Every bedroom and primary room needs at least one continuous "calm wall" for its key furniture item (headboard, sofa back, media wall)

Research on spatial perception shows that what makes spaces feel generous or cramped depends on sightlines, ease of movement and daylight reach.  A simple way to evaluate circulation on a plan is to ask - how far does one have to walk around a dwelling and what do they see while walking? This is how the perception of spaciousness can be manipulated without increasing floor area. 

Calculate your plan's circulation area as a percentage of total area. If it's over 20%, you're likely to be losing money and livability. Circulation is one of the highest-leverage design decisions in a residential project, and the one most often overlooked. 

The Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe was designed without doors, and redefined the way people thought to move through space.