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caliwag

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caliwag

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Ha, French for pocket: Not a term much used in building or design.

 

A few blogs ago, I described a way of considering garden design as an alternative to creating borders and cutting shapes out of a lawn, or indeed starting in one corner and making shapes, of just planting specimen plants towards another corner. This is a more holistic approach based on listing all conditions of the garden (see site analysis blog), then listing wants, needs, desires, uses of spaces etc for the proposed garden, including the route and entrance threshold, and then considering the space covered in stuff. This may be lawn, grasses (trendy) herbs, shrubs (totally covered), etc then take out spaces for the needs and routes between them. It's really the same as house layout design, but more akin to decollage, the result of removing bits, rather like a political poster that people have attempted to remove. 

 

No matter, I hope you get the idea...It ties up the results of your site analysis with your list of must-haves. (The brief)

 

The pocket idea is best seen in heavy walled churches, cathedrals, castles where there are often pockets in the wall created for chapels, spiral stairs, secret rooms and so on, and best exploited in more modern housing where built-in shelves, en-suite facilities, larders, even secret rooms and snugs are worked into spaces between rooms. Interesting spaces may be created where square edged rooms could appear clumsy, or passages would allow better flow. I would agree that it's not for the faint-hearted, but could be great fun especially when building the corrugated card model (one to amuse the kids on a wet holiday afternoon). Don't blame me if they want to be architects after that. It could add a sense of humour to a design and add bags of character...And you do want your extension or new home to exude character don't you!

 

A word of warning, it will be more expensive as builders do not relish curves.

 

Happy designing

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Pockets are exciting I like pockets! 

 

We have a feature stair in our house with two quarter landings. Under the first landing is  log store / cum Robo hoover charge point, under the next one is an appliance garage from the utility so the washing machine tumble dryer sit flush to the wall in the utility saving space. Above that and below the quarter landing we have another void, this is a wine cellar access from the downstairs WC..

 

 

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Excellent...good use of 'so-called' lost pockets. I've always suggested 'losing' the WM under the stairs, but people do get stuck in their ways, thanks

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We are to some extent using the pocket idea.

 

We want the new house less cluttered. So the under stairs space is the AV / data hub.  All the electrical gadgets will be in there, hi fi system, Satellite tv boxes, router and network gear, printer etc.  This will allow a tv on the wall with no set top boxes to accommodate, they will all be in the "pocket". Infra red wireless remote control extenders will ensure all the gadgets can be operated by their own remote controls in the main living rooms.

 

One item that won't fit there, that also needs hiding is the filing cabinet. That will be hidden in the cupboard in the hallway that's essentially for coats and shoes. I have to be a bit creative, and by removing one dwang (noggin) and replacing it higher up, the filing cabinet can sit into the thickness of the wall as well, so another "pocket" inside the cupboard.

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Aye...You do need to be creative. I think extensions tend to generate left over spots, and it's good to think through in your listing/must-have stage of what can 'disappear'. interesting that people tend to overlook/underestimate the spaces for storage of essentials they will need, over and above the thought of 'it'll come in handy one day'and it's too valuable to tip or give to a charity shop'. A good friend of mine towed around 6 suitcase size bags ( suitably vacuum sealed), of exclusive, not to say expensive, bespoke clothes ( She had been in the ragtrade, no matter that she had gone up 3 or 4 dress sizes since acquisition), only in a fit of downsizing to pass the lot to a lucky charity shop. Mind I do the same with books and vinyl! A digression I know.

 

Long while since I heard of dwangs...in the realms of rhones, tobies and skew putts!

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I love this idea.  When we fitted the TV on to the wall in our kitchen/diner we had a problem.  I couldn't find a suitable (read affordable!) TV with a built in, dedicated Freesat receiver (we need this, as we can't get a terrestrial TV signal).  This meant buying a small box, but where to put it?

 

The answer was an oak lined pocket inside the wall, with a slightly projecting shelf, which was just deep enough to house the small box, with space to store the remote control.  My only regret is not having thought of this earlier, and designed in some hidden ducting to feed the cables up to the TV.

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Yes cable ducting, another issue with all the kit we have now...Electric keyboard, fender amp, floor pedals, but I again digress. Love those LGP. ..for a small art collection perhaps? Elderly dinkies perhaps?...nice one, oh and obviously one for the Scotch with Jacuzzi! 

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I admit I am not especially keen on pockets - recessed niches seems like a lot of extra work to create a lot of dust traps, though I do like lobbies and loos off hallways with diagonal doors as ways of creating usable space.

 

 

 

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Aye, I suppose I originally was referring to constructed poche` to create more of the medieval approach as in small rooms, sngs or spirals or even an ingle nook as if hewn out of solid. I suppose a spiral stair is a good one as it could be constructed with curved walls as if out of solid, and even with slots for the collection of dust...or more constructively wine or beer bottles, CDs, art, collections, interesting lighting and so on, the possibilities are endless, particularly for extensions...it's all about imagination. It could, of course, work well with a constructed 3D approach to a garden, a reverse of topiary!! Well maybe. Am I making sense?

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