Housing Life Cycles

This week in Interior Design We learned about the physical and psychological needs of every person, and how that relates to the housing needs for different parts of the life cycle. The physical needs are  storage, safety, shelter, sleep, and food preparations. The psychological needs are Love and belonging, privacy, creativity, and identity. The life cycle is the different stages of life from infancy to old age. The chart we used in class showed a circle and started on the upper right side at Young Adult. It went around clockwise to Young Families, Launching, and finally Empty Nesters in the upper left corner of the circle. It looked like this:
                                                                       


                               Empty Nesters                                                   Young Adults
                               Lunching        Young Families

This is an important aspect of housing because a persons need are not the same at every stage of life. Young Adults will traditionally have a smaller housing situation than someone who is at the Young Family stage. The Launching stage will also have an even bigger home than the Young Families. Unlike the pattern up until this point, the Empty Nesters will likely have a smaller house because their needs no longer require as much space.
What will my homes look like at these various stages in my life? Good question, they will probably look something like this:

22-Young Adult


When I am 22 I will be in the young adult stage, and at the point where I am about to graduate from college, or have about a year year left. I will likely live in an apartment in a building like this. It is Located in downtown Fargo because the few architecture buildings (I'll be majoring in architecture) of NDSU are here, unlike most of the rest of the campus. It will close to where I need to be most of the time which will be very convenient versus having to go all the way across town relying on public transportation everyday. This will be a smaller space that will not cost an arm and a leg to rent, and I'll probably be sharing it will other people as well.

33-Young Families


By the time I'm 33, I will probably be married with a kid or two, so that would put me in the Young Families stage. My house will be a small farm house type somewhere in the country with lots of land and a big red dairy barn. Think picturesque scenery. It will  a have a couple bedrooms and a decent sized living space. It wont be the house of my dreams, but it's a good starter home.

42-Launching


When I am 42 my two to four kids will be rambunctious teenagers who often invite friends over. With many people in the house, more space is required or else we'd all probably go a little crazy being so close all the time. I'd rather not have my future kids resent me because they can't get away from my craziness. I'd hope for this house to have a big beautiful kitchen, several bedrooms, an few separate living spaces. Instead of the big red dairy barn, there might be a big indoor riding facility in the backyard with some horses happily living inside (maybe this is wishful thinking, buy hey, I can make up whatever I want my future homestead to be like). Now THIS is closer to my dream home!


75-Empty Nesters



At 75 (an Empty Nester) I'll probably still be dreaming of the last house, but my little old self wouldn't be able to take care of that huge house--I'd probably break a hip! This place would be likely be one story, MAYBE two (I don't want to fall down the stairs) and have two bedrooms, one for me, one for guests. I'd hope That the kitchen would still be big and beautiful because I'll have taken to baking every single moment of my retirement. I'm unsure if this would also be in the country on  a small farm like the two previous, but I sure hope it is. If not, it would probably be in one of those "older" neighborhoods where the houses aren't all the same.



All these houses are a good example of what I may need some day during the different stages of the life cycle.