My poor Grandmother with dementia HATED the house my Grandparents moved into in 2006. She kept saying, "it looks like a barn!" Never understood why she said that. I finally realized the open layout drove her nuts, but she couldn't explain it. 🤷🏼‍♀️

@becky8908

2 жыл бұрын

This comment is hilarious

It's like the video was going somewhere big with this, then just stopped. 💁🏻‍♂️

@lothean2099

4 жыл бұрын

I agree. She lost me after the Africa comment.

@DarkAssassin2259

4 жыл бұрын

@@lothean2099 huh, I wonder why? Because there's a Lott of good information after that little hiccup

@bethanyday3471

4 жыл бұрын

yeah....this video should've went on atleast another 5 minutes if not like 15

@christianwestling2019

4 жыл бұрын

@@DarkAssassin2259 Why was it a hiccup?

@DarkAssassin2259

4 жыл бұрын

@@christianwestling2019 Idk, I don't remember the video and I don't remember the context of the conversation, but I think I was being facetious towards that person because they stopped the video after it had mentioned africa and thought "I'm too good for the rest of this video". Lol

I actually prefer a closed floor plan. I like the idea of having a living room that’s separate from the dining which is separate from the kitchen and so on. Plus I like the idea of having specific rooms... I hope that makes sense lol

@ryanbarker5217

3 жыл бұрын

it makes perfect sense to me. i think most of the people who want an open floor plan have been brain-washed by too many 'home improvement' shows and are -- no offense intended, it's just been my observation -- women who buy into the whole 'room to entertain guests' nonsense.

@JD-ny3vz

3 жыл бұрын

I agree I like the bit of privacy it affords each room, I'm not into an open design that much either

@complainer406

3 жыл бұрын

Especially when there's more people living there, it's nice to have enough rooms that everyone can be in a different room w/o having to hang out in their bedroom all the time

@ayaneagano6059

3 жыл бұрын

I agree, especially since they’re taking the open floor plans to the extreme and introducing these horrible open bathrooms... I look at these and I’m like, WHY!?!?

@mjohnson1741

3 жыл бұрын

Same here, like what are you supposed to do in a loft by bedrooms?

"We can't ask everyone to live without AC" Welcome to Europe

@laurachanwo

4 жыл бұрын

@@andrewhenley2161 Actually, here in Italy (and I live in the north) we have even more than 100 F and a lot of humidity.

@AaaaAa-yf6ku

4 жыл бұрын

Andrew Henley huhh? Southern eu gets just as hot as usa

@brianleeper5737

4 жыл бұрын

@Carpe Diem Funny thing about the US south. For as hot as it gets here, you'd think they'd have put a little more effort into making the HVAC system work right in the houses they built here. It's not right to have to set the thermostat to 70 just to keep it at a "comfortable" 80 upstairs, but that's normal and accepted here. I think the problem is crappy ductwork (they LOVE flex duct; sheet metal is too difficult, apparently) and they don't bother to balance the system. Sometimes they make the problem worse by putting ductwork, or worse, the air handler, in the attic. It's obvious with some of these installs that nobody who knows what they are doing had anything to do with it.

@brianleeper5737

4 жыл бұрын

@Carpe Diem Except if you have an HOA they won't permit you to install a window air conditioner. Newer construction is either zoned or has separate units for upstairs or downstairs, but it only took them 30 years to fix the problem that way.

@brianleeper5737

4 жыл бұрын

@Carpe Diem It becomes a question of how much will it cost to fix vs. the energy savings. Sometimes the best option is to sell it (because many buyers don't seem to care about things like energy efficiency) and buy a house that is energy efficient. An interesting phenomenon I've noticed with HOAs is that as the neighborhood gets older, the HOA basically falls apart and stops enforcing the regulations.

As much as I like Cheddar, speaking as a student of architecture, this story has several inaccuracies and overly-broad generalizations. First, the story criticizes open designs for being hard to cool, but then briefly talks about passively cooled buildings which generally require a degree of open design to function. There are many good ways to build energy efficient open designs, and while I agree that most houses in North America don't follow good design principles, the story doesn't really lay out a compelling picture of how to do better.

@TdrSld

5 жыл бұрын

Mika Chance Look up Matt Risinger here on youtube, he has a great channel on building science.

@TdrSld

5 жыл бұрын

Agreed, this video is not one of their best researched ones, in today's building world you could build a very nice 10k Sq.Ft. open shop and have it cost you next to nothing to heat and cool with materials we have.

@SpencerN.C.

5 жыл бұрын

Mika Chance Sure, here's a recent article from up here in Canada that showcases several large projects designed for passive efficiency, www.cbc.ca/news/technology/passive-house-highrises-1.4437973 Also a Washington Post article www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/can-expensive-ultra-green-homes-sell-in-a-gritty-suburban-maryland-town/2017/05/17/753f1edc-2443-11e7-bb9d-8cd6118e1409_story.html?.e0590b67cacf about a project done by Flywheel Development (I think they're based in DC). There's the Hillcrest Seniors Residence in Pittsburgh too. These are all built using the PHI standard, (Passive House Institute) a method that relies on high insulation and air tightness between the building and the outside, but requires extensive airflow within the building to function. This is very different system than the open air-passive cooling designs mentioned in the story, and is much more practical in most of North America where winter is a consideration. Ironically enough, here's a good primer article on the related "net-zero" design movement from HGTV Canada: www.hgtv.ca/green-living/blog/net-zero-homes-mike-holmes-1916127/ In addition, there are simple things that can be done to existing buildings to improve passive performance as simple as planting deciduous trees on the sunward sides of a building (east/west) to block sun in the summer to help keep the house cool, but allow sunlight to pass in the winter helping heat the home. Opening windows along the windy axis of a building to passive airflow cooling is also a simple solution that can lower in house temperatures by several degrees. This can be improved by building houses with these principles in mind, but I can't think of any large scale projects using simple passive methods like this; this is more of a grass-roots small scale movement. I know it was a short piece that can only just touch the tip of the iceberg, but maybe follow-up piece to show what ordinary homeowners can do?

@SpencerN.C.

5 жыл бұрын

Mika Chance Agreed. Air conditioning is overly relied upon by most people, as is heating. Using passive strategies and saving active heating/cooling for when it's actually needed is something that really needs to drilled in to people until it becomes a normal part of life. It doesn't need to go away, but it shouldn't be the first tool in the toolbox.

@dangerouslytalented

5 жыл бұрын

Spencer Martin Navarra Chew except open layouts, in the way they are done now, ignore passive cooling.

Those were great random examples of designs for cooling, but the video gave no real comparisons or metrics between open and closed floor plans. It didn't explain how closed actually helps.

@TheJaredtheJaredlong

5 жыл бұрын

It's a flawed premise anyways. Want to know what the R-value is for an empty wooden wall? Zero.

@dewiz9596

4 жыл бұрын

TheJaredtheJaredlong : Missing the point. With walls you can isolate space, and heat or cool just what you want to.

@CaptainMurdock76

4 жыл бұрын

@@dewiz9596 thejared's point is that even if you close off rooms, you would need insulation in the walls for a better effect of room specific temperature control. Interior walls are generally not insulated and the drywall provides minimal insulation. So if one room gets warm, the heat goes through the walls and you still spend energy cooling the whole house.

@username00009

4 жыл бұрын

CaptainMurdock76 while technically correct, the argument against uninsulated interior walls (vs an open concept) IS missing the point that they do make a difference. Have you never closed a vent in one room and closed the door to reduce the amount of air transfer? No, it’s not airtight, but it does allow greater control over temperatures from room to room. I easily get a five degree difference in some rooms simply by closing the door.

@jonothandoeser

4 жыл бұрын

Another problem is that all these models are aways calculated using a "no progress" assumption. They assume that things in the future will be exactly as they are today, WHICH IS WRONG. Solar power has become much cheaper and much more efficient. It will continue to improve. Also improvements in insulation, and high-efficiency lighting and appliances have made a dramatic power consumption difference in recent years. It is already very possible to run your house as a self-contained power generation unit, with no power drawn from the grid at all. But as time goes on, this will become even more efficient, and more widespread in the future. *MEANING that there will be no "energy crisis" based on cooling or anything else.*

As ones a professor of history of architecture told me. “If you design minimum apartments you need open spaces. But a huge house? Why would I like to smell the fish that is been cook in the kitchen while I am reading in the living room?

@joysoyo2416

3 жыл бұрын

Exactly! They're CHEAP looking!

@pluspiping

2 жыл бұрын

Not to mention the problems with acoustics! You can hear EVERYTHING from EVERYWHERE and the echoes can get cacophonous if you're not very careful. The only use I can think of is for helicopter parents who don't want their children to have a single unsupervised moment. Which is. Yikes.

@johnnulf624

2 жыл бұрын

maybe I like the smell of fish

@heat1235

2 жыл бұрын

@@johnnulf624 biggest issue IMO is if you fry something and cant close off the rest of the apartment or house. i mean everyone likes the smell of fish!! if they dont they are not hoomans!

@IOUaUsername

2 жыл бұрын

Sounds like a guy who doesn't help with the cooking. It's really nice being able to watch the same thing on TV as my wife and son while I'm cooking, rather than being isolated in the kitchen alone.

i used to live in a home that was seriously open floor plan. I've since moved into a home with a more closed concept built in 1982, the ability to close the doors of your kitchen is amazing when you want to cook at night without waking anybody up. The family room/kitchen is completely separate by 2 doors from the rest of the home. Even the living room can be boarded off as well as the office. Open concept is great in looks but not practicality

@billybeemus3929

4 жыл бұрын

@Renee Tate - The noise is the first thing I thought of as well. Our house, built in 1979, is all open with high vaulted ceilings. The TV playing in the family room is actually louder in the living room on the opposite side of the house due to the sound traveling. The people in the family room can't hear the dialog on the TV 10 feet away, while people reading a book in the front room can't hear themselves think.

@anastasia10017

4 жыл бұрын

I dont understand why people would even consider an open kitchen or why they design houses so that the minute you walk in the door, you are looking into an open kitchen. Who wants to sit in their living room looking at the mess and pile of dirty pots and pans in the kitchen area ? A kitchen is for working, cooking, producing stuff and in real life does not look like the kitchens in home decor magazines.

@anastasia10017

4 жыл бұрын

@Renee Tate it's america. what you drive is more important than what you eat.

@joysoyo2416

3 жыл бұрын

For REAL

@joysoyo2416

3 жыл бұрын

@@anastasia10017 look at me junior I'm carving a bloody fish carcass! Ikr!

So true; I have a 1912 terraced house in England with lots of interior walls, which is very warm in winter. In the summer, the through breeze creates a wind tunnel you could test cars in for aerodynamics. The entire layout is designed to minimise seasonal temperature variations.

@ImminghamIronhead

4 жыл бұрын

Should mention the placement of interior doors is also critical to ventilation in summer; it would get stuffy if there wasn't a clear path from the front to back.

@rich7447

3 жыл бұрын

The entire home is designed to minimize space. Most people in North America would have trouble with UK terrace houses.

@southaussielad2496

2 жыл бұрын

That's brilliant, we lived a stone house made in the 1930s that was built in a + shape, we never had an aircon and never needed one. The house would be a wind tunnel like you said and would always be nice and cool.

@alexanderSydneyOz

2 жыл бұрын

In the UK, keeping warm is the main issue, right? It is hardly surprising that terrace houses are easier to keep warm, given that the sides of the houses all insulate each other.

@kairon5249

Жыл бұрын

@@rich7447 assuming the house is 2 or three stories, it should be enough space for a family, unless you have 5 kids or something

One of the problems is that the houses are made out of wood. I used to live in Mexico in a small brick made house, in an area that got extremely hot during the summer reaching sometimes up to 40 degrees Celcius, and during the winter it could hit 0 degrees Celsius. Yet, we never had to use air conditioner or a heater because the walls would keep everything relatively cool during the summer and during the winter we would just use sweaters and a couple of blankets, something that is a little hard to achieve with wooden walls.

@fancywhale1881

5 жыл бұрын

Red Well, maybe lumber is cheap, but as you mentioned, it is very fragile when encountered with the brutality of nature, and as a Floridian i should know. In case you didn’t know, most houses in Mexico are made of concrete since in many cases it is cheaper than wood. Due to the lack of lumber as well as the Spanish influences in construction, many big companies flourished during the early 20th century such as CEMEX and Holcim Apasco. This led to the development of cheaper ways to provide bricks and cement to the public due to, as aforementioned, the lack of lumber. And by the way, Mexico is also part of North America. Just fun facts.

@FaithArise_

5 жыл бұрын

Brick houses are much safer, stronger and resistant to damage in the long run. I live in India where only the poorest have wood homes. Lumber is cheap.

@colonelcat8639

5 жыл бұрын

Ever heard of the 3 pigs and the bad wolf. The second pig built his house out of wood, sticks specifically. It was blown down. Please build your houses out of brick or concrete, wood is definitely not as strong as brick or concrete.

@SpencerN.C.

5 жыл бұрын

There are advantages and disadvantages to all construction materials. The higher thermal mass of brick and stone can definitely help moderate temperatures, but here in Canada where we see temperatures of -20 or colder in the winter, we need more insulation. Hollow wooden walls allow for superior air-gap insulation allowing houses to be heated much more efficiently. In earthquake-prone areas the more brittle construction of stone and brick is a liability, whereas in huricane-prone areas the superior strength and mass of stone or brick is an advantage. My point is that making broad generalizations about "best materials" is against the principles of good design. No one solution fits all use cases.

@joseherrera8489

5 жыл бұрын

yeah... I live in a part of the US where the majority of houses are brick. When summers are humid, that brick talk is nonsense.

Plant trees. it can be 10ºF cooler under a tree than it would otherwise be.

@Peeeeweeeherman

5 жыл бұрын

Gammareign clean the seas. That would help so much more because most of oxygen comes from water organisms

@quatrokantos666

5 жыл бұрын

Yeah no it doesnt work when you live somewhere EXTREMELY humid

@AskMiko

5 жыл бұрын

Depends on climate... trees can help yet if planted too close to the home or each other, causes pipe and foundation issues with the roots. Some trees retain heat too so in humid conditions, it's a mess.

@SuryanshTutorials

4 жыл бұрын

Yea and 500% more humid.

@user-ov2fc5sd1e

4 жыл бұрын

plant venus flytraps they will solve overpopulation as a bonus

Open floor plans are horrible for large families too in my house I hear everything and smell everything because of the open layout

@tacocat9916

3 жыл бұрын

add in someone who likes to play music and youve got pure hell

The kitchens were closed because of the smell rather than the heat. The heat was welcome in many places but the smell and grime would get into everything. However evacuation hoods changed things.

@SpencerN.C.

5 жыл бұрын

That's only partially true. It was actually not that uncommon to have an un-insulated "summer kitchen" and an insulated "winter kitchen" in parts of North America in the 1800's, partially to keep the kitchen heat away from the house in the warm months.

@drink15

5 жыл бұрын

It’s not like there is only one reason. I’m sure the heat was welcome during winter and cold areas, but not during the summer. Food smell is not a big issue in the US unless you are cooking something exotic.

@BradThePitts

5 жыл бұрын

There was a time in America not long ago when women enjoyed being in the kitchen together, for example, when cooking for holidays.

@propitiationed

5 жыл бұрын

Sometimes you still get smells ... even with hoods. And when your trying out new recipes you tend to make a bigger mess; who wants people looking that or analyzing what your doing. Little privacy can be a good thing.

@stephenpowstinger733

5 жыл бұрын

Anyone cook fish or other lingering food smell items? Open plans have a problem. And in Florida pioneers had kitchens separated by a walkway to keep the heat and all away. We had “dog trot” houses with covered boardwalks separating the rooms in a T shape.

My family knocked out the wall between the Kitchen and the dining room. I hated it. They are socialites and constantly have guests over. It became twice as noisy because now you heard the cooking and the talking at the same time. No peace. Was a relief when I got my own place.

@eattherich9215

2 жыл бұрын

Cooking as now become a 'spectator sport'. I don't want others watching me toiling over a hot stove and distracting me with aimless chatter. 😂

@Kevin15047

2 жыл бұрын

@@eattherich9215 That would be hell. I have adhd. It takes me long enough to cook a meal as it is. That would make it nigh impossible.

It's gonna be so hilarious in 30 years watching home reno shows adding back walls to these houses. And don't get me wrong, I love open floor concepts and wish I had the money to reno mine. Just saying it as a fan of This Old House who has watched every single episode.

@ms.craftycapricorn9475

4 жыл бұрын

Lol I was thinking this too. Every episode I see on HGTV I say "wow there goes another house we will see on a future episode with them adding the walls back" lol

@glennso47

3 жыл бұрын

Most every episode of shows on HGTV involve a contractor knocking out a wall.

@wallacem41atgmail

3 жыл бұрын

In the early 1930s Frank Lloyd Wright was asked to design an inexpensive house for a young couple who were just starting out. His proposal, the First Jacob's House [Yes, there was a second one about a decade or so latter.], was so revolutionary that it was obvious Wright had been thinking about the "affordable-house" problem for a very long time. His solution while cool in summer was also warm and cozy in winter. It was open to the out-of-doors (East and South) via a continuous bank of French doors yet closed to the street (West) by a blank wall (with built-in book-shelving on the interior side) topped by clerestory windows. The kitchen was at the center, just a few steps away from the living/playroom area while being invisible to it. It (the kitchen) was the tallest space in the house with its roof well above that of the rest of the house. This feature provided whole-house ventilation in summer by functioning similar to a chimney-flue in creating an up-draft which would allow cooking odors to exit through operable clerestories while also provided daylighting to what otherwise would have been a dark space. The three bedrooms, which were little more than closets* for sleeping were lined-up in a row in a separate wing with the largest one as far as possible from the noise of children playing in the living space in winter. These were accessed through a long hallway with clerestories (for natural illumination) atop a continuous bank of built-in storage units (closets) which, in affect, provided double-wall insulation to the exterior (North) wall. With this, almost tiny, pavilion-like house which appears open and airy when viewed from its private back-garden while at the same time seems closed and substantial when seen from the public street ... in this one little building, Wright returned us to the emotional roots of our human ancestors of some 200,000 years ago sitting in dappled sunlight secure within a grove of trees while looking out at an open savanna somewhere in central southern Africa (in what is now known as Botswana) ... no prior architect had done this! I could continue but that would require a book of which there are several, the most well-known being "The Natural House" by the Master himself. My point being that in order to make an open-plan "work" requires more than just removing walls. Literally, EVERYTHING has to be re-thought! * Here, I'm using the term "closet" in its original meaning of a small room used for study, prayer, and/or contemplation ... one will find this usage in the Bible. Previously, we kept our clothes in the free-standing "wardrobes" [and wardrobe chests (sometimes referred to as "cedar" chests)] where we now house our TVs.

@marsco2442

3 жыл бұрын

In 30 years if I'm still watching that garbage 😂😂😩

@velvet3784

3 жыл бұрын

Some will definitely say "as you can see this 2010s minimalist grey and white open space looks very dated"

I hate how open plan houses in america are! i'm from london and i love having separate rooms for everything! especially during quarantine. it gives everyone their own space, plus the heat and smells from the kitchen STAY in the kitchen.

@obamaprism9702

4 жыл бұрын

Love my London home!

@jacobkyle3806

3 жыл бұрын

Bit sad innit

@mollyover2369

3 жыл бұрын

What is cooking in the kitchen that you don't want the house smelling like it? It's my favorite when something is cooking and I smell it in a different part of the house

@nishashawn2021

3 жыл бұрын

@@mollyover2369 ew. I would hate for my living room to smell like pot roast , fried fish, Turkey burgers, or anything else I cook. I want it to smell like my scented candles or plug ins

@jnoel776

3 жыл бұрын

@@nishashawn2021 lol imagine thinking your own food smells gross. Not everyone's cooking smells god awful lol

When I was young and lived in apartments (which all apts have open floor plans), I always couldn't wait to get a house so my kitchen wasn't in my dang living room. Little did I know they started building new homes with the same open floor plan.

@IDontKnow-mf5wi

4 жыл бұрын

There are plenty of apartments that aren't open floor plan

@brt5273

4 жыл бұрын

@Curtis That's the same feeling I get

@milkpastasoup8960

4 жыл бұрын

Commie blocks work if you want closed floor plan in a small apartment and want to fit in as many people as possible.

@microbios8586

3 жыл бұрын

I live in an efficiency and the open kitchen sucks! My bed and couch often absorb the smell of onions, grease or whatever I cook!

@kevinakers9133

3 жыл бұрын

I have lives in at least a dozen different apartments, not a one with an open floor plan.

I don't like open floor plans. I rather like the idea of each room being a compartment much like a jewel box so each room can have a different character and style if you choose to

@npeace312

4 жыл бұрын

I totally agree

@rb5078

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you. I thought I was alone.

@availanila

4 жыл бұрын

Me too, but in today's world it just looks stuffy and outdated to others.

@johndoe-wv3nu

4 жыл бұрын

People are beginning to smarten up. Open floor plans suck if there's more then one person living in the house! People need time alone. Sometimes one wants to watch T.V. and another wants to do something unrelated.

@frenchbreadstupidity7054

4 жыл бұрын

@@johndoe-wv3nu People are too alone these days. Humans are adapted to sit around a campfire from sunset until bedtime, which lead to gather around a candle to read, then to watch evening TV together. Now people are reading, watching, playing and even talking (through texting) alone, and it's detrimental to relationships with the people who actually matter in yout life, as well as to mental health, stress, and cross-generational wisdom. People are suffering because they learn the majority of what they know about socialization and emotions, from media rather than from people- and everything left unanswered feels like a problem that has never been had or solved before. The open plan concept was encouraged because it makes for healthier families that interact with each other more, even if it's just by being in each other's silent company. If you need privacy, your room is still isolated, but there shouldn't be any activities that keep you there all day. And it works really, really well, even and especially for introverts.

The open concept house, known otherwise as a barn!

@ryanbarker5217

3 жыл бұрын

well, i consider the people who buy these things to be of a herd mentality, so that sounds about right.

@1pcfred

3 жыл бұрын

@@ryanbarker5217 moo?

@ix.cryo1

3 жыл бұрын

Or a studio apartment

@glennso47

3 жыл бұрын

Or a house that had been demolished in a severe storm?

@rockie8254

3 жыл бұрын

underated comment

I hate open plan. I loathe cooking with an audience. I don't want to hear other people all of the time.

@judacia

3 жыл бұрын

I don't enjoy the rest of the house when odors leave the kitchen.

@richardeast3328

3 жыл бұрын

I like to have the choice to shut a door if needed.

@johnnyhotcakes5217

3 жыл бұрын

For real tho people with kids cannot hide the messes in an open concept house lol

@L00PdeL00P

3 жыл бұрын

The bathroom on the first floor of my house is in the middle, between kinda a donut of rooms. No matter where you are on the first floor, you can always here the occupant of the crappy bathroom. Every turd that drops. Every drrrroplet of PiSsssss. Every fart you make every tp you take I’ll be hearing you. I can hear my sibling right now! upstairs bathroom gang ftw

@DepalesaTshabalala

3 жыл бұрын

Please let's start a fanclub. Open plan must Fall!

Grew up in a house made out of concrete mixed with perlite blocks. Never needed air conditioner and durig a winter it was easy to warm it up. It was a 2 storey house and still energy efficient and sound proofed. Walls, facade and celilings made out of mortar and still standing after so many years.

@fionafiona1146

4 жыл бұрын

"air conditioning" in my parents home in Germany is mainly achieved trough opening all windows during breakfast and keeping them closed to dinner between Easter and Halloween, given that putting a fan in the root celer and keeping the doors open for 30 minutes turns everything 15C cold.

@fionafiona1146

4 жыл бұрын

@LagiNaLangAko23 there are none, after the fire 1745 most of the foundations and basement have been mentaind but until the second to last sale (and remodeling) 1890 there haven't been any records inside the property line... The electrical and water plans assume most of the walls to be limestone and adding any "creative" fillings would be too much work.

@fionafiona1146

4 жыл бұрын

@LagiNaLangAko23look into "earth ships" and straw bail construction for technical advise.

@fionafiona1146

4 жыл бұрын

@Carpe Diem drainage is better around me 😉, the lights are not the best but haven't had to be replaced since the 20s and if I could smell anything but wood oils chances are the brickwork Coul be slightly smoky... It's not like the basement has frequent need to contribute to indoor climate.

@fionafiona1146

4 жыл бұрын

@Carpe Diem So run a dehumidifier in the basement? Invest in your comunetys resilience? Move some place conducive to human live?

The open-floor plan isn't problem -open plans can be as environmentally sound as other plans - it's the complete disregard for heating and cooling energy requirements that most developers have, because frankly, they're just trying to make a buck selling crappy McMansions. You even showed open-floor plan buildings when you talked about environmental efficiency. You could, and probably should, have reversed the order of the video and said "how efficient A/C has changed modern house design," because what's happened is cheap heating and cooling units, under-regulated developers, and uniformed consumers have come together in a perfect storm of shitty architectural design. Once again, Cheddar, you've got a great topic and great graphics, but need to finish your research before you make your videos.

@ryanbarker5217

3 жыл бұрын

there are maybe two or three of these kinds of content farm channels i can reasonably rely on not to warp or fuck up the facts or overall gist. cheddar is not one of them. like the McMansions, it's more style than substance. you'll never find me living in a McMansion. ask a home inspector what they think of them! besides that, they're ugly, look and feel cheap, and when you realize the styling cues of them and can put a name to your vague dislike they'll start to make you sick.

@ShaudaySmith

3 жыл бұрын

it's been two years. i see your comment. And you still right about Cheddar.

@torquemadax9507

3 жыл бұрын

What exactly is a mcmansion?

@ShaudaySmith

3 жыл бұрын

@@torquemadax9507 it's a large garish house that appears mass-produced with no architectural consistency. They may appear nice to the at first glance, but they usually have about 10 different building styles slapped all over. Columns that don't support anything, 30 different window treatments, useless balconies, turrets, etc...

@ichifish

3 жыл бұрын

@@torquemadax9507 A McMansion is a fast-food mansion -built to look nice but shoddily made, with bad design, high energy use, and cheap materials.

I don’t want my kitchen out in the open. I like my own space for cooking and creating.

@bookcat123

3 жыл бұрын

I live alone so the whole house is my own space... and I like the kitchen to be attached to the living room so I can watch tv while doing dishes 🤷🏼‍♀️

@trishayamada807

3 жыл бұрын

@@bookcat123 well living alone it doesn’t matter then does it... if it works for you. I don’t have a solitary lifestyle.

@sharronneedles6721

3 жыл бұрын

Same, if im having guests I would much rather walk out of the kitchen door with a full plate of food. I dont want to have to awkwardly make small talk while trying to hassle to cook dinner. Then the whole magic of the night is over 😂😂😂

@asparrow5505

3 жыл бұрын

Closed concept is more intimate and cozy. You can have quiet with tea and a book and create different moods throughout the house.

@trishayamada807

3 жыл бұрын

@@asparrow5505 yes! I appreciate being able to have my kids have their space to play and make a mess and take care of, and myself and my husband can have our space. We have a family room for all of us. But it nice to have toys and kid crap in a contained area. And I truly love to bake, and some of the things I bake require attention to details and my kitchen allows me that. I love it. ❤️🌟

Closed floor plan houses with all the internal structure are far more resistant to earthquake damage. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (California), friends with open plan houses had to move out for several months while their houses were repaired. My old time closed plan 60's house was untouched as were others in the area. The magnitude 7.0 quake 6 miles distant did highly dishevel the interior furnishings but zero prob with the house itself. Per the video, while it was 100° outside yesterday, and the house has total hillside west exposure to the sun, there was big variation in room temperatures. Range was 80 to 90° inside with no A/C in the late afternoon. So just go to the cooler part of the house for a few hours and turn on a fan.

I hate open floor plans because it allows noise to travel to all parts of the house much easier. I don't need to hear a conversation that is happening in the kitchen while I'm trying to listen to a KZread vid, even with headphones on, in my bedroom.

@19gregske55

5 жыл бұрын

Open concepts discourage intimate spaces. Also, if one has a large art collection the open concept makes it a challenge to display things well.

@annacbrown1986

5 жыл бұрын

It's the worst with small children. I walk around with ear plugs all the time because of the echo 😭

@NatureShy

5 жыл бұрын

You can still close your bedroom door in an open floor plan. Just close your bedroom door, and you won't hear anything else happening downstairs. There's no need to close off every single room in the house and make things feel more "claustrophobic."

@KyleWoolridgeGrant

5 жыл бұрын

Same. Even with my door closed in my room and headphones on I can still hear everything going on downstairs, and it drives me crazy that there's nowhere in the house that I can't hear the TV when I'm trying to do my homework.

@elirien4264

5 жыл бұрын

You need better headphones.

The energy code has already addressed this problem. Their solution is hyper-insulation. Don't need to spend money cooling your house if it's not even able to heat up to start with. It's a better solution because it also keeps the house efficiently warm in winter.

@tylsim

5 жыл бұрын

TheJaredtheJaredlong energy usage per capita in the US and UK has grown rapidly since the 1980s even though we now have incredibly more efficient vehicles, televisions, light bulbs, insulation, and we know the severity of climate change. The reason isn’t computers or phones, it’s much larger houses for smaller families further apart and away from the city, making everything less efficient. There’s no technofix when it just allows us to consume more, we need to learn from our past and live smaller and closer.

@imzjustplayin

4 жыл бұрын

@@tylsim Our building code in terms of efficiency has not kept up with load demands. In California, the building code for insulation has been unchanged for basically 40 years. The houses here use much more energy per sq ft than they did in the past because A/C wasn't a requirement when building and many architects like to do many things that increase energy consumption like remove overhangs, complex building structure, skylights, vaulted ceilings, etc. If they want to limit energy consumption, the current way our energy companies charge don't disincentivize high energy consumption. Here in California, 10 years ago PGE had tiered electrical costs where the lowest consumers were charged the least and highest consumers were charged the most. They did away with this in order to encourage more energy consumption.

@geoffmooregm

4 жыл бұрын

@@imzjustplayin We have tiered power costs here in BC, Canada. The only months I hit the second tier is when the AC is on. Lucky for us it is only needed four months out of the year. Having that second pricing tier sure works to get people to think about their usage. I got rid of my electric hot water tank and changed the whole house to LED lights.

@waynecampbell9426

4 жыл бұрын

@@imzjustplayin I'm not sure this is correct. Overall per capita energy consumption in California has been relatively flat since the 1970's, as opposed to significant growth elsewhere. I haven't found the data specific to residential, but based on conversations with a friend who helped establish many of our energy standards I'm pretty confident that on we are in much better shape on a per square foot basis as well.

@imzjustplayin

4 жыл бұрын

@@waynecampbell9426 Most of those improvements have been in appliances and also the updated energy code didn't go into effect until 1980. Using that 1970s as a standard is stupid because the energy codes were non existent then. Like I said, no real improvement at all. It's easy to see because I know people who have built new homes and people with old homes, their energy bills aren't any different despite similar size and occupancy. Also just because you double the square footage, doesn't mean you should double your energy consumption since you could be turning a single story into a two story.

I love older houses, the thought that went into them is remarkable. Usually there were lots of doors & connecting rooms so that you could open windows & doors to create a draft that with the correctly placed exhaust fan can feel like the coolest air conditioning. I’ve had old houses & new construction & hands down would choose an older house. The character that they have too is something that has been forgotten. The beautiful little nooks & built ins I guess you sometimes see in newer homes but not often. They were also constructed better, the walls, the floors, the trim work. Seeing lots of them abandoned & destroyed in various cities breaks my heart.

"Kitchen's were for the hired help", yeah for about 2% of the population. You don't know what your talking about

@TylerMRaab

4 жыл бұрын

I agree. I’m sick of hearing this. Most people were not rich and we still aren’t.

@NoliMeTangere1163

4 жыл бұрын

@@TylerMRaab Hired help was often for the working class as well. A mother with half a dozen children wasn't capable of all of the tasks required for home upkeep prior to technology and hiring unmarried girls was common even in poorer families.

@andrewscott7728

4 жыл бұрын

She was talking about the philosophy behind the style, not declaring everyone rich.

@bbg5000

4 жыл бұрын

@@NoliMeTangere1163 It wasn't common among poor families. Instead, people used their families for help. Their parents and grandparents. And eventually the kids would be old enough to start helping around the house. If someone had a half dozen kids, then they already have at least 1-2 who would be able to help cook and clean.

@seanmurphy4465

4 жыл бұрын

Your right. This channel sucks. Full of inaccurate bs. I’m done w cheddar or whatever it’s called.

You left out the number one problem with the "open plan" design. You can't go into a room to be alone behind a closed door. If there are people in the home, you end up being able to see each other from every other part of the house. This had to have been implimented by some hateful extrovert that can't stand the idea of some introvert being comfortable by being alone so the designed houses to make that impossible.

@notsure6187

5 жыл бұрын

Simon Macomber lol

@NotSoNormal1987

5 жыл бұрын

I'm clearly extroverted, but I hate open floor plans. It would be nice to not have to worry about noise as much during night time. Noise carries through the whole place. I also hate how much trouble it is to keep small children out of the kitchen and away from hot stoves. I can use the bathroom if I'm cooking unless another adult is home.

@MrSaxophoneGamer

5 жыл бұрын

Its not like bedrooms are open plan, saying you can't get privacy is quite untrue

@amandastypul4399

5 жыл бұрын

@@MrSaxophoneGamer I agree. You always have the option to go into a bedroom and close the door. If it's not a place that is comfortable, make it work for you. Maybe the bed needs to be off center to accommodate for a reading chair and footstool. So often, we focus on how a house looks rather than how it functions. Don't wallow in your problem, be active in finding a solution. The number of people complaining about the lack of privacy in their own home is ridiculous: it's YOUR home, make it so.

@simonmacomber7466

5 жыл бұрын

You haven't seen the open plans I have, then. Yes. *bedrooms* have no walls or doors. *Bathrooms* have no walls or doors, the only doors are on closets.

Thanks Cheddar, for bringing stuff like this up. I live in GA in a house that was built in 1903. Both floors of my home (it is a folk Victorian and 4300 square feet) have high ceilings (12 foot lower, 10 foot upper) with 4 windows in every room - each window is 6' tall by 30" wide and are all double sashed (with, proudly I am to say, the original panes of glass in all of them). Totally, there are 40 windows. As is typical with Victorian homes, it has a huge staircase in the center of the house that acts as a chimney. During hot, sultry Georgia summers, you could open the lower sashes of the windows on the first floor and with the heat draw of the staircase pulling heat up to the second floor, a constant air movement would occur through the lower floor. On the second floor, opening the upper sash of the windows would allow all the heat to escape and cool that portion of the house. To your point, my kitchen has three exterior walls and (originally) two exterior doors - plus a door to the butlers pantry and to the formal dining room - this allowed the kitchen cross breezes from almost every side, as well as double-insulating the rest of the house from the kitchen to ensure heat from it didn't reach the "living" rooms. Even today, with dual-fuel hybrid heatpumps, because of this construction still effectively working (although the windows stay closed) my electric bill is almost nothing for such a large house, thanks to the original architecture of "cut-up rooms" (NO OPEN FLOOR PLAN!) and airflow created 115 years ago. Hopefully everyone will realize that there truly is "substance" over "style" and not the other way around!

@ingerfalch-jacobsen1717

4 жыл бұрын

Ironically - taking a wild, but calculated guess - your house is a probably a hundred times more stylish than modern houses, too.

The biggest problem of the open floor plan is that I have to keep my kitchen clean all the time

@hijodelaisla275

3 жыл бұрын

Cook a meal and then move.

@rich7447

3 жыл бұрын

What are you doing to get your kitchen so dirty?

@DannerBanks

3 жыл бұрын

@@rich7447 Cooking for 6

@rich7447

3 жыл бұрын

@@DannerBanks You got me beat by 2x. We don't seem to have an issue keeping the kitchen presentable even when entertaining, but we do have the advantage of having a small (6'x15') prep/catering kitchen in addition to the open concept kitchen. The small appliances live in there along with an extra fridge and microwave.

@tigerwong9845

2 жыл бұрын

Lots of places in Asia have a dry kitchen and wet kitchen; the latter being used primarily by the house staff for heavy duty cooking whereas the former is more for baking, reheating and simple cooking

I prefer “closed concept” houses. More individual rooms makes my house seem larger, even if it isn’t.

@chioptnstdr3448

2 жыл бұрын

You are so right about that

@MrBibi86

2 жыл бұрын

yep

I live in a large two story Victorian. I love my attic fan. During the fall and spring I open my windows, run the attic fan, and cool the entire house. Then I keep the house shut up during the day, and it stays cool.

@SousChef77

4 жыл бұрын

I love them too, especially at night. Sleep like a baby. Only problem is the extra work cleaning due to all the dust. Give and take aside, I still would want an attic fan.

I hate open floor plans because I much prefer my living spaces to be warm and cozy. Nothing cozy about massive empty space.

@marcobot7694

4 жыл бұрын

Open floor plan doesn't equal massive empty space. In the Netherlands open floor plan is popular because otherwise you'll end up with rooms as small as your bathroom. My kitchen is 7,2 m2/ 23.622 quare ft. I'd feel very clostrofobic if it was a closed of room.

@ryanbarker5217

3 жыл бұрын

i agree, it's very uncomfortable, and the 'room to entertain' is the opposite of a selling feature to me.

@void________

3 жыл бұрын

I agree..they are harder to decoratetoo, with those awkward angles or no place to rest the eye. 3 rooms in 1 can be overwhelming.

I hate the open floor plan with such a burning passion it seems so 2005 it's already not aging well

@MysticHeather

3 жыл бұрын

People do all these semi or even mostly permanent changes to homes and furniture bc it’s on trend and they get trend tunnel vision, not realizing that in 5 or 10 years they’ll be desperately trying to change them back to the new trend which will actually be the old original look. There is no point in following those trends none at all

@guardianoftheduat

3 жыл бұрын

@@MysticHeather honestly I can't wait for that like take the kitchen for example I currently live in a house with an open floor plan and once in a while when I'm in the kitchen I just feel exposed maybe it's just my anxiety but either way I don't like it

I just like to have an area to formally dine so that my guests can focus on looking at each other and a beautiful room, not all the chaos of where the meal was prepped. You just live in a box if walls don't seperate for privacy, cooling/heat, and smells.

I hate open floor plans. No privacy, everything is on display, and it's difficult to have different themes per area. Also, if I don't want to cool or heat a particular area of an open area, I have no choice. Closed rooms, easy, close registers and the door.

@aprilsno43012

5 жыл бұрын

it's a marketing scheme for the construction industry. there are more existing older homes than new builds. i have a 1925 craftsman bungalow home. i'm not going to knock down the walls and increase my heating and cooling bill.

@dallastaylor5479

5 жыл бұрын

They always feel like apartments. I miss the old houses that have character.

@darkchurchhill

5 жыл бұрын

Open floor planes are nice though in a small houses/ condos because it gives the living area an illusion of space. I like privacy too, but I can use bedrooms for that.

@NatureShy

5 жыл бұрын

Closed floor plans feel claustrophobic. Open floor plans both make the area feel more spacious and more inviting.

@MrKkdkk

5 жыл бұрын

Also for me it's easier to clean separate small rooms instead of a big open space

I hate open concept. I like a formal dining room and at least half a wall in the kitchen.

Open floor plans are a scam in a lot of cases, in my opinion. They seem to work out OK making small spaces feel larger and can let in more light. Otherwise I fail to understand what drives homeowners to convert their homes into Manhattan-like studio apartments. "Oh I can see the kids while I'm cooking". In a few short years you'd wish you couldn't as they're sprawled all over the next room with their noisy friends. Speaking of noise - without some amount of wall division between rooms, noise just bounces around everywhere, all privacy is gone, or at least some amount of isolation when needed is gone. Paint schemes and decorating can be a challenge, too. In a sense, a builder is saving on building materials, mechanical, electrical and finishes by eliminating room partitions.

@brt5273

4 жыл бұрын

My anxiety is rising just reading that lol

@ryanbarker5217

3 жыл бұрын

it also allows these t.v. 'remodelers' a great excuse not to actually have to design every room. people watch enough of this crap, think it's the hep thing to do, and start to want it as if being brain-washed. there are a few cases where opening a room up would be nice, just not like living in a sparsely decorated barn.

@lysan4878

3 жыл бұрын

That’s not true. I’m sure there are many people who actually like their kids and like being a part of their lives. I had a old sectioned house and the kids and their friends still came in the kitchen to talk to me or wherever. I will never understand people that have kids but don’t actually want to spend time with them. Maybe that’s why even my adult kids and I are close and they never got mixed up in bad stuff when they were younger because I didn’t tell them and their friends to go away.

@johnstraley9057

3 жыл бұрын

@@lysan4878 In that case let's agree it's a personal life style choice; just not mine.

I’m reminded of a This Old House they did out in Los Angeles where the home had what looked like a wooden chimney with vents running up from the basement. It was a “California Cooler” that would pull the cooler air from the basement up into the rest of the house. Story also fails to mention that A/C tech is getting smarter, and if net zero homes become a thing, you can run your A/C off of your own solar panels.

@danielfronc4304

4 жыл бұрын

Right on. Today's minimal specs when replacing AC/Heat pumps are ridiculously high, and expensive. My new heat pump for our 3 level 20 foot wide townhouse built around 1990 is half the size of a 5 passenger compact car. Honestly.

@gearandalthefirst7027

3 жыл бұрын

Running your AC off solar panels is still wasteful, you require more resources (including conflict minerals) for bigger panels and A/Cs actually generate heat because of thermodynamics. Insulation and architecture is more important than where your energy is coming from

@joermnyc

3 жыл бұрын

@@gearandalthefirst7027 This Old House did a renovation/expansion of a house in Rhode Island with Net Zero tech, they accounted for as many of these issues as they could (and put all the solar panels on a big salt box roof on the newly built “barn” out back to maximize power generation (most of the time they were selling power back into the grid.)

@peggyt1243

3 жыл бұрын

You would need an entire block of solar panels to run A/C and I doubt your neighbors will allow you to cover their roof with them. Do the math

@MysticHeather

3 жыл бұрын

@@peggyt1243 wouldn’t that depend on how much A/C you’re running and where you live??

That open kitchen means you get to smell and hear everything that happens in the kitchen and it does not always smell so good, and can be very noisy.

Cheddar had intrigued me, but where are the science journal sources? O.o One cannot believe a business without evidence.

@halincandenza7640

5 жыл бұрын

this video is basically a short version of episode 291 "thermal delight" of 99% invisible

@zacknicley8150

5 жыл бұрын

They quoted HGTV and that’s enough for me.

my childhood home has a pretty open floor plan, which has largely worked out since I have a pretty tight knit family. I imagine that if your family had more strained relations, it’d suck. It’s a nice house to hang out with your family in, but it’s not great for having friends over because nowhere feels private. You can pretty much hear everything in the house from any spot. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Living in a heavily wooded area of Mississippi, my parents knew we would loose electricity often, so they built our house with high 12 foot ceilings, windows that allow for circulation, concrete floors that stay cool in the summer, and high attic space to draw the hot air into it. Though we lost electricity the other day due to a strong storm, the inside of the house never really got over 78 degrees F, while outside was easily near 85. Also large overhangs on the porches allow us to avoid direct day sunlight to any of the windows in the house which also helps.

this video is all over the place. Critiques open floor plans but then brings in climate change. Mentions architecture from hundreds of years ago as a standard but its actually not effictient to today's standards. 100 years ago people used to put newspapers in the wall to keep the "draft out" but people didn't know they actually wanted to keep the heat inside. That's why R values were created. This video feels like a sophomore in college making a video with too many broad ideas and no details. Stick to the subject of the video.

@TheDeathmail

5 жыл бұрын

Here is the issue, they are using a 4 minute video to talk about a topic that's not simple. And what they are saying is that older buildings often were built around their climate and area while newer houses often do not do such a thing as often. They weren't saying that the older buildings used the best methods, but the best ideas.

@stimulationii

5 жыл бұрын

I like your reply. It has a good counter argument. I feel like the video didn't explain things well enough and thats why theres so many negative comments. I disagree also with the concept that past generations had the best ideas.

@seameus91

5 жыл бұрын

the sound is all over the place too

@TheMasterhomaster

5 жыл бұрын

It’s Cheddar. They hobble together a video to make money. Accuracy and quality isn’t their goal, it’s money. Just like a sophomore in college wasn’t to pass the class not be perfect at it.

@SynthAir

5 жыл бұрын

@@TheMasterhomaster A business wants to make money? Say it ain't so! :P

My parents went open plan in most of the downstairs and it's a pain! If someone is cooking with the extractor on or the washing machine is spinning you can't watch TV at a reasonable volume. If someone's having a phone call you can hear it everywhere. You can't shut children out of the kitchen when messing around with hot pans. It's freezing cold half of the year. The future of housing isn't a return to ticky tacky boxes of the 50s, it's passive houses like earthships that rely on mass for capturing and releasing heat and smart design with windows etc.

@joer8854

4 жыл бұрын

What your describing is problems with the building code, not design.

@frenchbreadstupidity7054

4 жыл бұрын

@@joer8854 Yeah they're whining about putting noisy appliances into the big open room instead of in a scullery- I haven't seen one open plan house which doesn't have a closed scullery to hide the dirty dishes, probably because my country has decent architects and individual owners, and not the mass manufacturing garbage from corporate owned US suburbs. I lived in a wood open plan most of my life with no heating, cooling, or range hoods, and lots of nautical light and this never posed any problems. Now I'm in a brick suburb house where the lights need to be on all day, we hear the washing machine because it's against the living room wall, and the rooms without North sun are frigid during both the summer and winter.

I legitimately cannot stand open concept. I don’t want to make sure my entire home is immaculate when people come over. Let me have a messy kitchen! So I can focus on having fun and not the mess.

House fires spread far faster with open floor plans, too. Several of my family members were firefighters, and they always told me to keep doors shut to slow down a fire.

@dtimboggs

4 жыл бұрын

Yes closing doors slows smoke distribution in a home (the smoke usually kills you before the fire does). But building homes with sprinkler systems quashes the fire before it has a chance to spread. Check out nfsa.org/

Most people I have ever broached this subject with where I live(Midwest USA) also don't understand the love affair with the open layout. The newest house I ever lived in was built in 1950, the current one in 1900 and I love a traditional home.

As much as I appreciate my wife cooking, I can't stand how in an open floor plan the T.V. competes with clanking cookware.

I hate the “open” style. I don’t want other people looking into my business.

@hauntedshadowslegacy2826

3 жыл бұрын

(Psst, open floorplans don't involve every single room; your bathrooms can still be closed off.)

@rich7447

3 жыл бұрын

@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826 I haven't seen an open plan that doesn't have additional areas that you can escape to if you want to. Our entire lower level is escape space (bar, wine room, movie area, snooker, gym etc).

I actually get anxious in big open spaces... I like walls and little enclosed rooms. The open concepts thing is definitely not for me

@TropicalityCat

8 ай бұрын

Yea I get it, I know some people like that. They should make some with more closed floor plans.

I can't stand open layouts now that I actually live in them, yeah it's a great concept, But living with it sucks, Anytime your wife is doing dishes you got turn up the TV, every time she's reading in "another room" you have to turn it down lol or every time someone is doing something another room so are you... no privacy or piece and quiet.

@matvanhorn1858

5 жыл бұрын

I've got an audio background and agree. I try to caution builders/homeowners about it but...There are things you can do to absorb sound and still keep the open concept and look nice.

@amandastypul4399

5 жыл бұрын

Help your wife with the dishes, offer to dry if she washes. Instead of turning the TV up or down to accommodate what she is doing, turn it OFF and do something with your partner. Or invest in a pair of wireless headphones and completely isolate if you'd rather.

@nguboyengwekaluvuyo6219

5 жыл бұрын

Amanda Stypul Or maybe the dishwashing machine is too loud?

@scottyee707

5 жыл бұрын

After working 8 to 10 hours to pay the bills and make the money that bought the dishes while she does nothing but watching Netflix… Not my job. Plus my wife is happy to do them so she can pitch in. And I have a standing offer with her, she can go to work anytime she wants, and I'll be a stay-at-home dad, so this is not my choice. I didn't say anything about isolating myself I just prefer to live in other houses I had, that were a lot cozier and quieter, But then again I look at a house different than most people I don't spend most of my day in the house so when I do, I like to use it to sleep and relax and that's about it, Otherwise I'm doing some type of outdoor activity.

@cali-kawa2864

5 жыл бұрын

There seems to be different ways of life which underpin the different house styles. I’m wondering if the differences are also regional too.

Open plan houses are all good until you have a family and want some privacy and alone space

@Milesco

5 жыл бұрын

@ "um t" : Totally agree.

@willardchi2571

5 жыл бұрын

Open floor plans aren't good when you live by yourself, either.

@mattwolf7698

5 жыл бұрын

Go to bedroom then.

@phoenixfritzinger9185

4 жыл бұрын

Matt Wolf no computer in bedroom, it’s in the office which is part of the open concept area

@eechauch5522

4 жыл бұрын

Moira O'Deorain well, including the office as part of the open space is just stupid. But that’s more of individual design problem, then a general. Open space is usually about kitchen and living room, so the communal part of the house. Everything else can still be closed off, while still being an open space house.

It is so difficult to keep a kitchen organized and clean all the time. I'd drive myself crazy thinking that anyone walking in the front door will see my random stains, wrinkly dishtowels, greasy cabinet doors, flour on the counter, etc.

@MysticHeather

3 жыл бұрын

Yes!! My thoughts exactly!!

@jatpack3

3 жыл бұрын

It makes the house seem bigger.

Pluses for open floor plans - feels more spacious, allows the cook to interact with family and guests. Minuses - If the kitchen is a mess then everything looks like a mess. Cook can't be alone if he/she wants to be. Can't hear the tv over the noises in the kitchen. Can't have a separate decorating decor from the living area. May feel too modern for some homes.

@ryanbarker5217

3 жыл бұрын

people i know who cook prefer to have a proper kitchen to themselves as they don't want it to be a spectator sport. of course, others would like the 'interaction' with people as opposed to them being the inevitable distraction as feeling as if they're being watched.

Am I the only one here who likes open floor plans? at least for the main level. Want privacy? Go to a bedroom. The REAL problem is that home ventilation systems don't have a way to monitor different rooms or floors and redirect air flow only where needed. Thermostat is on the first floor by the stairs and main hallway, its set to 70. Thermometer in the basement says it's 65 and the second floor is like 73 or 74. Yeah I close vents on different floors depending on the season to redirect the cold or hot air but it would be so much easier if home air-conditioning units could monitor multiple zones and redirect air to them individually. Heck maybe even incorporate motion sensors and other advanced schedules to avoid heating/cooling rooms or floors not in use.

@jenwhite8832

5 жыл бұрын

Don Jacobs I like open floor plans. I have lived in a house with a different room for everything, and after many years we have started taking walls down. We have a few sliding doors in so we can still have privacy when we need or want it, but it’s a lot less restrictive this way, and we use our space better

@djw1091994

5 жыл бұрын

@@jenwhite8832 especially for having people over. Sliding doors is a good idea.

@tomwebb3081

5 жыл бұрын

It's not just privacy, but distractions. If I'm working in the study area of an open plan house, and noise, cooking and activity is occurring elsewhere then how productive do you think I am? Yes, you can argue that you could put the computer in a bedroom but that's a terrible design thought - bedrooms are for sleeping, not work, not escaping, but sleeping. Make a room for relaxation and rest associated with work and stress and it will effect your quality of sleep.

@nightc1

5 жыл бұрын

Yes, a smarter HVAC would be great. I think a possible solution for multifloors wouldn't be more HVAC but rather a separate system for redistributing and balancing the house. So air is moved from the cooler floor to the higher floors with basic ducts and duct fans. It's typically a bad idea to close vents off completely. Go watch a few videos on HVAC balancing. It typically leads to a lower life for the unit and/or parts simply failing. If nothing bad has happened yet, it's possible your unit is undersized for the space.

@djw1091994

5 жыл бұрын

@@nightc1 well it's a new house, and fairly new system. It already recirculates air inside but it instead of having multiple intake vents in the house it pulls air from one location on the main floor with a giant 4x5ft opening.

the worst thing about open floor plans are the family rooms, the ceiling are always thirty feet high. i feel like i’m in an office building not a home.

@WonderfulWorldofAwesomeness

3 жыл бұрын

Exactly. And ever since covid, offices are rethinking the open concept also. People need walls and places to get away from each other being in each others face all the time, breathing each other’s air and hearing each other’s conversations

@jatpack3

3 жыл бұрын

High ceilings are good for warm climates.

@WonderfulWorldofAwesomeness

3 жыл бұрын

@@jatpack3 oh, yeah, high ceilings are great. I live in San Francisco where tall ceilings from Victorian and Edwardian buildings are the norm. I feel claustrophobic in places with low ceilings. But the big open concept rooms of newer construction make me feel like I’m in an office building. All of that echo! I prefer lots of smaller rooms with tall ceilings. Private spaces

Thank you for making this. My grandfather was one of the pioneers of passive solar heating and cooling. This has been a known issue since at least the 70s, but getting the word out that convenience comes with problems has been a challenge.

I have to say people in America really are crazy in their use of aircon. Coming from Italy where the summer gets really hot the families who have aircon (because not everybody does) don't keep it as high and always on. I remember being shocked when I visited Miami and it was the perfect summer temperature outside, warm with a breeze, and as soon as I went inside a shop or a gallery (I actually went for the art fair) I had to put a sweater on...A SWEATER in summer. That had never happened to me before. I have the same criticism for London, where I live. In the winter everywhere you go is blazing hot inside and you see people wearing t-shirts or vests when outside is freezing... This thing has gotten out of hand, our bodies need seasons, they need to regulate body temperature and they are now losing the ability to do it. It's so incredibly wasteful! We should build homes that are well insulated with more sustainable materials and with spaces designed for efficiency. Who wouldn't like to spend less in bills and live better?

@TheMasterhomaster

5 жыл бұрын

Caterana Tonnē Fleur it’s cultural. Now welcome to America and enjoy your glass of 90% ice and 10% beverage!

@caterinanasini1320

5 жыл бұрын

@@TheMasterhomaster It's a culture of waste! So silly, all manufactured.

@moth4256

5 жыл бұрын

i dont even have AC at home, though i do live at 56 degrees latitude so it may be colder than normal here normally

@npeace312

4 жыл бұрын

I live in hot and humid Florida and would never live here without air conditioning. It would be absolutely miserable.

@caterinanasini1320

4 жыл бұрын

@@npeace312 But do you need to feel like it's winter inside? I don't think so. This is the problem, exaggeration. If it's summer, it's meant to be hot, make it so you won't collapse and even if you sweat a bit so be it. That's what Summer is about, heat. That is my point.

I’ve always preferred an enclosed kitchen to keep the fumes and smells away from the rest of the house.

@phoenixfritzinger9185

4 жыл бұрын

Or flour, that stuff gets everywhere Heaven forbid like a crockpot explodes

There are a lot of quality videos about architecture and engineering on youtube. This clearly isn’t one of them. No mention of building materials or insulation? Or solar panels to power air conditioners? This video doesn’t want to educate you, it just wants to make you feel bad about your lifestyle.

I don’t like open floor plans. I feel like the kitchen needs to be its own space. Feels more sanitary. I don’t like walking in the front door and the kitchen is right there. Also it’s nice to go to a quiet corner of the house and get some privacy.

thanks for FINALLY covering this!! In texas - ive seen these huge homes and they have no regard for the hot summers here

I don't like open floor plans. I love to cook, but I don't want to cook in the middle of a crowd. I want to be closed off in the kitchen by myself to work my alchemy undisturbed. I don't want guests or family milling around and distracting me. I also don't want my dinner guests to have a direct line of sight during dinner to dirty pots and pans on the stove and kitchen counter tops. Ugh. What gets my goat, does every child in the US need his or her own bathroom? Really? They do if you watch HGTV (the over-sized, open-concept living space shill for home builders, contractors, and Realtors). However did many of us grow up in a home where we had to share a bathroom? Is that considered living below the poverty line, and did we not realize at the time that we were practically indigent because we shared a bathroom with a sibling or two? The question I always ask, that goes unanswered at the end of every Love it or List it, Fixer Upper, House Hunters, etc., is who the hell cleans all that square footage? Who the hell cleans all those bathrooms? And the big one for me, how does the kitchen remain spotless all the time? Could I ever keep a kitchen presentable enough for open concept living? It makes my head hurt just to contemplate all the non-stop tidying up that would be required.

@mklamklamkla

5 жыл бұрын

I think it's more of a thing of people having less children and, therefore, more disposable income for their children to have their own bathroom. Like on most HGTV shows that I've seen, people have no more than 3 children. On average, usually two. Personally, I think it also has to do with the rise of McMansions and people's desire to appear of wealthy through having multiple bathrooms that could easily be replaced with bedrooms.

@D8W2P4

5 жыл бұрын

I've lived in houses with only 1 bathroom you will QUICKLY get tired of it and want a bathroom for every person in the house as a result. There's having opinions but some are just wrong no matter what.

@purrlgurrl3061

5 жыл бұрын

@@D8W2P4 I live in a house with one bathroom and we actually are considerate of each other so it's rarely an issue. That's something that's disappeared from most Americans' behavior today - consideration of others. No my opinion is not wrong and neither is yours. We just have vastly different values.

@purrlgurrl3061

5 жыл бұрын

@@mklamklamkla I think much of the time it's about trying to instill envy in family and friends. See how much better a house I have than you do. We have a looming disaster from global warming, yet here are these HGTV shills wasting money and resources on heating and cooling large numbers of rooms and vast open spaces. I bet some of these televised dunderheads bring their own bags when buying groceries and think that's doing everything they can to save the Earth.

@D8W2P4

5 жыл бұрын

@@purrlgurrl3061 You are going to run into issues almost constantly if more than one person needs to go to the bathroom at the same time for any reason be it going off someplace (work, school, doctor, etc.) , getting ready for bed, or heaven help you more than one person with some kind of GI issue. Consideracy won't help you then. >We have a looming disaster from global warming. No we do not, they've had to change the term to "climate change" because they can't point to the temp actually rising like their apocalyptic predictions claim while in places it's getting colder. Then there's the issue of WE'VE JUST COME OUT OF AN ICE AGE THAT HAD MOST OF THE US, EUROPE, AND ASIA COVERED IN ICE AND SNOW A HUNDRED FEET OR MORE THICK.

No, no, no!! The future of house design is Passive House, not old-school designs. For one thing, the air is so polluted in most places that unless the house is sealed up, superinsulated. and actively ventilated (HEPA-filtered, and heat-recovery, of course), letting the house ventilate accidentally will just bring in bad-to-breathe particulate matter and/or ground-level ozone. The only places stack and accidental ventilation would work is in a relatively temperate climate (and where would that be anymore?) with very little outdoor air pollution. I have to agree though, that shows like Property Brothers are ridiculous and bad for the planet's climate.

My husband and I built our home and it’s in the French Country manor style. The kitchen, breakfast nook, and the great room (family room) are open concept. Dining room and study are their own space which are separated by large French doors if you want privacy, and bedrooms are closed off and are accessed by long hallways (like corridors).

Are there any comprehensive books on architecture that you recommend?

i LOVED living in an open layout house..for about a month, then it started to really get on my nerves. You're watching a documentary and your kids are playing and you can hear everything so you have to turn the volume up or you want it dark in the living room but someones in the kitchen doing something so you have to just live with it or youre in the dining room trying to have a conversation with your wife and the kids are in the living room being loud...you have no privacy or way to block anything out and not to mention if you forget to close the blinds/curtains your neighbors or worse can see all throughout your house...nope, glad were back to a more closed off design now, it doesnt look as nice but were all much happier...oh yeah the climate and energy junk is good too i guess

@Sollace

3 жыл бұрын

Same. I don't understand the appeal of open-plan. I don't like it, though there is a middle ground to be had: I used to live in a house where you only had the living room and dining room connected. Everything else was in its separate rooms with the bedrooms and bathrooms down the passage in a separate part of the house. Kitchen as well was separate but attached to the laundry room on the end and a door out to the garden.

Good to see what cheddar is doing

This is a good video, covering the energy efficiency / air conditioning problem well. There are other issues with open plans as well. As a residential designer I try to guide clients towards a more balanced approach to open and closed spaces. So often people think they want "wide open plans", like the man in the video who talks about seeing every corner of the house from the kitchen. But so often, after the fact, people realize they don't necessarily want to see the kitchen from every corner of the house. There are also problems with having no social spaces people can retreat to. If one person wants to watch the football game on TV while several others are having a quiet conversation, the open plan poses problems. I find a good arrangement is to have a family space open around the kitchen but to have a separate, smaller, more formal living room as well. This provides people with choices about where and how they want to socialize. This works even in smaller homes. A lot of British houses have a room called a "snug" which serves this purpose nicely. It can be small enough to seat just 2 people but it provides a choice.

You forgot about how noisy it gets when you add kitchen noise to the party

@frankpinmtl

3 жыл бұрын

You never noticed how the party always ends up in the kitchen, anyways?

Open floorpans are great if you live alone. I've often thought it would be cool to have a space like those converted loft-spaces in which it is, basically, a big,, open floor and you define the "rooms" by the layout of furniture. Picture Seth Brundle's place in the movie, "The Fly." Kitchen, bedroom, living area, even his workspace, all occupying separate areas in a completely open floorspace. Pretty cool, for ONE person. But if you live with other people, you want some privacy, sure, but more basically, you want to be able to engage in different activities at the same time without interfering with other people. For instance, the most common "open plan" has the kitchen open to the living/family room, sometimes called a "Great Room." But what people do in these two rooms is very different and should be separated. Mostly, in the living/family room, people watch TV. Mostly, in the kitchen, people cook or eat. You want to be able to watch TV without hearing the sounds of cooking and you want to be able to cook or eat a meal without hearing the TV show someone else is watching. I really don't see why people think opening these two spaces to each other make sense. Someone working or eating in the kitchen might even want to listen to the radio/podcast or watch a different TV than someone else is watching in the living room. It makes sense to have a wall separating these rooms, but eliminating the wall between them seems to be the most common form of "open" floor-plan.

My house is a 1930s Sears catalogue house! This was super interesting.

Excellent points about cooling and energy!

Good topic, one that needs to be thought out much more. Most of my friends have houses with one furnace and air conditioning unit that attempts to keep the entire house the same temperature. It doesn’t work great for multi story houses that get really warm in the sleeping area & uselessly cool the downstairs all night long. We stumbled on a fairly efficient system with our 1963 rambler. It didn’t have ducts for AC, which was fine until the 2000s when the climate here in Maryland got much hotter and more humid. After too many years of window units, we had mini splits installed in most rooms. Now, we heat or cool the parts of the house we are in. We don’t heat/cool the bedrooms during the day, and don’t heat/cool living areas at night. We also have two big oak trees shading our house in summer and letting winter sun warm us in winter.

I’m thankful to just live in a home.

There was far to many generalization in this post to make it useful. But it did remind me that a whole house fan is great cost effective cooling option. And relatively easy retrofit for most houses. I turn it on at night to cool the house then turn it off and shut the windows and partially close some window shade on the south side of my house in the morning. I also have ceiling fans in most room. So by using the whole house and ceiling fans I use the AC only on a handful of days in the summer. A few caveats this will only work for ppl willing to deal with some variation in temp and humidity in there house. And high humidity is the many limiting factor in my case. For ppl thinking the fans will use more electric the AC it's not true they use about 10% or less than what using a conventional air to air heat pump based AC unit would require. Its also relatively cheap and the only mechanical or electric based unit in my house that has never need replacing or servicing. So its lasted over 30 yrs and still works fine. There is few other considerations, so if this make anyone interested in install one feel free to get back to me. www.energy.gov/energysaver/home-cooling-systems/cooling-whole-house-fan

The fact that we take climate into almost zero consideration when we build homes is actually a pretty insane thing

I read a government pamphlet 20 years ago that said to plant deciduous trees on the south side of the house. Today those trees are 30 feet tall and making shade.

@astranger448

2 жыл бұрын

And in winter the leaves drop of so they let the light in.

This sounds identical to parts of 2 different podcast episode from Endless Thread, I mean word for word. Somebody ripped someone off.

@Lillystromhollow

5 жыл бұрын

Tim Fevens omg!!!!!!

@kcindc5539

4 жыл бұрын

Uh-huh...... now you’re catching on

@Mikesell357

4 жыл бұрын

Its almost a condensed version of 99% Invisible's "Thermal Delight"

Checkout Queenslander houses, they're beautiful and passively cooled in the hot Australian summer

we listened to the beginning of the little boxes song in my very first year of learning english as a child in school. i understood the words but have never, until this day, known that this song was about houses. my mind is blown now.

@asage2499

3 жыл бұрын

LOL All my life my Mom referred to some houses as "ticky tacky" houses, and I didn't know what it meant 'til I was older. Fun note: she and her sisters called romance novels "ticky tackies" :D

Open concept is great... If every part of your house is clean lol. And in my case my house has at least two cluttered places and its convinient to be able to close a door to the dining room when my kitchen is a mess. No one is trying to cook AND clean at the exact time when guest are over. With a closed concept you can cook and cause a mess in the kitchen, serve your guests then clean up after.

It's incredible for me, that I'm from a Latin American country, how much energy people waste in developed countries. For example when they're in winter with -20°C they just turn up the heat so they can walk in underwear inside their houses. Don't they know the word "save"?? It's winter!! Put on a sweater and you don't need to set the heat so high 🤦🏻‍♂️

@hipporage18

5 жыл бұрын

lowens793 you don’t want to be comfortable in your own house?

@nc3826

5 жыл бұрын

Agreed abundance in some developed countries can breed wastefulness. But in my opinion its better than the alternative south of the border in countries like Mexico or worse Venezuela where the main problem is survival... So pick your poison...

@vagingo

5 жыл бұрын

I try to keep my house at about 70°F year round. If that means turning on the heat, i will.

@nc3826

5 жыл бұрын

I Rate Your Comment as useless....

@isaackarjala7916

5 жыл бұрын

I set the thermostat based on what it takes to keep the pipes from freezing, that happens to be warm enough to walk around naked (pipes are ran through an uninsulated basement.... )

My only problem with open floor plans is that I I’d have to keep the kitchen neat all the time, which is unrealistic. Haha!

My next house I’m planning to build without AC. It will be in an area that has plenty of wind, so I’m building it to have large openable windows in ideal locations to allow wind to come through. It’s also to be built with heavily insulated glass and a heated concrete floor (large thermal block) to help with warmth in the winter. I’m keeping the house small, with partial open and partially closed off rooms styling. I’m also angling a shed roof on it to maximize solar panel use on the roof. My family members with allergies are currently undergoing allergy shot series so we can have the windows open in the future.

We moved into a 1925 house full of walls and doors that close. My hate of open floorplans goes back a long way.

Never liked open plan houses purely for aesthetic reasons. I like to have many cosy rooms each with a specific purpuse. And you can have mid-century, victorian and contemprary styilng in one house across different rooms-something you can't do in an open plan house or a stupid studio flat :p

@jpe1

5 жыл бұрын

Roman Bukins not everyone can afford a 5000 sq. ft. McMansion to have a different room for a specific purpose. The idea of having a separate sewing room, laundry room, “rec room,” home office, home theater, etc etc just isn’t feasible in a sub-1200 sq. ft. home; the rooms have to be multi purpose and as such need to be large enough for their largest task. Thus, in my 1100 sq. ft. Sears kit home, the bathroom, a separate room, is just big enough to contain tub, sink, and toilet, yet the dining room, which needs to accommodate large groups for meals, is literally half the house and also functions as living room, tv room, and guest bedroom. Every home on my street is a kit home that was originally built with multiple tiny rooms and homeowners over the years have opened up the floorplans on all of them. I don’t think that was done to conform to current architectural trends (though I wouldn’t say those weren’t a factor).

@romanbukins6527

5 жыл бұрын

John Early Lol :) my family apartment is 1200ft exactly and I still think having my kitchen in my bedroom is a poor idea. Plus I have a LOT of stuff I like to put on shelfs so I NEED walls...And again-think of the theming potential. Having a sewing room is little silly but open plan is every bit as dumb in my opinion. And so are 5000ft mcmansions. But I'd never want to open up what I have...

@splingusbugs

5 жыл бұрын

Yes, I moved into a historic victorian house and heating/cooling is a lot cheaper. Not only do those separated rooms help this but 110 years ago houses were built much better too.

I watched the video and I'm still waiting for the "surprising problem of open layout homes". It talks about how modern American home designs suck at passive cooling, which I agree with, but that's not why I clicked on this video. Down vote.

@phoenixfritzinger9185

4 жыл бұрын

They’re noisy and you end up getting kitchen mess like flour and grease everywhere

@Ritaaw1

4 жыл бұрын

Moira O'Deorain I live in a 37 square meter apartment and that is my exsct problem. I found a rare type of a small apartment with a separate bedroom and I’m so happy about it. It’s 35 square meters and it should be fine because 37 has been too big for me as I live alone.

Also the materials and position affect the isolation, my house is mostly concrete and the living room stays unde 80° F in a over 100° F day

You hit the nail on the head!! I save a ton of money and electric by being in a closed concept house. I love it!!

Open floor plans also allow fire to spread much more easily.

@becketw7867

5 жыл бұрын

ZOMBIE GUT kill studs aren’t metal

@glencoppola813

5 жыл бұрын

New construction is made of crappy light weight construction which burns hotter and faster. Less likely to save a building.

@splingusbugs

5 жыл бұрын

@@zombiegutkill8043 Almost all of today's houses are built mass production style. That means they have to be as cheap as possible to build. They use cheap materials, thin the walls out, create faulty plumbing, anything to make it cheaper to build. Today's average home is built like a big match house.

@splingusbugs

5 жыл бұрын

kill wdym, I'm just speaking facts. Even really nice houses today are built cheaply.

@seraphina985

5 жыл бұрын

@@glencoppola813 Yeah to be fair the internal doors between rooms in most residential houses would probably not last even a minute of moderate to severe direct flame exposure. I mean the typical internal door consists structurally of a few flimsy wooden struts sandwiched between a couple of pieces of thin plywood hardly anything even close to being an effective fire door. Not that an internal stud wall would likely stop objects in the next room igniting from heat transfer alone for much longer than a minute or two. That said even older buildings wont slow an established fire down for long as many do use timber frames for the internal portions of the building and supporting the floors etc even when they have a decently built brick outer shell and they don't generally have decent fireproof insulation for the internal walls (If they do it's probably asbestos which is less than ideal for other reasons). Frankly fire safety aspects of the building codes for small structures especially domestic ones leave a lot to be desired course in most domestic residences with an air conditioning system the fire and smoke would spread easily throughout the house via the air conditioning ducts. Generally it is only larger structures that are required to have somewhat decent passive fire protection like well fire insulated walls and rated fire doors let alone active fire protection systems like sprinklers and smoke/fire control systems as part of their HVAC system to prevent them acting as a building wide common chimney to spread the smoke and fire to the entire building with alarming speed. Hell a lot of places were reluctant to even get around to requiring a fire warning system like a smoke detector in private residential units especially ones that were not being used as rental properties let alone any kind of actual fire protection system that might do something useful to slow the fire down and potentially help protect parts of the structure as well as the occupants.

Just get solar. Apocalypse averted.

@mrsnowboardcrazy

5 жыл бұрын

Jebediah Kerman solar panels aren’t a consistent enough source of power, they are also terrible for the environment when disposed of

@davidhood9712

5 жыл бұрын

Get a powerwall.

@Briahna13

5 жыл бұрын

Right! Like she said the only alternative is to build a lot more power plants 🙄🤔

@holmiumh

5 жыл бұрын

Yeah, get more to solve an overconsumption problem, brilliant.

@julianskinner3697

5 жыл бұрын

Solar panels and a car for battery storage

No mention of window shades? One of the most effective measures to take?

Ok that too and the fact that you can hear anything from any distance in a house with so much open soacw

by 2050 Solar, wind, and nuclear will be a lot more common. Not to mention a lot more efficient and smart systems

@YSLRD

5 жыл бұрын

All have serious drawbacks. Solar is expensive to make and harmful to dispose.Wind turbines decimate bird populations( think 40 ft feral cat) and nuclear- well, Fukushima.

@Stormfox93

5 жыл бұрын

@@YSLRD Solar, true. The problem with wind turbines is not the bird population decimation, it is the fact that the source is unreliable and not profitable enough. The direct radiation from Fukushima killed a total of zero (0) people. The emergency evacuation killed more people than the Fukushima meltdown did (about 1600). Chernobyl only 31 people died as a direct effect from the disaster. About 60.000 (estimate) people died indirectly from Chernobyl. (sourced from WHO). While the burning of fossil fuels and biomass is estimated to cause 3 million deaths worldwide per year and indoor air pollution from biomass and fossil fuel burning is estimated to cause approximately 4.3 million premature deaths. Nuclear energy creates nuclear waste too, but it is stored underground in storage facilities (it doesn't go back into nature!). Nuclear waste itself is not even that harmful as people believe it is. Also, nuclear energy plants create isotopes needed for diagnosing and treating cancer. If anything. Nuclear energy is safer, more reliable and less harmful than any other alternative energy source at this moment.

air conditioning is a family value of mine. so being able to keep it going is important.

I live in a ranch house with an open kitchen/dining room and living room. The rest of the house is closed off. It was in 1977 and the most that has changed floor plan wise is adding a spiral staircase to the basement. Having a house too open doesn’t feel like a house to me. I like my homes cozy.

Where I'm from we get like 90°F in Summer but we don't really have any ACs here, if we have one it's for the highest floor of the house.