Storage space - a growing problem

Yolande Barnes, Wayne Hemingway, Rod Stone, Annet van der Horn and Chris Drury discuss the issue of diminishing space standards.

Lack of storage is one of the most common causes of complaint for residents in new homes. It is a problem that raises a number of questions, both practical - as land prices rise and space standards shrink, how can more storage be provided? - and philosophical: why do some people amass more possessions than others? Is the answer related to class, profession or education? Do we need to be trained in what to throw away, and how to store our essentials? Building for Life spoke to a number of specialists in the field, in the UK and overseas, to explore these and other questions from a range of perspectives.

 

The property specialist

Yolande Barnes - Head of research at Savills and member of the Building for Life judging panel

\"Storage is a fundamental problem facing the housing market. Space standards are going down, and as a consequence storage and other non essential elements of housing provision are being squeezed. I suspect that there is a direct correlation between declining space standards and the growth of self-storage companies. I also imagine that there is a link between parking problems and storage needs, because so many private garages are now used for storage.\"

\"Space is at such a premium that developers, and housing occupants, are making decisions about the best way to use the space that is available. Developers are less likely to devalue a property if they keep the second bathroom rather than sacrifice it to build cupboards into the spare bedroom.\"

\"In general I think that developers are right not to build too much storage into properties. Flexibility is an issue here. Storage means so many different things to different people. Building customised storage solutions into properties can actually be counterproductive. In the second home market, I bet that quite a lot of built-in storage is very quickly ripped out when the property is sold to make way for the newcomers different needs.\"

\"Lack of storage does remain an issue however. We did some research a few years ago, asking new homeowners what they thought. One of the biggest complaints was a lack of storage space. Having said this, there is little evidence to suggest that people would be prepared to pay more for buildings with storage. Where people are prepared to pay more for storage space, it clearly isn't sufficient to cover the additional land, build costs and developer premium needed to provide it. If it was, the market would already be providing it.\"

 

The designer

Wayne Hemingway - Designer and Chair of Building for Life

\"In recent years houses have shrunk considerably, but at the same time we've become wealthier, and as a consequence more acquisitive. People like to collect things. It makes them happy.\"

\"We shouldn't try to stop people living the way they want to live. We should be catering for people's lifestyles. The Japanese are very good at this, providing flexible layouts, with less emphasis on circulation spaces. We're a bit obsessed with designing homes that are suited to everybody, partly because planning brings everything down to the lowest common denominator. Cars are not built for everybody, and Tesco don't design aisles for everybody. They target spaces and products at particular people. At the moment the housing industry is restricted from doing this.\"

\"I don't think that lofts are the best or most convenient means of storage. My wife and I generally take the loft out and build floor-to-ceiling storage in its place. Most people want access to all their possessions all of the time, or at least some of the time. So the emphasis should be on maximising the amount of useable storage space. We build storage into every available space, including beds and behind walls.\"

\"We should make better use of sheds and outdoors spaces. We've got the technology to make the outdoor spaces dampproof and secure. But in general, the best way to maximise storage is to keep things simple, be inventive and make sure that you build floor-to-ceiling storage spaces. People often leave little gaps on top of cupboards, because they are difficult to reach. But this is just wasted space. Use a step ladder.\"

 

The developer

Rod Stone - Associate architectural director of Midas Homes

\"We are increasingly incorporating communal storage into our apartment buildings. In a recent Midas Homes development in Exmouth, Devon, we constructed an outdoor structure with individual storage facilities within it for people to store their garden furniture, bikes and golf clubs and we are looking to repeat this method at a new development in Weston-super-Mare. Bike stores are also being incorporated wherever possible.\"

\"A number of developers don't provide any storage because they want to make the rooms look bigger, however we try to ensure that even our lowest specification properties have practical storage space. People like to hide away items such as ironing boards, vacuum cleaners and suitcases, they're not items you necessarily want on display and we try to take these requests on board by providing under stairs cupboards, adequate kitchen storage and loft storage areas.\"

 

The European perspective

Annet van der Horn - Standardisation consultant, NEN-construction, Holland

\"In the second half of the 20th century, the tradition of building houses with built-in closets slowly faded, probably because it made houses cheaper to build, although the introduction of fridges also played a role - cellars were no longer necessary for storing food. Today it is generally left to residents to choose their own cupboards. If a new house does have a build-in closet, it is most likely to be the otherwise un-useable space under the stairs.\"

\"Dutch building regulations used to require external storage for bikes with a minimum net area of six square metres for each property. If you drive around Holland today you will see these little boxes everywhere. With the new building regulations of 2003, this regulation was annulled. There was and still is a call for less regulations in Holland, so this kind of storage space is now left to 'market mechanisms'.\"

\"We see now that in big apartment blocks the 'outdoor storage' is still in the basement, sometimes on higher level floors in really high rise buildings. There are sometimes more apartments than storage rooms, which means that those who want a storage room have to pay extra, or higher rent, for it.\"

\"For houses with a garden there is a variety of prefab storage boxes available, including tent-like constructions. These are usually very small. Houses without gardens or pre-provided storage just have to make do. Some households construct a hook and pulley-construction in the hall.\"

Chris Drury - Weber House, Germany

\"In Germany, and much of continental Europe, the basement provides the solution to the problem. Over there, asking for a house without a basement is like asking for a car without wheels. It's a great solution, because a basement is accessible, large and doesn't usually have any views.\"

\"So far, we haven't built any houses in the UK - the £60K competition was really our entry into the market. But we're developing two sites with William Verry, one of 15 units in Hastings, and the other of over 100 in Aylesbury.\"

Last year German manufacturer Weber House, in association with developer William Verry, was selected as one of the preferred bidders for the £60K Home Challenge.

 

Self storage

The recent growth of self-storage companies gives some indication of the demand for safe and accessible storage facilities. For instance, in 2002, Big Yellow Self Storage, which operates mainly within the M25, had 19 stores, 8,100 customers and annual revenue of £8,408,000. The equivalent figures for 2006 are projected to be: 39 stores (with a further 19 in the pipeline), 27,800 customers and annual revenue of £41,800 - representing a growth of almost 80% in five years.