Possibilities and Limitations in Shaping Customized Residential Interiors
Authors: Kucharczyk-Brus Beata 
Published: May 2021

Own, satisfying home is one of the things that having in a person’s lifetime is extremely important because it ensures meeting basic needs. Nowadays, in the era of increasingly stronger privatization and individualization of social life, paying attention to the individual and not universalistic user is becoming an important planning task. The Polish multi-family housing stock mostly comes from the ‘70s and ‘80s, when the construction was based on a large-panel system – hostile, rigid and heavily standardized. At present, the buildings are erected in technologies based on modern materials and technologies, but the layout and size of the residential units are not much different from those erected 40 years ago. The paper is an attempt to draw attention to the issue of shaping residential interiors tailored to the individual user. An attempt to analyze the possibilities or lack thereof for the free creation of residential interiors, The aim of the research is to analyze the possibilities of spatial creation of individualized residential interior layouts, both in existing multi-family residential stock – a project in adapted space, and in a model space (cube 6 x 6 x 6 meters). The research material comes from both: the design classes conducted by the author of the article and the housing stock that has been inventoried by her. The research method is a comparison of existing flats and ideological systems, designed by the students of the Faculty of Architecture of the Silesian University of Technology, within the design classes based on the author’s own didactic program. The interior utility program includes residential functions – daily rest, sleeping, personal hygiene, preparation and consumption of meals, storage and implementation of hobbies. In principle, the residential interior is intended for two users: two people, or a person plus a pet, taking into account the individual needs of each co-resident. The designed residential interiors, apart from utilitarian solutions, are characterized by aesthetic and functional solutions related to the selected interests (hobby) of the inhabitants. Basing on the analysis of selected conceptual designs and comparing them with existing residential layouts, conclusions will be drawn about the occurrence of possibilities and limitations in shaping individualized residential spaces. It is important to determine – what are the restrictions on adaptations, in connection with the existence of a specific structural and installation system, the arrangement of windows on the facade, etc., which lead to the impoverishment of the arrangement possibilities and adaptation of the interior for a defined user. The presented projects will also show a different view on the way housing is shaped, which breaks the patterns existing in public awareness. The main conclusions from the research may be useful in subsequent development projects. They can be a clue to discuss the existing restrictions on residential interiors located in multi-family buildings, whose shape is governed by: building regulations, rigid building structure and its equipment with technical installations and devices, as well as the development policy focused on maximum investment return.