Homes are different to housing. Housing is about the physical characteristics of the dwelling, the cost, the procurement, the scale of delivery. Homes are about people, their lives, emotions, ambitions, successes and failures. Brendan Geraghty of Geraghty Taylor discusses why this is so important.
Bricks and mortar are synonymous with our cultural and emotional understanding of the home and together these common materials create a powerful brand that is associated with traditional home life. We know what we are buying and we are comforted by this confidence. So what does offsite give us? It may be relevant to the supply of houses but does it resonate as an important component of a successful home? The answer is that offsite solutions offer a great deal to us, mostly on a technical level, but its cultural value as a homemaker is currently limited when compared to bricks as mortar. In economic terms we may value offsite’s high quality of construction and finish, low running costs with a well-insulated home, speed of manufacture and assembly, product designed and delivered through technology and with good design and layouts, a good quality occupation experience. But the majority of these value streams are about numbers and technical efficiencies and not about the emotional values that make a house a home.
Whilst traditional materials may be a convenient cultural backstop about our idea of a home there usefulness is declining in design and performance terms. They risk becoming a traditional wallpaper to smart flexible houses. Technology and lifestyle aspirations are shifting the way we live work and play. Our rapidly changing living culture demands that our homes are smart, flexible, adaptable, delightful and cheap to run. Our personal and diverse lifestyle expectations demand multi-functional homes to support them in the emerging experience economy.
Notwithstanding the rapid cultural change around us, our expectations are that the safe and secure place to which we return will be our homes. But we do so with raised expectations around performance, quality and value. We are clearer about what we expect from this house product so we can turn it into a home. Geraghty Taylor capture this expectation in a brand and use it to define the tangible and intangible qualities of the product and the experience of using the product. Brand is so much more the
touch points of a house, it must reflect the business model of the supplier (developer) as well as the lifestyle and cultural aspirations of the customer who buys it. Brand captures these qualities and incorporates them into the product. Brand is the customer experience. That’s why it’s important to define your brand before your building.
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