About me: first draft

My name is Lorna Smith, I grew up on the West Coast of Scotland in a small village of around 300 people, called Dalmally. Before moving to New Zealand in 2005, I had lived in the same home for my entire 17 years prior to the move. My home was a 2-story semi-detached white pebble-dashed council-house (similar to the Kiwi State house), it had a small kitchen, a small lounge, a dining-room which we later covered into a small bedroom named 'the wee room', 2 average sized bedrooms and one bathroom - containing a toilet, sink, bathtub and pressure-shower above it. Despite it being such a standard house - one size fits all - it was, and still is, the best home I have ever lived in - although this is probably due to 17 years worth of memories and friends and family that came with the house.

From an  early age I always had a fascination with other peoples homes, particularly the bathroom. From the age of being toilet-trained I would tell my parents that I needed to go to the bathroom and off I'd go to inspect the new bathroom I hadn't seen before. I remember one particular time when I was with my mum visiting her family in Liverpool, we were with my Uncle David and he had to stop in to see his boss. I can't remember her house, where it was or even her name, but I remember telling my mum, Uncle David, and his boss that I needed to go to the bathroom. I walked up the staircase - it seemed very tall at the time and hooked round to the left at the bottom. I remember standing at the top of the stairs and yelling down "Muuuum!". Mum came rushing to my aide, obviously thinking I was injured or I'd done something terrible in a house belonging to someone we didn't know. When she got to the bottom of the stairs I told her to "come, quick", she bounded up the stairs and followed me into the bathroom. I turned around to face her as she walked through the doorway and said "look how cool the bathroom is!"

My fascination with the domestic bathroom obviously started from an early age - perhaps because I lived in a standard council-house, and perhaps because I have never really experienced anything more than the standard. Today, I live in a 2009 Stonewood home that my parents selected from a range of pre-drawn plans - and once again the bathroom is standard. Our plans were drawn before the sink, toilet, bathtub and shower were selected.

It is my belief that my personal experience of the bathroom have informed my design practice, specifically my desire to make interiors more fitting to the person that lives in them. This desire has seeped into this Master of Design project, using my skills as a Spatial Designer and my own experiences within the domestic bathroom to tailor a bathroom which connects the bathroom space with it's user - me.