What kind of heating/cooling will you have? What is your water system like? What kind of floors do you want? The comfort and livability of your home will depend on a set of systems that are built-in and difficult to change.

For this reason, it's important to understand how they work early in the project, and importantly, how they can work for you and your lifestyle.

The following sections cover the major systems used in contemporary construction. It's essential to learn the basics about these systems to make informed decisions in the planning stage. This allows the details and connections to be planned out from the start.

Remember: Problems, costs, and delays often come from incomplete planning, change orders, and indecisiveness. To help the project go smoothly, take the time to understand the big, built-in systems now before you are asked questions you can't easily answer.

While you thinking about systems, you may also be planning all the home's appliances. The document below will help you stay organized.

Your home's systems impact the overall design of your home. The Sic S's below is a great way to think about the flow of construction how decisions made today impact the home tomorrow.

The Six S's

In his book, How Buildings Learn, Stewart Brand shares a way to think about the layers of a house's construction in terms of six S's. You'll find these are a handy way to think about how your house is constructed and behaves over time. I've adapted a diagram from the book:

1. Site - The geographical setting; the location of the home that will never change.
2. Structure - The basic structure of the building on the site. Once it's built, it may not change for decades.
3. Skin -The enclosure of the building that is needed to keep it warm and dry, like house wrap, siding, roof, windows, and doors. These may last 20-30 years.
4. Systems (or Services) - The working guts of the building: plumbing, electrical, networking, HVAC, etc. They are likely to be outdated within 10-15 years.
5. Space Plan - The interior layout. These are walls and other structures that can be removed, moved, or rebuilt inside the home without impacting the structure. These can change anytime.
6. Stuff - Chairs, desks, beds, TVs, etc. These changed be changed at any time.

My hope is that this idea will help you develop a big-picture view of the project and how a house fits together.

For example, the Structure of the house is practically permanent and comes early in the construction process. It governs everything after it in the process. So, it's important to get right the first time.

The Systems come in the middle and will probably need to be changed in the longer term. Where the systems are located (infrastructure, like ducts, wiring, plumbing) will govern the Space and Stuff.

The Stuff (your stuff) is flexible and impermanent. Everything before it matters, but it influences very little.

Why This Matters

The next step in this guide is to step through the construction process and all the decisions that will need to be made. It can be complicated and overwhelming.

A way to mitigate this feeling is to keep the big picture in mind and think about the project as a whole. Consider how the Six Ss relate to one another and how a decision you make now will impact later phases.

An Example

Let's imagine that your house will have a System of ducts that delivers warm and cool air throughout the house. The location of those ducts is governed by the Structure of the home, which is mostly permanent and must be designed to accommodate them.

Going in the other direction, the location of the ducts system and the air vents relate to the Space in terms of heating and cooling and to Stuff in terms of where they are located.

The 6S's are one way of illustrating the interconnectedness of the home. Each phase of construction must be carefully planned to account for the future needs of the home.

The lesson here is getting the big, foundational things right the first time.

Homeowner Monique shared this experience that shows the connections between structure and systems: