Meet the architect whisperer who shapes spaces to suit lives

Eve Kelliher talks to design coach Karen Douglas who believes we need to tell our stories before starting work on our homes

Karen Douglas believes in “a human-centred approach to get the home you want and need”.

Karen Douglas has a mantra: “We are either running away from our childhood home to create new memories or running back to our childhood home to recreate our sense of home.”

And we want to harness the positive memories.

“People are my currency,” says the Waterford design coach. “For me, it’s never the bricks and mortar that come first.”

Karen Douglas.

It’s her curiosity about how we use our spaces and the belief that everyone is creative that led Karen to discover a disconnect between architects and their clients.

The design coach and her life partner, Ronan McGee, an architect, set up DMG Architects eight years ago.

Karen, who has a background in design, coaching, and recruitment, quickly became a “voice” for the many clients engaging with the architects. “I started to go to meetings with Ronan and I’d find when the clients rang back, they’d often ask for me,” she says.

Karen's since become known as the architect whisperer. “Clients found an advocate in how I work with the architects, ensuring their voice was heard and everything was explained,” she says.

A living space worked on by design coach Karen Douglas for a client.

As a design coach, Karen’s focus is holistic and she believes in “a human-centred approach to get the home you want and need”.

Karen established Dwellbing.ie which comes up with design solutions for homes and workplaces.

“I noticed that clients were coming into the design process without having spent much time thinking about their own requirements, despite asking lots of questions on the technical and aesthetic aspects of the design brief.

“This resulted in human-centred design needs — arguably the most important — were frequently forgotten,” says Karen.

A kitchen in a home of a client of Karen's. 

“Key questions about how people wanted to use, move through, and enjoy the spaces they live in were overlooked and the typical styles of questioning didn’t enhance the clients’ memory recall to enable them to properly identify trigger key thoughts about their needs or their own childhood memories.”

Identifying and embracing individual senses is key to drawing up a plan, she says.

“Sensation is fundamental to our existence and everything comes to us through our senses,” says Karen.

“Designing a space with our multisensory needs in mind is crucial to our health, given that sensory imbalances negatively impact on our wellbeing.”

Good visual flow, she adds, “is about organising what the client wants and doesn’t want to see: Some people need to have everything hidden and some like to see organised shelves.

“From an auditory perspective, I look at loud appliances, television noise, activities in certain rooms where noise can travel, and design solutions to minimise or reduce sounds if the homeowner is more sensitive to certain types of noise.”

Design coach Karen Douglas.

She also believes in unlocking our childhood memories. “The concept of home is one born very early for all of us. We all have deep-rooted memories, both happy and unhappy. How we design our spaces now is rooted in these memories, as we reach out to our unconscious level of memory storage.

“By placing us back in our childhood home, we can unlock some of these memories, scents, spatial awareness and materiality of our childhood homes, helping us to better connect to the everyday things that make us happy,” says Karen.

“A client recently spoke of a childhood home and kitchen that was clad in pine. His memories of eating meals in the space and his dislike for the touch of the materials meant that any future wood detailing in his new space needed to reference this in more detail.

The kitchen Karen designed for a client.

“An architect or designer without this understanding would have wasted their time and also not met the client’s expectations.

“I also had a client who never ate at the kitchen table as a family and spent most of their time in their bedroom. Had we not understood this and the client’s desire to not repeat this for their own children, we may not have placed enough importance on the open-plan aspect of the living space.”

A kitchen designed by Karen.

Karen recently undertook a poll on memories. “It showed people’s top happiest memory was their childhood kitchen, wallpaper in their childhood home, and the kitchen table with all the family gathered around. 

If we only focus on Instagram images and the equivalent of fast fashion — in this case, fast interiors — then we lose what grounds us and makes us truly happy in our space.”

Creating memories for the future is also key for this design coach, who lives with her partner and three children (two at college and a 14-year-old at secondary school). 

“I have recently bought a 200-year-old cottage in west Waterford on a parcel of land with my partner that we are in the process of restoring. For us as a family, we wanted more outdoor space and connection to the outdoors and an inclusive space for a neurodiverse family member,” she says.

The living space Karen designed with a client.

“Being able to design a space using local and natural materials for our physical health is top of the design list. We also realised that we don’t need a large footprint in a home, so the design brief will use smaller pod structures around the land to accommodate hobbies and past-times and cater for a growing family in a more cost-effective and sustainable way than adding a very large extension to the main cottage.”

Karen wrote Coming Home, Ireland’s first interactive home design journal with accompanying explanatory videos to guide people through the design process, ensuring they are asking the right questions to ensure the desired outcome for a bespoke and tailored home. “We are all creatives,” she says.

One client rang Karen and asked to have a follow-up meeting. “She told me her son was neurodiverse. We all have sensory needs. But it transpired he couldn’t come down to the living area in the morning; he was overstimulated and couldn’t cope with the clutter.

“So, then I went further to find out exactly what was required.”

Tweaks to one room did the trick. “It turned out that they didn’t need the big extension they thought they did,” says Karen. “They had come with the need for home refurbishment. They were a growing family and needed more space. With a tight budget, they needed a new laundry space, a bigger kitchen, and an energy upgrade to reduce home heating bills.

Sometimes an extension isn't what's needed, says Karen. Picture: iStock

“It transpired that what they were articulating was a need for better flow. They have a neurodiverse teenager who won’t use the main kitchen as it was too noisy. It also doubled up as the laundry with the machine in the same space, meaning the kitchen table was always full of folded laundry.

“Understanding why they were undertaking the renovations was now apparent, the kitchen size wasn’t the issue, it was the need for better acoustics and storage and the importance of a dedicated larger laundry.”

Karen’s focus is holistic. Picture: iStock

As a parent of a neurodiverse child herself, Karen is passionate about giving neurodiverse children and adults spaces that work for them and the whole family.

“I have a special interest in neurodiversity and creating spaces that work for all the family members living together, inclusive design,” she says. “I think we need to unlock the potential of a space for everyone in the family.

“Communication is at the heart of all decisions that are made, ensuring clients are listened to and their needs and wants are met.”

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