How should loft spaces be handled in the home size adjuster? This project wants to count a second floor loft space as a bedroom. I feel if that space can only be used as an upper room then it can be considered a bedroom. However, if one has to walk through the space to access other spaces then it cannot be considered a bedroom. Would a loft have to have a closet to be considered a bedroom? What about walls, does a bedroom have to have walls or can it be open to below?Description of loft spaces provided by the project team:The privacy screens for the loft are opaque fabric and operable. The sleeping loft is open to the house unless visual privacy is desired, then the screens are employed. There\'s a smoke detector and an escape window so it meets bedroom code requirements. A single bath is accessed directly from the loft and also serves two additional bedrooms. The design of the sleeping loft was reviewed and accepted by the City of Decatur Building Official.The house is typically occupied by two people who will, in general, live on the first floor. The second floor is for overnight and extended visit guests who will have the option of sleeping in the loft bedroom or the other two bedrooms. The sleeping loft provides an open space feeling and the best views of any space in the house. If I were a guest, I would choose the loft with it\'s eastern views of the sun rising through the trees. I\'ve designed lofts and houses in Atlanta for over 15 years. Open communicating space between living and sleeping spaces is relatively common in contemporary design and is a feature in many of my own designs. In one well received, published and awarded house I designed, the remarkable master bedroom does not have doors and only minimal visual separation from the grand combination of sleeping, living and functional spaces (photo below). Samuel Mockbee\'s Rural Studio in Hale County, Alabama has built numerous affordable houses with bedrooms without doors or even visual separation, the 800 sq. ft. Bryant house is a superb example (photo below. I just visited MoMa\'s "Home Delivery" prefabricated housing exhibit in New York. I was amazed by Richard Horden\'s Micro Compact Home. A 9 1/2\' cube provides living space, kitchen, dining table, storage, shower, toilet and two compact double beds. The O2 student village of micro-compact homes has proven very popular (photos below).
A loft space can be counted if it meets the criteria listed in the Rating System for a bedroom: "for the purposes of this adjuster, [a bedroom] is any room or space that could be used or is intended to be used for sleeping purposes and meets local fire and building code requirements." If all of these criteria are met, it may be counted as a bedroom in the HSA.
Updated 10/1/13 and 8/4/17 for rating system applicability.