Architectural design often feels a lot more like solving a puzzle than finding an inspiring solution. It's what architects and designers call iterative design: we start out with one idea, then build on it, put it aside, try new combinations, constantly evaluating what we have. In my experience, "iterating" is the core of the entire design process. Here, I've taken my trace paper sketches, and broken down the sequence of design I took while working on the layout of my future apartment.

Although the process wasn't quite as coherent as this, I've organized the sketches into Schemes, which are different apartment-wide configurations, and Iterations, in which I further develop the schemes. Although it's a bit tedious, I found it very helpful to develop a taxonomy for how I name the schemes: "Schemes #", iteration (letter), Hyphen as we delve into rooms "1 & 2", then iteration (letter) for each of the sub-room iterations. For example, "Scheme 3A-2C" would be iteration "C" of room "2" in iteration "A" of "Scheme 3." Don't worry, it doesn't actually get that complicated, but some designs can be, so I like having a system that could potentially handle it.

Scheme 0

I started by trying to rework the laundry configuration, an area I knew would have the most restrictions. I wanted to add a changing room to the shower so that it could have separate access from the bathroom. Because the space is so tight, however, every alteration would have to be taken into account. For instance the only entrance to this room would have to move, this in-turn would make washer-dryer access (not shown, but it's next to the sink) very cramped.

Scheme 0A

Sensing that the utility space was inefficiently laid out, my knee-jerk reaction was to tighten up the space as much as possible. I quickly realize the many issues with this scheme, and decided to jump up one level in scale to see if I even needed to press in on the utility space at all.

Scheme 1

Though unsure the ideal bedroom size, I knew I wanted to as minimal of changes as possible. In the spirit of keeping the bedrooms equivalent, I tried out a more broad-stroked scheme that worked with the existing walls as a first bedroom and duplicated an adjacent bedroom along side it. Although it preserves much of the mainspace, neither bedrooms are comfortably big enough, and the second bedroom doesn't have a window.

Scheme 1A

I developed this scheme a little further to get a good sense of how much room to anticipate for an acceptable bedroom. I figured the lack of second window would be a deal-breaker, but I thought maybe the addition of closets would elongate the second bedroom enough to include the window on the other side of the space. A problem arises in view of the fact that the exterior wall on the left has two large double doors that swing in. Even IF the new wall didn't interfere with the swing of those doors, it would still rob them of functionality as there would be enough of a "loading zone."
You can see, also, that I'm still experimenting with efficiently re-configuring the utility space.

Scheme 2

In the next scheme, I tried placing both bedrooms against the window wall. Right off the bat, I could see that there would be some issues maintaining the "fairness" of the two from a space and window access perspective. I absolutely don't want to chop a window in half, so the design has to work around the existing layout of 3.

Scheme 3

Probably the most obvious compromise is to place one bedroom in either corner. In so doing, the main space gets chopped up a little, but that could actually be a good thing. In school it seemed like big, open space are always the answer (maybe they were just easier to model,) but in reality, having a bit of spacial definition can be way more helpful, especially for a home.

Scheme 3-1A

The scheme 3 idea of anchoring bedrooms on opposite corners seemed like the winner, so I started zooming in to develop each bedroom. The top bedroom would be linked strongly to 3 things: the window, the existing wall, and the location of the washer-dryer. The best solution I'd come up with for the utility space included the changing room outside of the shower. This would require the washer-dryer to move, permitting clear access to the bathroom. I don't want to do any kind of work on the exterior walls, so I'm keeping the washer-dryer as close to their existing hookups as possible. Bumping the washer-dryer into the bedroom space, it made sense to combine that wall with a new closet. I decided each room should be big enough for a 2'x4' desk as well, so I extended the existing wall enough for this and a double-size bed. The entry space is a little tight, and not a direct shot from the main entrance in the lower-right.

Scheme 3-1B

Continuing to develop scheme 3, bedroom 1, I realized we really ought to have some storage near the laundry for linens and such, so why not give it the entire space next to the washer/dryer. The double size bed could then nestle into the back of the room, switching places with the closet. I also flipped the door to have a bit better access, but I have to admit I'm not crazy about the entry door swing blocking the closet. Not a total dealbreaker though.

Scheme 3-1C

In this final scheme, I experimented with rotating the closet so that the entry door wouldn't interfere with access. Placing the door in the middle of the room chopped it in half in a strange way. As a fried pointed out, even though the square footage is equivalent to the previous scheme. In this one, having the closet wall "butting-in" to the room makes it feel smaller. I also tried a version of this where the desk and closet traded spaces, but didn't find there was much difference beyond the closet feeling more at home anchored against an existing wall.
I felt pretty good about the second bedroom 1 configuration, so I turned my attention to bedroom 2.

Scheme 3-2A

Although there were less constraints on bedroom 2, the layout of the windows was still the first consideration. Elaborating on the initial scheme 3 design, I gave the bedroom 2 window, and pushed the closet out into the main space. I wasn't fond of the effect of this push-out on the main space, nor giving so many window to the private space of a single bedroom.

Scheme 3-2B

I also tried a version where the closet was up against the wall on the bottom. After adding a desk next to it, and keeping the 2 windows in the bedroom, I was left with a generous size room, but it still felt a bit unfair to take away a window from a room where, in theory, we'd spend more of the day-time.

Scheme 3-2C

In this final scheme, I changed the bedroom to only have one window, which made it drastically narrower. By necessity, the closet had to be moved to the opposite side of the room. In the upper right corner of the room I was exploring some other options. I could either place the entry there, extend the closet, or create more storage for the main space, which is what is shown.
Although there are still some kinks in the design to work out, I think this is starting to hone in on the final design. At this point, it makes sense for me to model this into the sketch up model I'd built and tighten up the dimension to see where these walls really end up.