Do you know what your house should look like even though you don’t have a floor plan? If so, you might have the same question one of our readers asked me recently.

Luci wrote:

I know the correct answer for this, but I’d like to find out that it CAN be done differently – My husband and I will be building, (and by building I mean designing and having someone else build it) our retirement home in the near future, and I’ve found an “outside” that I like.  I don’t just like it, I want it!  I know you should design the floor plan first, then the outside, but I want to do it the other way around.  Any advice?

Thank you very much!

Luci

Here’s my answer:

Luci – Thanks for the good question. I have begun a number of projects with an image my client has found that captures the exact look they want. What we often do is to evaluate the plan of the house that has the “ideal” exterior and see how well that floor plan fits the program we’ve developed for the client’s Perfect House. Sometimes the plan can be simply adapted to suit my client’s needs. Sometimes it takes some clever redesigning to get things perfect. A good architect can even modify the exterior of the house to fit the revised floor plan and still retain the essence of the look of the house that captivated the client initially. The secret is that the exterior usually does not have to be a perfectly identical match to still look “just like” the exterior they had found and fallen in love with.

So don’t worry. Your Perfect House plan can usually be designed to give you Your Perfect House exterior look. It just takes some clever and creative thinking.

Best regards,

Bill

For more articles about home design, homebuilding, and remodeling, please visit my other site, www.about-home-design.com.

In the world of residential architecture, there has been a long-running debate about architectural style. Is it incorrect for architects to be designing traditional houses even though the majority of the public wants them? Should new houses be modern and unadorned with decoration or else be deemed inferior and not good architecture? As you might guess, there are strong opinions on both sides of this issue. Devoted modernists even tend to blame the public for not knowing enough about architectural design to appreciate their creations. But in my opinion, it is the obligation of the architect to understand the client, not the other way around.

In a recent blog post by Clem Labine, publisher of Traditional Building magazine and Period Homes magazine, takes on the topic. Here’s a little of what he had to say in his post entitled Hard-Edged Houses for Those Who Love Machines:

Modernist architects once again are trying to sell hard-edged houses to the American public. A new home plan service called Hometta has been set up to offer “modern homes for the masses.” Hometta is a collaboration of several architectural studios whose goal is to provide “small, sleek, sustainable, affordable house plans for middle-class buyers.” Few would quibble with the goals of “small” or “affordable” or “sustainable.” Whether the market will applaud their version of “sleek” and “modern” remains to be seen.

His suspicion of how the public will receive the modernist offerings is shared by me. If you were to poll the public you would find a strong majority favoring houses that match their image of “home.” By that I mean a house with a pitched roof, windows of a human scale, comfortable places for comfy furniture, and not a house that looks like a museum for modern art. (more…)

Are you planning on designing a new house? Or are you buying a house in a development and picking a house design and floor plan from the half dozen the developer is offering? Or are you searching for the right house design and plan from the thousands and thousands that are offered for sale? If you fit into any of these categories, there is one critical first step you should take.

Probably the most important thing must do before even looking for floor plans is to write a “program” for your new house. Before architects begin a design, we write out a list of the required spaces or rooms, target room sizes, and desired characteristics and features for each room. This list is called the program. It is essential your goal for your house design. Lesson Eight in my book, Designing Your Perfect House, we discuss how to do this properly and effectively. (more…)

    There is an exhibit called Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling at MoMA, Museum of Modern Art in New York, that explores the history and future of pre-fabricated housing. Click here, Pre-Fab Housing Exhibit, to take a look at the New York Times article about the exhibit. (more…)

I realize that the majority of new homes are not designed by architects. But naturally, as an architect I would recommend using one.

But a lot can be achieved by simply doing some homework and thinking through what you want your house to be. Even if your budget can only afford the “cookie cutter” house, it can still be better and more “well-suited” to you and your family. There are a few books out there that can help. Sarah Susanka’s books, my book, and others will offer food for thought. Check out house design magazines for inspiration images to prod your imagination. Visit model homes and look at them critically. Make notes of what you like, what you dislike, and how things feel. Understanding how to create the feeling of a house is the hardest part. That’s where an architect can be an invaluable guide. (more…)

Where has house design gone these days?

I was driving through a very nice neighborhood yesterday and I was struck by the number of houses that seemed so amatuerishly put together. It was almost as if someone worked at making them ugly. (more…)

DSC05441,
originally uploaded by edavid3001.

I was on an airplane from Los Angeles today and chatting with the fellow seated next to me about things to consider when designing and building a house. I told him that even if you were not designing a house from scratch, but simply buying a builder’s model home plan, there were avoidable mistakes you could sidestep. He nodded knowingly and said he had an example of one that he realized only too late. (more…)