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.

I like to believe that a home-like house can be created in a modern or contemporary style. But nearly every modern house I’ve seen recently is not homey and would not even qualify as good modern design. Last year I was attending an architectural conference in Charleston and we took a tour of “significant houses” in the area. Much to my disappointment we did not visit any houses that were traditional. One after another they were severe, unfriendly and hard-edged. Clem Labine would have hated them. In my book, Designing Your Perfect House, I discuss how to “people” spaces. What I mean by peopling is making the spaces feel right for people to occupy and feel like you would expect people to be there now or soon. This has everything to do with providing the proper scale, materials that are indicative of requiring the human touch, and places where people fit properly.

Modernist house in the Charleston area. This is actually the front side that greets the owners and visitors when they arrive. Not only is the scale, use of materials, and form unappealing to human beings, there is no sense of arrival and the front door is totally invisible. The purplish material is oxidizing copper.

Later in his article, Clem Labine compares the Katrina Cottages by Steve Mouzon to the modernist houses and claims they are meeting the sustainability, cost, and size goals the modernist houses strive for, yet the Katrina Cottages also meet the goal of feeling like “house” and “home” to everyday people (like me). He says:

Ironically, the Katrina Cottages designed by Steve Mouzon offers the emotional reassurance of traditional architecture – but is actually the product of technology and the machine. The cottage is a low-cost modular house designed to be “small, affordable and sustainable.” But rather than an in-your-face declaration of machine-love like the Binary House, the Katrina Cottage offers the softer outlines of traditional architecture and conveys the aura of hand-built houses.

KATRINA COTTAGE VIII by Steve Mouzon/Housing International, Miami Beach, FL

I posted a comment of my own:

Clem – You’re right on the mark. I was trained in a Modernist philosophy, like most architects these days. We get heavily indoctrinated in the mantra that anything traditional must be rejected and modern is the only proper architectural language. I agree with Bob’s comment (author of an earlier comment than mine) that this kind of thinking ignores the lessons learned over the years about how to deal with rain, sun, wind, etc. But more importantly, strict modernism ignores the psychological lessons that are a part of our culture and grown within the human experience. It is pure vanity on the part of architects to say that all that has come before was wrong and only we, the modern architects, can create the forms that properly respond to mankind.

I think that this kind of attitude hinders our profession and is a disservice to the public. I wrote my book, Designing Your Perfect House precisely to empower homeowners and clients to help them understand why they feel the way they do about their houses and help them understand that they can ask for more than what’s on the architect’s menu. The solution to the blight in house design is not simply convincing the architects to do better, but to help the public feel more confident to demand better.

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If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

 When the flakes stopped falling, we had about six inches of nice, clean snow on the ground. I put on my tennis shoes (I don’t have boots anymore since I moved south) and found my gloves (they were in my golf bag where I left them following a chillier than usual round a few weeks ago) and set out to clear the snow. I don’t use a snow shovel any more. I’m not sure I still have one. I use my leaf blower, instead. It works surprisingly well. It fluffs up the snow and blows it away almost without a trace. I cleared my sizeable driveway in a little over an hour. The best part is my back doesn’t hurt! 

But here’s the reason I’m writing this post. No sooner had I gotten most of the snow off of the concrete, it started to melt. The air temperature was only twenty seven degrees. The sky was cloudy. But enough solar (radiant) energy still filtered through the clouds, was absorbed by the concrete, and was converted into heat to efficiently melt the dark ice that remained. Here was a perfect example of Passive Solar Design. It’s called “passive” because no mechanical systems are required. It just simply happens. As you might imagine, the portions of my driveway that sit in the shade did not melt. But the totally free energy from the sun did the job for me elsewhere.

 Shouldn’t your house be designed to take advantage of this free energy? I discuss this in more detail in my book, Designing Your Perfect House. If a house is designed properly, the sun’s energy will be kept out in the summer by the use of properly sized roof overhangs. You don’t need expensive solar collectors, photovoltaic panels, pumps, batteries or anything. Simple, thoughtful design will make your house energy efficient. A good architect or residential designer can do this for you. And if you live where you might get snow, be sure your driveway is on the sunny side of the house.

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If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

Austin, Texas – the state capital and home to the University of Texas – has long been known as a liberal bastion in a conservative state, and the city’s residents are renowned for their environmental consciousness. But it wasn’t the community’s mind-set that led to the establishment of the nation’s first comprehensive green building program; it was a nuclear power plant.

A nuclear power plant and sustainable building and green do not seem to go together. But the question of whether or not the city should buy into a nuclear project led to the introduction of an energy code in 1985 and it started the Austin Energy Star Homes program that spawned the Energy Star program nationally.

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If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

    There was an interesting article in the Raleigh News and Observer today. It was about how the local Universities are going “green” in an effort to attract students. They discussed some of the green projects, especially the green roof at Duke University Hospital.

Green Roof at Duke University

     Photo by Tim Pennigar

    I was particularly struck by these last few paragraphs of the story that note that these green roofs have an emotional benefit. Here’s what they said:

“The roof is receiving positive reviews.

Beth Yoder of Durham, a physical therapist at the hospital, said she notices the green roof as she helps patients walk down hallways. One patient joked that it was the doctors’ baseball diamond.

‘I never even thought about the psychological impact of green roofs in a hospital setting,’ Yoder said. ‘It’s very uplifting. It makes me feel almost more alive and have a more positive outlook.’ ”

I believe that our buildings, and particularly our houses, have a profound and often unappreciated impact on us emotionally. Our buildings can either promote or damage our sense of well-being. It’s an issue I feel we need to pay more attention to than we currently do. Wouldn’t you like you house to be uplifting?

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If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

    I’m talking about a radiant barrier. A radiant barrier is a reflective material that acts like a mirror to reflect heat back out of the attic just like those silver umbrellas you might have seen or the shiny foil that is wrapped around the space station and satellites to keep them safe from solar rays. When used as roof sheathing, just under the shingles, this same foil radiant barrier can keep your attic much cooler and significantly reduce your cooling costs, up to 30% according to some claims, cutting your energy bills by up to 17%.

    I can attest to it’s effectiveness. Since I started specifying LP TechShield roof sheathing, or equal, I’ve noticed that the attics of my porjects have been significantly cooler, even on the hottest days. Not only does that mean that there is less heat transmitted into the living spaces below, but if your air conditioner and ductwork are located in the attic, as many are, the cool, air-conditioned air in the ductwork will stay cooler as it travels to where it is needed. This is a product that will pay for it’s added cost by way of energy cost savings in a very short time.

If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

Bill Hirsch

www.designingyourperfecthouse.com

www.williamhirsch.com

Why do I say this? The mortar in a brick wall comprises 15% to 18% of the final finished surface area. It’s color has a significant influence on the way the wall will look when it’s finished. Two walls, each built from the very same brick, but using different mortar, can “tint” the color of the wall. The mortar can also lighten, darken and even change the visual texture of the wall.

So when you select a brick, ask for some houses where that particular brick has been used. Then drive by and see how it looks in its final form. If one of the houses stands out as looking better than the others, find out what mortar was used and make sure your new house has the same mortar to ensure your end results will be what you envision.

Remember, brick is a “green” and “sustainable” building material.

If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

 Bill Hirsch

www.designingyourperfecthouse.com

www.williamhirsch.com