Mediterranean Home – Construction Completed

This is a modern Mediteranean style 5800 square foot home that is constructed.   It is a large home that makes full use of a small lot but that still takes advantage of creating outdoor living areas.  The garage has been carefully designed not to overwhelm the small front yard and the front facade of the home.

 

View without the roof

1st Floor Plan

2nd Floor Plan

Exterior Elevations

The Tweeting House – Energy Effciency Control

The tweeting house

IBM’s chief technology officer for smart energy, Stanford-Clark has adapted his home so that it can tweet him updates about its energy consumption. Several meters collect information about energy use, appliances being switched on and off, windows being opened etc. His smartphone receives tweets from these meters so that wherever he is, he can monitor the house’s efficiency – and he can switch things off in the house remotely from the phone.

Gathering this sort of data as it happens and reported by applications like Twitter can build an accurate picture of the life of a building – or even, perhaps, a city – its changing needs and where building or residential design improvements can be made.

Excerpt from the original article at http://tinyurl.com/7ep3gzb

Residential Design and Construction – “Bill of Rights”

I was inspired during our recent journey to the AIA DC 2012 national conference.  Visiting the National Archives where our Nation’s Constitution and Bill of Rights are displayed was exhilarating.  It is so impressive to see how a group of brilliant men were able to articulate a government that would accommodate freedom and the human spirit.  And then I thought (naively) why not as an architect articulate an architectural Bill of Rights for the people’s physical living environments namely their homes and residences.  And thusly the Residential Bill of Rights might read as follows:

Henceforth all homes shall be designed and built with certain life accentuating and life supporting components and strategies.  And as a minimum these Bill of (homebuilding) Rights shall include:

1.  A budget that includes a tithing equivalent for architecture to assure the home’s proper planning
2.  A floor plan that is the best it can be to accommodate the site and the daily living of the family it will house.
3.  Interior architecture (not to be mistaken with interior decoration) to further articulate the vernacular of the intended style or theme
4.  Exterior architecture: providing elegant form, proportion and detailing that follow the functional form of the home (rather than the reverse)
5.  A home that is strategically located on the lot to take full advantage of outdoor living
6. Garages and drives that do not dominate the front or outdoor living spaces of the home.
7. A home that is well day-lighted to take advantage of the light provided by nature
8. A home that is energy efficient by the nature of its orientation, room and window placement and by an intelligent  (but passive) envelope
9.  Durable exterior materials that vary to accentuate the form of the home
10.  “Healthy” interior materials that do not bring in or accumulate microbes (germs, mold,  gases etc.) that  affect human health

Some Design Build firms are architect owned and led.

Home Remodeling Ideas

In the remodeling industry, sometimes architects and design build firms just don’t get along. But other design build firms actually love working with architects, and here’s why.

Working with an architect who knows how plans actually get built is the best of all worlds. It can be in-house architects or outside architects – they just need to work with the home remodeling contractor enough to know his people and processes. Once that relationship is established, every aspect of the home remodeling project seems to deliver a great experience for homeowners and a great result.

Why is it important for architects to know what happens during construction? It means they understand first-hand how even small bits of information that are missing from plans can cause major confusion and delays. Who wants to have to stop everything while the lead carpenter, project manager or subcontractors try to figure things out? Architects with…

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Building permit – A101- How to get

Building Permits Acquisition 

Obtaining building permits it not difficult – if  you prepare the documents as required by the City.  Feasible design, planning and development of any building, remodeling or engineering project will be the first vital step.  Feasibility is relative to where and what is allowed to be built on the subject property based on its zoning.  Feasibility is also related to what construction assembly is allowed there.   

The next question: is the property a county recorded (site) plat?  Is the site a legal plot of land in the eyes of the City.

The good news is that the architect can handle these questions before you begin to design your project and thereafter make it easier to obtain your permit.

In some cases rezoning or a specific use permit (SUP) will be required to obtain a building permit to operate and/or construct certain projects.  This process will take an additional three to four months to get approvals from the City.  In these cases, the [relative] feasibility of the project is vital and must be accurately portrayed to the city via descriptive narrative and graphics.  This process can also be handled by the architect. 

From a business (and practical) standpoint hiring a “full service” architect to render these predesign preconstruction services will reduce the development costs of a project or residence and provide a more functional and cost effective solution.

Should You Hire An Architect?

Should you hire an Architect?

Design Build Architect: “Our advantage is we can work within a client’s budget,” Because we do the full realm of the work, we can make suggestions that make a project workable.”

An Architect will frequently gets calls from people who just want to hire him for consultation or for design alone — for which he charges $2,500. Typically, he works on home remodels that cost $25,000 and more. “You hit problems when a builder thinks he or she knows more than they really do,” he said. “A good builder knows when they’ve gotten in over their head.”

for more reading please see the following Wall Street Journal article here.

Interior Architecture Defined

When you first hear the phrase “Interior Architecture”, your first instinct may be to assume that we’re discussing the basic components of the inside of a building: the walls, floors, ceilings and structural members.  Actually, basically speaking they are only the materials used to separate us from the exterior and the earth below.

Have you ever looked at a building and thought you had a general idea of what the interior looks like, only to find that as soon as you walked inside it was nothing like you thought? That’s interior architecture at work. Unfortunately, a grand majority of projects led by builders or contractors completely miss the opportunity to craft architecture into interiors.

Essentially, one would think that when you design a building (whether commercial or residential), the inside of the building before any interior finishing takes place (just the bare bones), would be the interior architecture. Not quite right.  Similar to the exterior design, the same design and modeling should take place for the interior.  The interior spaces should not just be the result of what is happening on the exterior.  Actually the reverse can be the case; the interior can drive a good part of the exterior form.  Interior Architecture (IA) does not happen accidently or incidentally.

The term “Interior Architecture” does sound somewhat technical.  And it is actually a melding of three separate processes: interior design, architecture, and structural design. The interior design component refers to the locations and transitions of the interior finishes, including the selection of the materials and how they work together to create the desired look. The architecture component refers to the physical design of the interior; it is the interior shaping and scaling to fit the intended use of the space.  It provides the best internal function of the building.  IA clarifies and expresses what we might call the “internal pedestrian“ (people) pathways through a building.  It provides the best placement, manipulation and use of both natural and artificial light. And the third component, the structural design, manages the structure of the building to take advantage of any aesthetically pleasing structural elements for a space. This may entail leaving the bones of the structure exposed (like large beams or columns) or opening up vertical space to create a monumental space. It may also take into account the best way to combine old and new building structures.

So what can this mean for your spaces?  It can mean the best function and “artistic form” for each space in your home or commercial building. After you have a basic layout for your building a secondary design consultation with the architect will help you take advantage of each room’s design (IA) potential. If it’s a commercial building, you may want to wow clients as soon as they walk into the door, planning features such as transparent partitions, ceiling height changes or an atrium.

Interior architecture is a basic service of an architect when the agreement is structured accordingly.  Interior Architecture can make your interiors a series of engaging experiences.  It can make your home or building interiors a composition of form, space and color and can be like a movie set that takes you through settings that stimulate and excite you; or it can be a place that inspires innovative thinking.  Or as one author recently put it: “Viewing architecture from the outside isn’t quite as multidimensional as viewing it from within, where the space encapsulates you, 360º, up and down. It’s like being within an alternate reality”.

For more reading on Interior Architecture see “Enjoying architecture from both inside and out”  – by: Isabel Berenguer Asuncion;  also see its definition in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Author’s Note:  Please let us know if this article addresses the information you may have been looking for or thought interesting to know.  We will be glad to address your questions or comments. Thank you in advance.

What’s Keeping You From Building or Remodeling?

Building: is it an overwhelming task? Well yes but it doesn’t have to be. There’s no doubt that remodeling your home or designing and constructing a commercial building for your place of business are complex tasks. After all, design and construction brings together many systems and materials. And we’re talking about something that is going to cost a significant amount of time and money, and if it’s not done methodically, you will have cost overruns and mediocrity will prevail at best. But then again, we pray tell that the “wisdom”  (in construction) is in the planning.

Plus, there are a huge array of questions that need to be addressed before you even get started on what for many of us is a life’s project. Questions like:

– How much is it going to cost?
– Can I plan for separate phases of construction and pay as I go with each phase?
– How much square footage do I need to build?
– Will my idea(s) be structurally sound?
– Will it fit (architecturally and aesthetically) with the rest of the building design?
– Will my current foundation be able to support a second story addition?
– Will this building use be allowed within my current zoning regulations?
– What are the building limits within my property (City and HOA regulations, for example)?
– Can I fix any current drainage issues, electrical or roof problems during this new construction?
– How will my new roof meld with my existing roof?
– How do I get exactly what I want?

And these are just a fraction of the collection of questions you may be asking. They may seem intimidating, but they don’t have to be.

So how do you move forward with control and the confidence that you are making the right decisions? Your best first move is to schedule an appointment with an experienced Design Build Architect. In a brief initial meeting with a Design Build Architect many of your initial questions can be answered.  Thereafter, the architect can do a quick design study to answer the balance of your questions, including ones you probably haven’t thought about. In addition, a subsequent cost analysis will give you the overall feasibility of the project you have in mind. In essence, an initial meeting with a design build architect will address the many variables that stymie a move ahead with the project. You will be able to move forward with your project knowing a plan of action, if it is doable, that you can afford it, and what you need to do to get it done.

The fact is, life is just too short for you to put off crafting your work and home spaces for your life and work styles. There will be a little pain but much long-lasting gain.  Making sense of the chaos around us is the essence of enriched home and work living? You work hard, perhaps even live hard.  Great design (architecture) can help you work and live smart.  We all deserve that.

Wondering if your life’s dream project is possible? Find out.  Schedule an appointment with a Design Build Architect and put your life’s plan into action.

Author’s Note:  Please let us know if this article addresses the information you may have been looking for or thought interesting to know.  We will be glad to address your questions or comments.  If there is something you may want to add or disagree with we would love to hear about it! Thank you in advance.

Demand for Traditional Contemporary Architecture

Contemporary traditional architecture is the dominant style in middle America today. In my mind a modern traditional style is and has been in great demand since the late 50’s.  It combines the almost forgotten guidelines of proportion and detailing for homes and buildings and elegantly brings architectural order to building form, resulting in excellence of style and design.

However, my fault here is that I am describing this system using the noun “architecture,” which may make my statement vague to many outside of the profession.  So for further clarification, please see this post: “Design: The Most Misunderstood Word in Architecture.”

During the 25 plus years that I have been practicing architecture, the majority of my clients have chosen a traditional style of architecture for their projects. Although I was trained in modern architecture design I quickly learned that if I was to survive I needed to design the traditional architecture requested time and time again by clients.

I found that I not only quickly understood and enjoyed the traditional (classical) style, but also recognized that it needed to be combined with contemporary planning and materials. Thus I arrived at what I call a “modernitional”  style.  The easiest book I found to understand classical architecture is “Classical Architecture” by Robert Adam, 1991.  In a simple graphic manner, the book  clarifies the elements of classical architecture used to design homes and buildings dating back 2000 years.  What is amazing is that classical brings order to the chaos of design. Also, what was surprising to me was the infinite combinations of architectural elements that can be brought together.  Yet another factor that impressed me is that classical design provides a “systematic” tool to bring order, proportion and detailing to a building interior as well as exterior. Modern design does not have such as system.  My conclusion: this is why it is more difficult to successfully design a modern style structure.

In practice, classical design guidelines force the architect to reshape and clean up the form of a structure to prepare it for architectural detailing.  Many home or building designs end up without this shaping (or “tailoring”) because they are considered modern or because the designer is unaware of the “form correcting” capabilities of classical design guidelines.

It is interesting to note that our ancestor’s doodled for 2000 years deriving these classical guidelines and handed down to us this wonderful gift of architecture.  It is my hope that we not hesitate to use classical design guidelines to make even the most modest structures and residences, elegant and prominent.  And by the way it is virtually without cost.  It is like Tai Chi for the body.  It just takes some know how and mental energy.

Author’s Note:  Please let us know if this article addresses the information you were looking for or thought interesting to know.  We will be glad to address your questions or comments.  If there is something you may want to add or disagree with we would love to hear about it! Thank you in advance.

Enjoying the “By the Square Foot” Homebuilding Standard

There is an unwritten standard in the “Design Build-Home Building” world that has been kept somewhat quiet, and this standard is the design and cost estimating of homes “by the square foot” (BiSqFt). This means that each trade (electricians, carpenters, painters, etc) price their services according to the number of square feet a project claims to be. In short, the cost of their services are calculated based on the size of the home. This effectively makes the process of estimating the overall cost of a home much easier for the builder.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. Many homes are being built this way that would otherwise not be built (also known as tract or spec housing). Using the BiSqFt standard to build homes means that people with a tight budget can quickly get into a home that they can afford. However, there is one part of this process that needs to be closely examined, and that is the quality of the project.

Let me clarify. I am not talking about the quality of each component of the home (i.e. number of studs or nails or roofing quality, etc), I’m talking about the quality of the architecture (once again, not the “prettiness” of the home, but the functional value of the home).  The following are examples of the ingredients for high quality (or architecture) in home building:

– A home with a floor plan that is the best it can be
– A home that actually has interior architecture (not to be mistaken with interior decoration)
– A home that has exterior architecture (elegant form, proportion and detailing that follow the function of the home)
– A home that is well located on the lot to take full advantage of outdoor living
– A home that is well day-lighted
– A home that is energy efficient by the nature of its orientation, room and window placement

And while these components are typically assumed to be a part of every home being constructed, the fact is, they aren’t. The only way to ensure these aspects will be included in your home is to make sure they are designed into the house plans.

Therefore, while it may be a good idea to shop for other (standard) services with the “by the square foot” mentality, it is unwise to shop for design services using the BiSqFt standard. Shopping for house plans BiSqFt is most assuredly skipping over the prime quality control step of home building; low fee plan services (BiSqFt) are time-based, not quality-based. You can enjoy the economies of a BiSqFt home, but unless the design is done by a experienced Architect not employed by the BiSqFt standard, your design (and overall value of the home) will suffer. The best route is to make sure you get a realistic design fee put into the budget for the project, and then take out the fee to pay for and get architectural design (quality control) separately. In many cases (as a minimum), you can pay for design services for the price you would pay for a real estate fee.  This will ensure that architectural quality will be built into your home. Your builder should be able to introduce you to an Architect able to directly fulfill your needs.

Finally, using a BiSqFt standard reduces the home design and construction process to a commodity that is quickly provided . Problem is, if the design is also done using this BiSqFt standard the builder ends up with the best returns, not the home owner.

Depending on where you live the standards vary, of course, but generally speaking there is likely a BiSqFt standard that is being used to quickly design and cost a home for the average buyer in your area.  It’s estimated that more than 90% of America’s homes are being built using this BiSqFt standard. And that’s A-Okay, but by the owner making sure the house design service is valued as much as the builder’s service (and not purchased as a BiSqFt standard), you are able to construct a home that will enrich your life and will be an asset to the fabric of our cities and be worth keeping 20, 30 or more years from now.

 

Author’s Note:  Please let us know if this article did not address the information you were looking for or thought interesting to know.  We will be glad to address your questions or comments.  If there is something you may want to add or disagree with we would love to hear about it! Thank you in advance.