Designing a Good House

Workshop: Designing A Good House

Most of the time, architects are eager to embark on a house project and dream about the ideal house we will design for ourselves, (one day, haha). It is not so uncommon to also hear architects say that “this will be the last house project I ever do!” what went wrong?

Designing a house can be a very intense process, the satisfaction quotient derived through such a process can be very surprising, ending at either ends of the spectrum, but the value(both technical and non-technical lessons) learnt through it can fuel and fan an architect’s passion to strive towards excellence in design. Why? Designing a house requires asking many fundamental questions in what and why we design the way we design. We explore and test ideas in each house we design, the last detail we drew, the last design strategy and vision we asked the client to believe us in, the last material we decided to try out, all becomes our motivation to improve; developing in the process an awareness to refine. House projects can do that to us.

A house development is a huge investment for any client, who are personally prepared to spend to achieve their dreams. We become responsible to conjure up all the right ingredients to transform dream to reality. The problem often, as we are busy creating, tinkering about, do we know what is a ‘good’ house?

Outline

1. Starting right, vision to dream, well, who else?

• Know your client well, and know more than your client!

• Help create the right vision

2. What is a good house?

• Being sensitive, analytical, self-critical of what we observe around us

• Sizes, materials, taste, subjective, quantitative, it all matters

• Enduring, lasting, test of time

• Value of the investment

3. Common areas of design to consider in a good house

• Understand the mechanics and respond to climate

• Respond to site specific conditions, levels, sightlines, features

• Respond to the lifestyle of your client, you are always designing something special!

• What happened to detailing? When did architects stop doing that??!!

• Materiality, senses, its all real

• Inside, outside, its all about knowing the quality of space

4. Mastering producing quality houses

• Teach your client how to use the Ferrari

• Don’t major on minor, but don’t let go of details

• Becoming your client’s good friend