Design decisions: Overcome the challenges of mass-produced housing
1 Mar, 2005 By: Gary Kinman, Cynthia Kinman LDB SolutionsWhen making design decisions on a residential project, evaluate it based on a series of assessments that will help you decide on a design. As you arrive to the home before meeting the client, consider what is most dominant about the project: the house or the site.
Today, the majority of homes are mass produced in subdivisions where the field has been stripped of top soil and mature trees and is flat and uninteresting. You would think that this makes it simple, by defaulting to the house that would naturally have more interest. However, builders are designing homes that combine architectural features. You might see a traditional brick front facade with stucco on the back and sides. You may see a Palladian window in the center of the front room with arts and crafts window grills. If there is a mixture of features, you must determine which is more dominant and which the owner prefers.
As you evaluate the home and site, determine its assets and constraints. Arrival sequences are important because developers and builders are indulging homeowners' desires for more garage space without considering how visitors will approach the front door. Huge attached garages have become common. While they may be an asset at the time of construction, they are a constraint to designers because they put the structure out of scale with the lot and dominate the house.
Large garages can also create an additional constraint because they increase the size of the driveway. Typically, builders put a narrow, long sidewalk from the monstrous garage to the front of the house. As designers, we have always had to contend with the driveway being the biggest element in a residential house. More often than not, the driveway was slapped in by the builder and shown as part of the cost of the whole development. Unsuspecting homeowners realize the problem after moving into the home when the landscape designer reveals the problem.
Vehicle and pedestrian access are important to consider. Share your assessment of the home during the first meeting with the client. Don't be afraid to point out how difficult it was to park when you arrived, or how you had to walk on the lawn because the driveway was made only wide enough for two cars to park. Explain that if just 24 more inches were poured to the width of the driveway, guests wouldn't have to walk on the lawn, or rub their clothes against a car as they try to squeeze up the drive to the house.
Finally, don't base material selection on price. You must educate the client about performance, durability and the psychological effects of the materials that are chosen. These decisions all impact the homeowner's return on investment with the sale of house. If the client plans to stay in the house, remember that the bitterness of low quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
Focus on the SITE
This project had an extremely steep and shallow back yard. It was about 160 ft. wide and only 25 ft. deep in the back, with a 12-ft. drop to the water. There were three major exits from the back of the house, which was designed to relate to the lake and golf course behind it. The homeowner wanted an attractive outside patio area connecting the back doors. The challenge was to connect at the kitchen doors, the bedroom and the great room. After |
Our goal was to create an artistic outdoor space, in harmony with the architecture, but still be structurally strong in the severity of the site. Because the site was so dominant, natural retaining materials were used to blend with the property.
Since there was such a drop-off, it needed a safety railing, but we didn't want to obstruct the lake views from the house. Wood decks can be high maintenance, and would not have been in harmony with the style of the home. Although a composite decking material might be appropriate for a house on a lake, this house's architecture was of quarried stone materials.
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