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Solutions for making a small house feel big

Aye, the subtitle of a book, that inspires me, by Diane Maddex called "Wright Sized Houses". Published in 2003 (about  £20 on ABEbooks), this is a dissection of some of Frank Lloyd Wright's house designs over six decades. He lived from 1867 to 1959.    As the title implies, he shows how, amongst his big houses on huge spreads in the States, his tenets apply equally to small houses on conceivably restricted sites. Commenting on FLW's attitudes to entrances Ms Maddex writes "...You could

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We’ve moved in!!!

Woke up this morning in our new home! Now sat on the sofa watching tv in my new home, waiting for a full day of rugby TV to start so I can sit and sip cold beers in my new home!   Can you tell I’m pleased?!   Facts and Figures    1 year, 1 month, 14 days (Breaking Ground to Moving in)   4 Double Bedrooms 3 Ensuite 1 Family Bathroom 1 WC Open plan lounge kitchen diner Utility Room Double Garage Workshop    

Grosey

Grosey

Spatial Excitement

Aye, this was a question raised on another forum, some time ago, and my thoughts. Whether 'Passive House Design should or would spawn spatially exciting architecture?' To my mind passive house design can end up with too much glass, which seems to be trend in new houses. That in itself provoked an inconclusive discussion, mainly based on heat loss versus heat gain...To be honest the jury seemed to be out on that one, without active participation of occupants to open and close external shutters an

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caliwag

A great read

OK, a slightly different blog format...suggestion from aregular member...   I am moved to recommend a book by Bill Bryson, who seems to shoot from the hip as it were to inspiring effect! In fact I pick up everything he's written in the local charity shop now. Sorry Bill if you're reading this, (which is extremely unlikely I know) I did by 'At Home...a short history of private life' at full hardback price, and worth every penny!   The Book (reviewed in Guardian Weekend with a

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caliwag

Two Gardeners

I mention in an earlier blog the desirability of considering the outdoor spaces and gardens at the same time as the house design.   Circulation and spatial thinking are very similar to the house layout. Making decisions about entrances and thresholds, capitalising on views and vistas, (to say nothing of orientation and overlooking/shadowing...See Survey blog) sitting places in morning and evening sun as well as dappling if you cannot stand direct sun! It's a good idea to list activitie

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caliwag

Do Not Appeal (sometimes); apply for a Variation on a Planning Condition

There are different views about Planning Consultants, and whether they should be used.   This is a short example of a Planning Consultant offering superb advice, that most of us self-builders would perhaps not think about.   The Problem   I have just received a Planning Permission, after 3 months of engagement with the Council. It is a commercial Change of Use but the lesson applies to self-builder permssions. We received our permission, but on the last morning the

Ferdinand

Ferdinand

Village home in Yorkshire

A diversion, but with reference to earlier blogs.   I usually buy the Times on Fridays for the excellent property section 'Bricks and Mortar' which has been running for quite a few years now. Unfortunately they operate a paywall, so it's not so simple, and annoying, to quote from the paper, I find.   However in the recent edition (3 November '17) in the section called Prime Properties, they briefly review a 17th century cottage, a true doll's house, with the 'Downside comment

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caliwag

Poche`

Ha, French for pocket: Not a term much used in building or design.   A few blogs ago, I described a way of considering garden design as an alternative to creating borders and cutting shapes out of a lawn, or indeed starting in one corner and making shapes, of just planting specimen plants towards another corner. This is a more holistic approach based on listing all conditions of the garden (see site analysis blog), then listing wants, needs, desires, uses of spaces etc for the proposed

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caliwag

MVHR Install

I will write about the install of my MVHR system, as this is something I have done myself (with help).  Theo house is being built by my contractor, supervised by my Architect and QS (who is the CDM).  As I am remote from the location I can only watch what happens on CCTV.  When I was last there the old house was standing and we had disconnected the services. 6 Months later, I have a new house, Weather tight shell, Windows and doors in, sarking and felt on, and tiles and PV being fitted.  I am do

le-cerveau

le-cerveau

A demanding request by any standards

Aye...Most of the commentary, ideas and thoughts, in these blogs are based around traditional thinking, based on some, in my opinion, of many of the most interesting architects of the last 150 years. My constant references to Baillie Scott, Arthur Martin, and thoughts about Arts and Crafts houses, must highlight this. References and quotes from Pattern Language, and even Charles Moore, do hark back to tradition. However tradition is well and truly part of the works of Aalto, Scarpa Hans Scharoun

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caliwag

Gardens

Hello, I touch on this subject again because it can be and should be as important as the house. I looked at this a few years ago, on another forum, in response to a member who had been asked to submit a rough design for the front garden and, by his own admission,  had no idea where to start. I mention in the book an approach to garden spaces by listing likely activities, desires, wants etc all dependent on relationship to house, climate, sun angles, overshadowing etc, but this blog is more about

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caliwag

Buildings in the landscape

Apart from 'A Place of Houses, see earlier blog and several Frank Lloyd Wright books, I don't seem to come across many American house design books but I recommend William Turnbull's 'Buildings in the Landscape'. He worked Charles Moore et al on the Californian Sea Ranch project back in the 70s. OK there's lots of land there and plainly rather less planning restrictions, but the buildings are most interesting...double height living and circulation spaces, timber frame, with timber cladding in mos

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caliwag

Kettles Yard

Aye, a bit of a diversion here. One of my students alerted me to this place a few years ago. It is an expanding arts centre, now owned by Cambridge University, but set up by Jim Ede and his wife. in the 50s. It started as a cluster of small cottages, converted to a home, gallery and workshop to display the couple's interesting collection of 20th century art. The point is that the cottages were tiny and the whole now is an interesting exercise in creating the best from a finite space. The Univers

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caliwag

Decrements

OK I admit, I had to web-search the opposite of 'improvements'. My Chambers dictionary suggests ''to decrease the value of, by a given amount' .   You may well ask where I'm going with this. I sometimes do wonder, when I see extensions and, er, improvements if some people are obsessed with decreasing the value of their property! Plainly  not, but I feel that some don't give as much thought and design attention to detail, and ask questions that they might if building from scratch. The c

caliwag

caliwag

Windows (not the computer ones)

Modern Houses, especially developer built ones, seem to have extremely mean windows...not helped by extremely thick frames and mullions. Consider the room you're in now. What effect would it have if the sill(s) were 18" higher or indeed 18" above floor level. The former would be be rather depressing, the latter quite enlivening, particularly if you have an interesting view, or likely to collect winter sun.   Our old friends Chris Alexander et al in A pattern Language have much to contr

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caliwag

Details and Joinings

Ok, Spell check always pulls me up when I use the word 'joinings', but it is the most succinct and appropriate word for how materials, and planes meet...OK it's a clumsy and ugly word, but then...Are you ahead of me here? So many of the inelegant bodges you can get if you leave it to chance. I would have to say that if you involve an architect on your project, you should end up with no visual nasty detailing, junctions and the "how the hell do we get round this" type of phone call.  

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caliwag

Passing inspection.

Two weeks ago today our stonemason started and poor guy it rained heavily from the very first day! In fact, so bad on the first day that I fully expected him to give it a miss, but there he was when I got home from work, grafting away on his own.  Being a SIPs build, the roof is already in place, so of course all the rain falling on the surface area of the roof flows straight off - directly onto where he is building the stonework below. So this weekend, I managed to get the fascia board and soff

curlewhouse

curlewhouse

Case Study: Water stains on a brick wall

A perennial problem with walls is water or other staining.   Yesterday I was walking past a fairly new wall, built perhaps 15 years ago. There are an interesting number of white stains now running down the wall.   What is the cause? My candidate is probably the weep holes, and also the 'shadow' from the road sign (which should be a few inches further out). I wonder if it also cheap bricks, or an insufficiently considered design. In any case, if stains show up this prominently

Ferdinand

Ferdinand

Character and Value

Greetings all,   I am assuming that everyone who gets involved in renovation, extensions, self design, custom design and self builds wants to to build-in character and therefore add value. Estate agents, property journalists, design magazine editors often pepper their writings with descriptions such as 'oodles, bags, loads of character' etc.  Mind you the description is oft applied to holiday cottages Cornish villages, Tuscan streets and squares. So it's maybe so overused that it'

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caliwag

I just wanted to buy a garden but had to buy the house!

Well, that's been an interesting few months! I've been hoping for the last 18 months to buy the side garden off my landlord (I've been renting there 8 years) and go straight to building. But, nothing is ever that easy! I was asked for plans, which required a bit of homework, an Architect or two and pre-planning. All worked out and I shared the sketches here previously. But when crunch time came the landlord found it too difficult to sell off part of the site as he had an existing mortgage on the

mike2016

mike2016

Delight

Aye, undoubtedly a personal, subjective area of thought, and one you rarely hear in relation to houses unless you are visiting the landscaped gardens of some stately home or hall, yet it could equally be applied to many of the modest gardens, and associated houses in the National Garden Scheme, a very clever charity, mentioned in an earlier blog. The clue really is to do with the setting, relationship of the house to its surroundings and the 'repose'... a term used in several design books, Arthu

caliwag

caliwag

Site analysis

Covered in detail in an earlier blog, and in the book, but it is/was the mantra of a former colleague and tutor Par Gustaffson, a Swedish Landscape architect, who undoubtedly brought a logical approach to the design table. Essentially, to avoid confusion, mistakes and oversights, you should divide a garden or landscape overview into three separate themes.   1 A survey of the physical and factual site elements, including topography, planting, existing structures, weather across the seas

caliwag

caliwag

Book, The Sensual Home

I have mentioned this book in other blogs...The sensual Home by Ilse Crawford...a former Editor of Elle Decoration, arguably the best regular Interior mags on the UK market. I found the Continental issues even more interesting! When I recommended the book a while back it was available on ABEbooks for about £2.50 + P+P, sadly since she's been involved in a Stateside TV show, it changes hands for at least £65 ( Time for a reprint it seems to me), it's a very useful guide to following your senses f

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