Jump to content

caliwag

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    160

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by caliwag

  1. caliwag

    Poche`

    By caliwag,

    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 garden, including the route and entrance threshold, and then considering the space covered in stuff. This may be lawn, grasses (trendy) herbs, shrubs (totally covered), etc then take out spaces for the needs and routes between them. It's really the same as house layout design, but more akin to decollage, the result of removing bits, rather like a political poster that people have attempted to remove. 
     
    No matter, I hope you get the idea...It ties up the results of your site analysis with your list of must-haves. (The brief)
     
    The pocket idea is best seen in heavy walled churches, cathedrals, castles where there are often pockets in the wall created for chapels, spiral stairs, secret rooms and so on, and best exploited in more modern housing where built-in shelves, en-suite facilities, larders, even secret rooms and snugs are worked into spaces between rooms. Interesting spaces may be created where square edged rooms could appear clumsy, or passages would allow better flow. I would agree that it's not for the faint-hearted, but could be great fun especially when building the corrugated card model (one to amuse the kids on a wet holiday afternoon). Don't blame me if they want to be architects after that. It could add a sense of humour to a design and add bags of character...And you do want your extension or new home to exude character don't you!
     
    A word of warning, it will be more expensive as builders do not relish curves.
     
    Happy designing
  2. caliwag
    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' "the back garden lacks interest" I leave you to make up your own minds. Photographs and house plans can be seen on the Strutt & Parker site. The house is on sale at £575k and the location is Langthorpe near Boroughbridge...huh no station sadly.
  3. caliwag
    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 and Erskine, to say nothing of the genius of Lloyd Wright. 
     
    However, this approach does not discount the employment of all the ideas in contemporary homes, regardless of whether you want something to be 'at one' with the area, (repose) or to stand out or indeed to win a prize and be published. I make mention of this because I had been involved in the design of a 400m2 house, which the client wanted to be white, crisp, steam-ship like internally...although He was an Arts and Crafts fan. He wanted the place to be capable of winning an architectural competition.. He wanted me to 'do a Lutyens'
     
    The main criterion was in detailing...'if you can do without a line or ledge...so much the better' was his mantra. This therefore was a modernist approach (gained by years of study of the masters) shoe-horned into an Arts and Crafts or even Regency facade. Actually a more common approach generally than I thought! It means of course no cover strips, no skirtings, no architraves, just shadow gaps... oh and absolutely no pipe boxes.As seamless construction as possible, as if the interior had been hewn out of a solid.
     
    Whether you like this idea, beware, it will cost more, because you need the best builders who will be working to precise dimensions and many detail drawings, not be wittering on about starting the next job halfway through! The end result requires a certain precise type of living. If you are messy like me, forget it.
     
  4. caliwag

    Gardens

    By caliwag,

    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 learning from enthusiasts via their books
     
    A sponsored Sunday Telegraph article featured a piece by Sir Roy Strong (former director of the National Portrait Gallery and V+A in London) on a garden. which he and his late wife had been creating since the early 70s. It is an intriguing garden, large by most domestic standards and formal in layout. The garden is now open to the public. (National Garden Scheme)
     
    The formality derives from the axial nature of the plan, with 'events' at path intersections and vista ends. Events for example include bird-baths, sculptures, fountains, seats in bowers, a sun dial and even a knot garden. You could of course, following your listings, have important points like a practice goal mouth or cricket stumps, a herb or fruit garden, sunny spots, a fragrant bower and so on, all dependent on size. Their garden is called Laskett gardens in Hertfordshire.
     
    Sir Roy has produced garden design books...I recommend ' on Garden Design, on ABEbooks.co.uk for under £3 inc P+P. A trawl around your local secondhand bookshop may well uncover one or two of the many books by John Brookes...'The Small Garden', 'The New Garden' or 'Well Designed Garden' all under £3 from ABE...cheap from an excellent designer...just be careful where you plant that avenue of Limes!! Good gardening s they say on a well known Radio 4 programme.
  5. caliwag
    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 most cases, good planning with of course views to the ocean from big bay windows.
     
    I managed to pick up my remaindered copy in York bookshop, but they are available via abebooks.co.uk from the states, quite cheaply, though the postage is steep...to be recommended though. About £20 inc P+P...good luck all
  6. caliwag

    Kettles Yard

    By caliwag,

    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 University left it 'as bequeathed', and the art centre next door is undergoing further conversion and expansion, kettlesyard.co.uk for details. It's well worth a visit if you are in the area, but check opening times as much of the site is closed till Spring 2018.
     
    A pair of 7 facet bay windows were added to the ground floor living space, which gives the cottage great connection with the gardens, the sill heights being sufficiently low, and just brings the space alive. They are generous enough to sit in with a small table and chair, and with a display of small scale collectables and found objects.
     
    Another delightful feature of the conversion is the working in of small, glass-door fronted, display cabinets. As they are back to back and carefully constructed, they are not intrusive, do not  impede circulation, yet really contribute to the spaces. Very much the case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. There is a small element of 'poche', French for pocket, in action here. see later blog. 
  7. caliwag

    Decrements

    By caliwag,

    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 considerations should include assessment of the impact of the extra room (s) on existing daylight, ventilation and circulation, for a start. Stand back and consider the new massing rather than going with your first thoughts, a builders suggestion, or even a neighbour. This is especially true for internal circulation and possibly resultant dead spots.
     
    Consideration can simply be of the choice of materials. Trying to match old and new bricks rarely works, with differing formats, to say nothing of the abilities of a bricklayer achieving thin coursing. Instead consider contrasting materials, (or joining by separation, visually) which can work and is especially dependent on locations and local vernacular...there may well be a local tradition of change (driven by necessity or availability) from days of less ridiculous nimbyism and the "that doesn't fit in brigade" that you can show evidence of to support your desires to a planner, who should instinctively be in your side.
    If I can again put in a plea for consideration of 'separated' addition (a pavilion in the rear or side garden) which the builder could get on with without disruption to the existing house. This can joined with a corridor or glazed link, and create, perhaps, an interesting, protected courtyard...quite a case for a picture sparing saving a thousand words. OK it's probably a loss of some garden, yet only lawn anyway. but it's really just another way to look at spatial issues, and discovering fresh advantages. there will no doubt be height issues, with a neighbours blessing you could even build a windowless  wall of the pavilion on a boundary, if space is tight...Throw away the prejudices and think of the benefits and positives...a corrugated card massing model anyone?     
  8. caliwag
    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 contribute on the subject of windows and sill heights..."One of a window's most important functions is to put you in touch with the outdoors. If the sill is too high, it cuts you off." As mentioned, the award winning property journalist Anne Ashworth of the Times suggested "...a Georgian rectory remains the dream home of most of those house-hunting in the country" (indeed a growing trend if current reports are to be believed).
     
    I suspect one reason is that the main rooms have low sills, as well as comfortable, proportional attributes. I wonder why developers do not notice this. Many of Baillie Scott's early 20th century houses were built with low sills in at least one room, especially if it was a bay window. (see Diane Haig's book of Baillie Scott's houses, The Artistic House.)
     
    Alexander also talks of having windows in two walls of a main room. This seemingly has several advantages, animation of the room, objects and furniture, different glimpses of sunlight and a choice of seating location. You will notice in a cafe or clear-windowed pub that, given a choice, people will gravitate, almost without discussion, to a window seat.
     
    Bailie Scott in his 1906 book "Houses and Gardens" railed against anything other than one window in a room..."It is best, therefore, to concentrate the window space so that the light comes from one side only..."and so on. Interestingly most of BS's houses after that date contradicted that, at least in the main rooms.
     
    It should be uppermost to note in your portable notebook when walking around or visiting a pub, cafe, hotel foyer, friend's houses, or browsing through the design magazines or weekend newspaper supplements, surprising or pleasing window arrangements and relationships with the rooms. Window are often characterful devices used to advertise other things...sofas, curtains/blinds, wallpaper, an Aga and so on, so keep your eyes open for ideas that might add character to your design and take note, sketches, photos before you forget. Excerpt from the book on cargocollective.com/selfbuilddesign. Happy designing 
  9. caliwag

    Details and Joinings

    By caliwag,

    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.
     
    Many people know my views on CAD (this discussion started 10 years ago and I trust things have improved!)...it stands for computer aided drawing, not computer aided design. It is also a fine example of 'rubbish in, rubbish out' sad to say. I recall as a 'brain, eye, pencil and paper' designer asking a few years ago, 'why doesn't the computer flag-up that the plan doesn't match the elevation?' after spending a Sunday with a ream of print-outs and a bottle of Tippex..'nah, can't be done' and that was Microstation, used for space probes Well, I trust the systems do now.
     
    I encourage all to do as many drawings as possible, just to explore ideas, ideally in 3D, but I would appeal for drawings of internal elevations and ceiling layout. Apart from being very useful for the illustration of precise heights of sills and lintels, position of vents, power points and switches, television slots, brackets and cables, wall lights, hooks etc, it highlights any potential clashes of planes, beam ends and heights, column to beam junctions, internal corners etc. 
     
    If you are giving £500 to a plan drawer, tell him/her you want lots of sections through the tricky bits and all the internal elevations and ceilings. Leave nothing to chance or serendipity.
  10. caliwag

    Character and Value

    By caliwag,

    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's meaningless except as a polite substitute for old, rambling, near collapse (hang on that's me)!
    But I bet you won't say to your architect 'oh, while you're at it I don't want the development to have any character'.
     
    However, It does go hand in hand with the adding of value. you'll notice that the adverts, or more properly 'We are delighted to offer...' displays in Country Life, and the quality end of estate agent world, pepper their descriptions with charming, unique, stunning, exceptional and full of character descriptions. Interestingly in a recent copy of CL they were 'featuring' a modern country house (for modern read newly built, with a flat roof and seemingly office-style windows) which offered no such glowing descriptions...I wonder why. Still over a million quid though!
    My trusty Chambers dictionary describes character as 'the aggregate of peculiar qualities which constitutes personal individuality': it seems to me that peculiar in this context means specific to yourselves, not weird! Mind you, one person's weird can be another's delight (that word again)...sorry Ferdinand.
     
    I leave you to ponder this one.
  11. caliwag

    Delight

    By caliwag,

    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, Arthur Martin's the 'Small House and its surroundings', John Stephanidis in 'Atmosphere, Effect and Comfort' and of course mine. It is very much an Arts and Crafts tenet. Incidentally, the former editor of the Architectural Review contributed to a page every month entitled ' Delight'. Generally the subject matter was an intriguing piece of design with special attention to detailing, use of materials, or a special lighting quality...So all is not dead the the professional world! I consider that 'delight' should top every page of your scribbles notes and 'must-haves'. A noble ambition? 
  12. caliwag

    Ugly new homes

    By caliwag,

    This is modified blog from the first one I added referencing a small, underplayed article in the Sunday Telegraph of 3 September, which I did reference, possibly breaking a rule...or I pressed the wrong button! So you'll need to google at your own leisure. It caught my eye because in the title are the words 'Ugly Homes' and 'Nimbys'...well what is the definition of an ugly home for starters. We all have our own definition of same: mine would be ill-proportioned, jumble of materials...or too busy and poor landscaping associated with too much tarmac...I won't go on.
     
    The suggestion is that local communities, get together, with a 'design code' assembled by an 'expert' from the planning office in consultation with local residents. Can this be possible? Out of two hundred residents, you'll receive precisely 200 diverse, and no doubt daft, views, including 'no we don't want any development'. Surely this can only be carried out through a parish council...whose final view can only be advisory anyway...just like a planning committee can avoid a highway's engineers report if desired.
     
    This all sounds time consuming, a delaying tactic to any development or application, ridiculously long- winded, and politically/socially unsound.
     
    Take a quick look at the description in my blog about an Edward Schoolheifer house in London...sadly that would fail all all Design codes at the first hurdle...it's got a flat roof (shrieks of horror from the assembled nimbys)...careful what you design!
  13. caliwag

    Site analysis

    By caliwag,

    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 seasons including extremes, neighbouring people, planting, buildings etc and the potential attack on your proposals and you and your family's senses and so...make your own list of issues (more in the book).
     
    2 Once all the facts are documented, without comment and consideration, you can then explore the implications of slopes, weather extremes soil structure, noise, that pig farm, sun angles, exposure and so on.
    3 You and everyone who wants to be involved can now make a start on using the information, along with your brief (needs, wants, must haves, desires etc) to propose possibilities, design ideas etc
     
    You'll be pleased you approached the whole project this way, as you just imagine, while chatting to a local in the pub who tells " course  you realise much of the garden floods every few years" or "they were making noises about re-opening the old railway behind that place" and so on. Not that local observations should be discounted (add to survey section)...similarly a chat with a long-standing neighbour could well prove very informative. You should not assume your solicitor's search will always through up nasties! They're only human after all! Good luck.
  14. caliwag

    Book, The Sensual Home

    By caliwag,

    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 for design inspiration, but surely not £65 of advice!
     
    I guess being a former editor of a design magazine she had access to copious images to suit her subject matter...it's a lovely coffee table book. Look out for a secondhand one or perhaps a reprint or library copy. Chapter headings include
     
    Liberate your senses
    Harmony, balance and quiet
    Comfort, Texture
    Sixth Sense
    Light and Shade
    Sustenance and Love
     
    to name a few. I don'tknow this Lady, but I just love the way the book is assembled: it's inspiring, and a useful form of design check list, without being full of fashion for its own sake. Perhaps she'll give a good review of my book!  
  15. caliwag
    My old tutor used to say 'a design is like the old joke about a spittoon...it's all in one' Dreadful I know. but I say this because it's difficult to isolate much of the reasoning behind decision making...you could be forcing the impact of a preconceived idea around the design but discounting relevant derived thinking from a site analysis. See later blog  For this reason I am not a fan of plan books, certainly they may spark off a new direction of a way of handling circulation but are limiting...maybe fun and useful for a family member keen to do some corrugated card modelling, but limiting. 
    However, for the purpose of this blog I am ignoring all aspects of the site (You may not even have one). It needs to be emphasised that once you have secured a site, the constraints, positives and negatives will hugely inform many aspects of the design. You can speculate on the variations...the site might only be 5 metres wide, seriously overshadowed by protected trees, yet my have a glorious view to the North yet have limited access etc.
    Anyway, ignoring all that I am going to suggest that the most important starting point is indeed the main entrance and its relationship to the immediate internal spaces...the smell of lunch or coffee, work activity, the sounds of piano playing, glimpses to the kitchen, play space or a sunny back or side garden.
    Chris Alexander et al suggest that "placing the main entrance...is perhaps the single most important step you take during the evolution of a building design" Note that 'A Pattern Language' is a design manual, memory jogger, check list of possibilities for all manner of buildings, not just houses, from the town/city to small details of houses and gardens...a quite unique work, based on global settlements.
     
    There is a good reason for main entrance statement when you start to consider all the family activities that take place there...negotiations with friends and neighbours, tradesmen, postmen and delivery arrangements...as well as occasional and long term storage of coats, shoes, umbrellas, skateboards etc to say nothing all the recycling. Make your own list, seasonally and weekly, and including a degree of flexibility for gatherings and a changes of circumstance.
    Therefore this will be further developed with a degree of history and social arrangements from other countries in future blogs...some is in the book as examples and quotations. I hope you enjoy the process. Feel free to comment, argue or offer thoughts and examples.
  16. caliwag
    I have mentioned in my design guide, that a way of building up a brief, or what you want, is to assemble a file, portfolio of images and references of likes and hates as well as must haves, desires and 'if the budget stretches to it' themes and thoughts, but you could approach the brief making with just descriptions and words. I daresay it depends how your mind works, and this is not the place to explore that, even I knew where to start. I've mentioned where this came from in another blog. Some years ago I was invited to to assist on a degree level Interior Design course, I was confronted with a group of final year students who had effectively been abandoned by a tutor who was stuck abroad and another who was having a nervous breakdown. The approach that had been set up for them was to identify a donor building which they could survey and measure, and decide what interesting and absorbing use they might explore, as a 5 month project...they hadn't achieved much. The new uses ranged from a high class hairdresser, an indoor BMX park with assocaited cafe and shop, a TV reception area, a micro brewery visitor centre, student accommodation with communal gathering spot, bistro/wine bars and so on.
     
    However rather than suggest that all retire to the library and select the latest trend, I suggested they grab good dictionaries and select descriptions plus opposites like loud and clangy to soft and calm. artificail lighting to naturally lit, bright to subdued and also to consider textures in the same vein. I know it does sound like 'just another over-the-top student project, but they mostly made huge progress. So you can approach early stages of your design the same way...rustic/modern, bold/receding, on the landscape/of the the landscape, dominant/reposing, brash/calm...make your own list, only with a dictionary! I expressed no opinion, helping with other source material and some detailing...I just enjoyed their enthusiasm and to see the challenge accepted...oh, the all passed, a bonus for all.
     
    See cargocollective.com/selfbuildhome for details of guide
  17. caliwag
    This is something fundamental to the approach to his design...getting rid of or reducing prejudices of what a house looks like. Houses, along with all buildings to my mind, should be designed from the inside out...sort out the needs, wants, desires, must haves and so on with as few preconceptions as possible.For many this is impossible and undesirable, but it does help to free up the thinking at the early stages. Ask serious estate agents and they will tell you that, given a choice, more people will aim for a Recency rectory or Georgian facade above all else...they will ignore the fact that are most likely inefficient and draughty, but they display a sort of wealth or status...so be it, and I guess many want to display that in a self build.
     
    Approached from the inside out you are unlikely to arrive at a symmetrical, balanced facade but you should end up with satisfactory and adjustable solution which will suit a site, and anyway unless you get the proportions right with the right window and even glazing bars it'll tend to look odd. Of course in your listings of must haves you may well have listed 'must look odd'...who am I or your architect to object.
     
    In one of the only books I've come across by proven, excellent architects is The Place of House by Charles Moore, Gerald Allen and Donlyn Lyndon and others, written from a West Coast USA perspective, you can read between the lines and follow the principles. Very reasonably priced copies are available on ABEbooks.co.uk...I recommend it. I'll briefly summerise a chapter on house form or arrangement of rooms...all will become  clear.
     
    1. Rooms bunched...Could be Georgian/Regency approach but tends to be the way many people build/live...almost a doll's House approach
    2, Enfilade...a  military expression for a line or row...a row of rooms, interlinking or consolidated with small courtyards. An intriguing and inventive example of this is by  Peter Phippen of PR+P in Hatfield, Herts being only around 6m wide but a very long house, designed for a terrace. Google for a floor plan, as one sold relatively recently...indeed there is a bold estate agent that specialises in 'The Modern House'.
    3. Rooms surrounding...the idea being rooms surrounding a garden or courtyard...as https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/house-and-homes-blog/gallery/2012/jun/15/homes-interiors
    4. Pavilion...As it sounds, yet inevtably more geometric and dare I say symmetrical. This approach could lend itself to extensions of course...think of the advantages, access permitting...works can be carried out without interference with the workings of the existing house, until connection...more of this approach later.
    5...Around the edge, this is a bit like a new home built on say two edges of a garden or plot, and on the boundary...a mix of points 2 and 3 really, which need imaginative approach to lighting and the blessing of neighbours.
  18. caliwag
    I recently came across a Facebook article on kitchen design tends for 2018...well according to the article, there doesn't seem to be any new ideas. A larger sink was mooted, but the one illustrated was long but single...what? Surely that's pretty old thinking (You have a sink full of washing up and somebody waltzes into the kitchen with half full teacups, and err! I'm not a fan of dishwashers, especially for small loads...that's not my point: double sinks minimum please. I suppose there must be a good mark-up on kitchen fit-outs given the number of dedicated magazines, leaflets and dedicated shops (we have one in this tiny Yorkshire village). Generally they all seem to offer the same stuff, perhaps with different doors and handles. However, I'm not about to stun you with a "but have you thought of this?" type of article. But have you thought of this? Why do we have so many have wall cupboards and ghastly cooker extracts? Wall cupboards always make a room appear smaller and create a cascade effect. Picture any of the 'sexy' glossy images of a kitchen with two glasses of wine and a few carrots on a chopping board and imagine the space without wall cupboards...calm? So where do you handily store everything? In a dedicated stack or run of of full height cupboards, only 250-300mm deep along one wall...OK along with an inset 'coffee station'! (I think a coffee station was a potential ground breaking trend for 2018).
    That way you can lose everything and know where it is. If you (or SWMBO) insists on 'Away' then the doors can be opaque, or any combination of openness and opacity. Remember herbs and spices rather lose their flavour if exposed to light and heat, so they must be away, or in a larder.
    I'm a fan of larders, fitted with slate or granite shelving and good ventilation for storage of jams, pickles, vegetables, fruit, beer wine, cheese, eggs etc...many foods don't sit very well in a fridge, losing their flavour and absorbing the wrong flavours from other foods. Ideally a larder should be on a North East corner, vented high and low, and with a sealed door to warmer parts of the house. Is that potentially a 2018 trend...watch this space.
  19. caliwag

    Corridors and passages

    By caliwag,

    This a subject that will crop up in every house design from entrance to back door as well as room linking. If you need to develop a long thin house or long thin extension, it should be a priority to consider the nature of the links or corridors as much as the rooms themselves. That may seem obvious, but I'm sure we've all been in offices, hotels, guest houses and even recently designed homes where evidently no consideration has been paid to the links and passages. There should at least be a naturally lit, or moving artificially lit 'goal' at the end. There should also be events, activities, punctuation, changes in wall/daylight, especially if they are unavoidably long. Now I know these spaces are being paid for at the same rate as the rest of the house, so why not make the space and goal work for its cost, for the delight of all?
     
    As mentioned earlier in the blog 'Bays and Oriels', a useful and calm daylit spot can be created along a corridor, perhaps associated with built in shelving and of comfortable seating and small table, to act as a workspace, for homework, contemplation of the garden view or the last of the days sun or a bird table...all to taste. The corridor could be totally shelved for books, records or CDs, a postcard collection or even a well lit mini art gallery, or planted wall, depending on your hobbies and fancies. It is something I've often tried to design into my projects, houses that never to seem offer enough storage. The theme is expanded at least in 'A Pattern Language' by Chris Alexander et al (a must) and Frank Lloyd Wright designs (see Wright Sized Houses by Diane Maddex) along with other design books reviewed in my book "Self build Home...the Last Thing You Need is an Architect"...info on Cargocollective.com. Cheers, Caliwag  
  20. caliwag

    Front Gardens

    By caliwag,

    This is a follow-up of a discussion that has taken place on a couple of forums in the past.
     
    A book that I have not referred to in my book to be found in cargocollective.com/selfbuildhome is Bernard Rudofsky's 'Behind the picture window'  an excellent little book from 1955 by a writer, teacher and architect. (Sadly £50+ on ABEbooks.co.uk) It is written from an American perspective, though the sentiments seem to apply equally to the UK. Indeed when I worked for a speculative house-builder, open plan front gardens were the order or the day, insisted on by my bosses, the planners and probably the sales department as well. I did manage to break the mould by drawing beech hedges along and between the house fronts which were duly ordered up and planted...the planners assumed it was an enlightened builder and my bosses assumed it was a planning condition...haha 1-0 to Caliwag.
     
    So in the above book, Bernard was completely anti silly lawns..."in its present state, the front lawn does not invite play or rest. It is not a place where one might want to read a book. There is no question that it belongs to the street rather than to the house" Depending on the location of your front door and entrance hall, orientation and indeed the house layout, use and planting of a front garden could be similar to a side or rear garden.
     
    Mr R suggests "Even the average front lawn has enough room for a sunny place which, on bright mornings, may serve as a breakfast nook: a shaded corner for discovering the therapeutic value of a siesta: a well screened patch of grass for sunbathing: perhaps a sand pile for the youngest or even a paddling pool. And there may be still space left for flower beds and a herb garden. An inexhaustible repertoire of walls, hedges, fences, pergolas and trellises, tents and sun-sails may help us to feel more at home under the sky. The habitable garden could thus become additional living space and, in a sense, a nobler version of the house" All very interesting...a nice check list to set one thinking, and very 3D. As an architect, Mr R did 'defy the local authorities by-laws by building walls and trellises and unfortunately he does not outline the outcome.
     
    A fascinating alternative to creating effectively back garden to the front, is to follow the modern advice/trend of, what has been dubbed "a new perennial movement" using bold drifts of herbaceous plants and grasses as outlined by Piet Oudolf in one of his many books 'Planting, A New Perspective' 2013 about £20 on ABE...it is a new way of low maintenance planting with fascinating seasonal planting schemes...defo anti lawn  Happy Designing Folks   
  21. caliwag

    Bay windows and Oriels

    By caliwag,

    I have always tried to design in Bay and even oriel windows in my house designs. Bay windows can often add a quite 'slot' to do the home work, read, write or draw, use a laptop, have breakfast and even admire, relatively undisturbed a sunrise or set-set, or admire your efforts in the garden. In a busy kitchen, where more people gather round these days to await or help with supper, a bay can provide the social spot, but still with work etc...more like the trad farmhouse kitchen many which seem to admire...(perhaps another blog). As Arthur Martin says in his 1909 book on house design 'The Small house', " Bay windows are convenient architectural devices for gaining extra space beyond the main walls of the house, being in themselves interesting features in the rooms. They not infrequently in small houses (Mr Martin describing in Edwardian Times houses more akin in area to executive homes now!) form the only comfortable corner for an easy chair or writing table..."
     
    Chris Alexander et al. in  'A Pattern Language' make a plea for care in built in seat design for hardness and back height. A Pattern Language is indeed a wonderful guide to jolting a memory or spending time considering decision making, especially at design and detail level. Anyone considering designing and building should invest in a copy...wonderful and unique piece of work. Obviously another advantage of a bay window is that it captures sunlight and garden activity from three or more windows...so if your wondering whose car is pulling up or what the kids are up to!
     
    Oriels are harder to make work, structurally and thermally. Plainly as a cantilever the structure will penetrate the building so will require ingenious insulation solutions...Theses are not impossible, but need careful exploration. Of course a solution is to build one on top of a ground floor bay or support from the garden...all to taste I guess (and the budget). A favourite device of mine is to extend outwards an oriel from a standard landing to create a hobby or work place which is very much part of the home's activities.
     
    There's more in bays and oriels in my book...cargocollective.com/selfbuildhome for details
  22. caliwag

    Caliwag

    By caliwag,

    In the Observer magazine...03:09:17, is an illustrated article (homes section) about a  beautiful, unspoilt 60s house near Shepperton designed by Swiss architect Edward Schoolheifer (no, I hadn't heard of him either!) which would no doubt be hated by the so-called committee of self-appointed experts of the  last blog. Strangely it was reviewed in 2013 when under different ownership...there is a fine photo of the bedroom with a double height hall. It is quite magnificant, in my opinion. It is slightly reminiscent of the houses in New Ash Green near Sevenoaks by Eric Lyons...flat roof, an emphasis on horizontality and superb gardens and planting. A bit of a theme of mine is the importance of planting and especially of the spaces in between. I often think the all architects should have a course on how the building meets the ground and the resulting spaces in between...don't just leave to chance, or it'll be the first bit that gets chopped from the budget, and you'll end up with SLOAP...space left over after planning! OK, 10 points to the first person who names the designer or critic who coined that acronym.  
×
×
  • Create New...