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!

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.

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

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.

Thanks for all the comments...yes I 'live' in the kitchen, don't watch TV and indeed typing this in the bright and sunny end...it is of course a conversion, so most of it is by design plus I seem to be making something every day...green tomato chutney today (retired so I have that luxury...or chore, take your pick). With the 'trend' for reworking kitchens, I imagine there's loads of granite, and even slate, off-cuts for a larder. Essentially you need heavy weight, cool shelves, venting at high and low levels (don't forget insect screening) and sealed doors to avoid drafts in and out! I have designed a couple recently and it does work as long as 'someone' always closes the doors...grrr. A couple of comments back I was asked washing machine locations, and other rumblers. I have used under-stair space more than once, and, given that a laundry generates most of its contents from bedrooms and bathrooms, I think, if starting from scratch, I'd consider a bathroom location, though drying is a further issue...relatively high energy, greater fire risk (!), and airing. One of the last houses I designed, I suggested laundry/drying/airing room/ironing/sewing room...don't know if it stayed like that...seems to me it would work, especially if the heating boiler was located there for airing. I lived in a so-called town house where the boiler was in a generous under-stair area, so we screwed open the window a sqeak, put up a hanging rail...hey presto, and no condensation.

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.

Excellent Lesgrandepotato, that's excellent. Exactly the sort of thinking I like...it is entirely about rethinking every aspect...'do we really want that', 'what if we worked around the problem of bleak corridors'. Puts me in mind of turn of the 19th/20th century houses be Baillie Scott, which are analysed by Diane Haig in the excellent 'The Artistic house'. Many Baillie Scott houses were designed without corridors, at least on the ground floor. Circulation achieved by large sets of sliding or folding doors, and dining, study and seating/fireplace spots (no central heating!) created in alcoves and bay windows. A few years ago I designed a house (capable of terracing) in Valencia, Spain based on early Moroccan, and other nations, use of internal courtyards ( cooling, filtered light, security, privacy). The layout was a series of rooms, spaces and stairs etc wrapped around the courtyard, but accessing it, the entrance area giving a glimpse to it all...all very Southern Spanish and all points North Africa! (Sadly the builder went bust before it could get out of the ground!) There is occasionally available on ABEbooks.co.uk a UK published research booklet by D MacIntosh called the Modern Courtyard House, which illustrates historic and modern (up to early 70s) courtyard houses...not cheap however.

Hello, thanks for the question...Indeed it is more appropriate for thin houses on restricted sites and I mention B+Bs for example because we have all found ourselves in the bleak extension corridor. I guess I'm reminded of a few projects where people have asked me to advise or comment on proposals and invariably improvements can be made by relocating a front door/entrance to the side of the house therefore half way along a corridor, for example. Chris Alexander and team have plainly observed the lost opportunity. I think it comes from the fracturing of family life for a start where demand for a quiet spot for homework and the like can often be found away from TV watchers in a cosy spot, with window to the garden and setting sun for example for 20 minutes. It is another way of creating useful spaces in circulation, though I do agree that if the budget is tight you really don't want to create apparent waste. Horses for courses and all that...and it depends on family size and hobbies etc. In the book I talk about Home office location. There tends to be a presumption that it can be fitted into the attic or above an garage. Now does everyone really want that...I recall visiting a house a while back where the good-lady was a personal travel agent...the one who spends hours planning and booking that lifetime trip of six weeks...her office was half way up the stairs on an enlarged landing...circulation still worked and she could leave 'office' work untouched from project to project, and if anything she felt part of home life...see 'bay windows and oriels' blog...well it's my personal take on such things, I guess based on experience, talking to clients about needs etc, the writings and examples from architects of the last century etc etc. Enjoy your planning. I wasn't going to mention my book for a while 'Self Build Home...the Last thing you need is an Architect' but it covers all this and more in different forms and with different reference. It's about thinking deeply, and trawling the memory, to make lists of must haves, desires and wants, and explore options long before the architect's fee clock starts ticking. I think it's about exploring the 'what ifs', 'just suppose', and do we really need' type of issues. Oh and get all the family involved!

Haha...not misinterpreted Oz07. I keep receiving leaflets through the door from so-called 'Brick Pave' chancers (I have a two car gravel draining spot in front of a reasonable privacy planted spot) but a guy down the cul-de-sac has had the 'roll-out' and indent style 'blocks' installed for his 4/5 cars (including teenage sons and visiting girl friends!)...of course during a downpour it all runs straight to a street gulley, thus contributing to local floods! When I worked for the Scottish spec. builder 50 years ago, we were always obliged to install splays for incredibly high spec. estate roads...as the local Wag said 'to allow dustcarts to pass at speed)

Aye...hello again Temp...yes that squarely puts the Stair as part of the living area: I may say it's a major tenet of A Pattern Language. Chris Alexander and colleagues say "Place the main stair in a key position, central and visible. Treat the whole staircase as a room. Flare out the bottom of the stair, with open windows or balustrades and with wide steps so that the people coming down the stair become part of the action in the room while they are on the stair, and so that people below will naturally use the stairs for seats.' Thanks for your experience there Temp.

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

Ha...Amazon are on the ball. Just been notified that Oudolf book is available from them for just over £4, I assume plus postage...scary isn't it?

Aye, thanks for that.

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

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

Ha...I have traced a map off screen on several occasions...mainly location maps, mainly because I didn't use CAD for submissions! Luckily retired now.

Hello and indeed welcome. I used to work in Perth for A +J stephen, house builders...a good outfit. Left them to study architecture, and now admire RobRoy homes from Crieff. I think they are involved in differing stages of self build...anyway good luck with your project

Haha...interesting thanks for that observation...hope the front didn't put you off!

Ah...that's quite a collection...they must be the starting point for a future garden scheme however: the must haves. I wasn't assuming that no front garden implied direct access to the street, more 'why have a lawn' (default mode based on Victorian thinking) when there are many planting possibilities. I suggest that you wouldn't desire to sunbathe in the direct public view, so a front garden is entirely for show, so develop a display that changes with the seasons...that could be the brief to a plantsman/woman..an everchanging display of colour or fragrances or just change of colour of bark/leaf...there will be plant experts out there who would love the challenge, or there are many very specific books. I especially admire John Brookes work and some of the latest garden designers like Piet Oodorf who produce wonderful seasonal colour/textural changes just using long uncut grasses...perhaps flymow a path through or create a bird-feed spot...some of the continental garden designers work with three dimesional statements just with one type of 'strong' plant. I guess you could keep costs to a minimum by planting yourself to a planting scheme. Take a look at the 'National Garden Scheme' open gardens in your area...all proceeds to charity.

Haha...no I don't mean lawn...there is no point in a front lawn. You've got to cut it 20+ times year, and it seems, lavish all yer spare cash on chemicals and ever fancier mowers etc etc. I mean space, just as the space your plot was before building, so, as mentioned in my book (see Facebook...the last thing you need is an architect) always consider the garden (space) at the same time as planning your house and entrances etc...you don't have to carry it out (unless it's a planning condition, and then VAT refundable) but at least you have near a grand plan...and potential planting schemes, sitting spaces, herb and veg plot, sunny spots, views, fragrant area, play area, BBQ area and all other activites...The repose of your house/garden.

Aye, thanks CC for the link and mention of the excellent Ian Nairn...wish I'd kept my copy of Outrage...fetching over £100 on ABEbooks these days I see. Interestingly Nairn and Pevsner died in the same week!

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!

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.

You've probably made your decision by now, but if not talk to Solo TF...a few others on other forums have been complimentary. The can supply frame only or erect, organise other trades or offer the full package I understand. The offer layouts from a catalogue or carry out bespoke houses. I believe Solo also advise on underfloor heating and MVHR systems. Good luck

Personally, Regardless of registration, I'd want to see examples of their previous work or ideas. It all depends why you think you want an architect! Yes, there are some chancers out there, but surly it's the inspiring ideas your after. It is true that RIBA is unimportant...just a club, whereas ARB is indeed the guarantee of professionalism, but is no guarantee of interesting thinking...sadly. I am poised to publish a book, 'self build home....the last thing you want is an architect'...An exercise in getting you to think about what you want before the fee counter starts clicking. I'm sure I'm not allowed to advertise on here so I will say no more...just a thought.