One of the great things about designing residential projects for specific clients is that you can really get in and explore the opportunities to deliver a superior product that exceeds expectations. I have a project that is currently under construction and it is as good an example as any to help demonstrate what I am talking about. In speculative residential development, there is a certain amount of thinking that involves working towards the lowest common denominator. Since there isn’t a specific client that the contractor (or architect) is answering to, the product is designed and built to have the greatest appeal to the greatest spectrum of potential home buyers. As a result, almost everything is predictable and formulaic – any “WOW” features are carefully calculated risks because they generally represent un-programmed construction costs; sort of a give the people what they want.
That’s incredibly boring.
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Partial Exterior Elevation (click to enlarge)
I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the covered porch on of one of my projects. (I shouldn’t have to tell you that you shouldn’t build from these details – I have specifically left some information off) This is a fairly straightforward design situation – the covered porch at the entry. Most people have this scenario in one form or another at their own home – but we are trying to look at some of little things to make this entry sequence just a little bit more special. In modern design, there is typically a lot going on that you aren’t instantly supposed to know about or be clubbed over the head with. Things like:
- Thin roof profiles
- Gutter treatments (including scuppers, overflows, and downspouts)
- Alignment – how things line up in relationship with other architectural features
Take the exterior elevation above, if you can read drawings you can see that there is a lot going on that is going to impact the entry procession. There is a box gutter that is basically the same depth as the structure of the roof, the gutter is formed from the same metal fascia material, and there is a scupper to discharge the water instead of a downspout. All of these things were done so that we can minimize the visual impact of how rainwater falls off this section of roof.
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Wall Section at Entry (click to enlarge)
Taking a look at a section through the entry porch, the gutter profile is easier to see. Something else that you can find is a skylight that is placed along the edge of the house. This was done so that light can penetrate through the roof and rake the entry wall. There is also a strip light cove in this skylight so that the entry will be evenly illuminated during the evening hours. It would have been simple to place some shallow profile can lights into the porch ceiling but we would have received scalloped light patterns on the wall and the brightest spot would be the porch floor – and I am not a fan of illuminating floors. It’s a better design to light and feature the wall and have the light reflect onto the floor than the other way around.
Another design feature is that the interior and exterior ceiling height are the same, and that the glazing goes all the way up. This is a really graceful way to extend the view from one side of the window through to the other side without interruption. I think it is an important consideration that in modern design, the boundary between interior and exterior spaces be blurred. As a result, I try and create opportunities to capture the space that tends to be wasted and unused in the front and side yards of most projects.
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Skylight Detail at Entry (click to enlarge)
Drilling all the way in, this is a detail of the light cove and porch skylight at the entry. Other than some extra 2x material, caulk, and some glass – this is not a terribly difficult detail to execute. The benefit it provides is really the result of someone thinking about the opportunity to look at the little things and develop the detail that supports the story. The client loves this feature despite it not being in the programming – this is the sort of detail that happens when creativity and opportunity come together. It’s also the reason I tell people that working with an architect like me should be a fun and rewarding experience.
It’s all in the details.
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There are two more projects from Marlon Blackwell to look at but I might get sidetracked for awhile before I get to the second and far more controversial (it needs to stew in my pea brain for awhile…).
This project however doesn’t need much (other than better photography). This is Marlon’s own house and has been published in several periodicals (the now defunct Metropolitan Home did a nice spread about a year ago I think). He was here when I was taking these photos but I just couldn’t bring myself to take any inside the house – it felt too invasive - like I was peeking into his underwear drawer.
I asked Marlon how the neighbors responded to the house and he told me that they have an open door policy and I am pretty sure all his neighbors have been through to take a look. The house is the same scale as the other houses in the nieghborhood and the wood rainscreen that clads the house goes a long way to soften any perceive harshness of the forms. The house is a model of efficient space planning with the building being one room wide on both floors (the second rotated 90 degrees to the first). And just as the first floor spans and protects the creek bed, the second floors spans and protects the exterior patio space where the outdoor cooking area is located.
The first floor contains all the public spaces and the second all the bedrooms and a small second living space that his children have taken over with their games and school “stuff”.
I have an earlier post on my house (what will eventually be a series of posts) about a lesson in patience and how important an architect’s house is to that architect. You feel judged, your abilities put on display for everyone to see and evaluate. Marlon confirmed that this house has been a good calling card for him – how could it not? There are fantastic living spaces, two well utilized exterior patios, large windows, and a clear programmatic diagram. This house from a layout consideration is overly simple but the execution to me is sublime. The site has a creek bed running through it and was seen by others as a problem – clearly it became an asset.
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- Marlon Blackwell’s Home
One of the highest compliments I can give another architect on a home they designed is that you can project the clients lifestyle into the environment created for them. Since this house was designed by it’s users, it was a safe bet that they knew how they wanted to use it. What makes this house so great to me is that I can project my lifestyle into this environment.
