House Design

 A home that works on all levels (comfort, function, economy, aesthetics) is a highly prized commodity in all cultures. How these requirements are defined is a function of personal values, location, income, and intended use. Here in Maine, it ranges from a simple, unheated summer cottage to a high performance year-round home or condominium. 

Or it could be an existing home with "good bones" that deserves to be updated to reflect the lifestyle of its occupants and the economies of the times.

House design is not just about whether it’s Colonial, Contemporary, Shingle Style, or Greek Revival.  It’s all about craft and imagination working together to produce something that speaks to the owner’s needs and operates on multiple levels: how it looks and how it works. Good design is practiced at every level. From the door handle on the front door to the proportions of the windows, Design is thoughtfulness and caring expressed in built form. 

Not everyone is “design literate” enough to pull together and communicate to a builder all of the details necessary to build or remodel the house of their dreams. Architects are the “strange ones” among us who live, eat, and dream buildings.  They are either trained to think this way and/or they have an innate ability to do so. It’s a combination of problem-solving and artistic inspiration. I remember, as a kid, drawing futuristic houses, carving out rooms in the sand at the beach and imagining spaces in my mind. It was the start of something that’s lasted all my life: a love affair with shape, volume, color, and light. 

Another characteristic of most architects is a tendency to be well organized and detail-oriented. If you have someone in your house who squares off the towels in the bathroom towel racks or lines up his/her pencils with the edge of the table, then they either need counseling or they are might be frustrated architects.

Do you like to sketch or doodle on the margins or “build stuff”? Do trips to the hardware store rank up there with taking the spouse out for a movie?  Or do you compulsively watch the Home and Garden TV shows like “Property Brothers? Ayuh, you’ve got it bad.

So how does someone, like an architect, “put it all together” and come up with a design or remodel for your house? There are a number of analogies for how this is done. Here are three of them.

House Design as a Baker’s Recipe

When you bake something, the ingredients are not just thrown together. The best culinary efforts are carefully considered combinations of specific ingredients plus artistic inspiration that always adds up to something greater than the sum of its parts. It’s been said that house design is the same way. It's more than a collection of bedrooms, a dining room, family room, and a kitchen. It’s an “inspired recipe" of natural light, a sequence of interior volumes that reflect patterns of living, walls that contain windows and doors in the right proportion, built-in furniture, and much more. But just as ingredients alone do not make the perfect loaf of bread, it takes experience and creativity to successfully combine the elements to fit your needs, your budget and be aesthetically pleasing. 

House Design as “Frozen Music”

“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture” Frank Zappa.

Despite what Frank says, here goes:

In musical composition, there is a main theme or melody line made up of chords, or “sounds”.  There is also rhythm and harmony. Architectural compositions can be seen as having a similar construct. Solving an architectural problem often relies on theoretical or abstract notions of rhythm, harmony, and the notion of main themes or “melody lines”.

As an example, hallways can be seen as the spaces “in between” rooms just as there are “rests” sometimes between notes in a musical score. Or a series of exposed floor joists can set up a “rhythm” or repetition that is echoed by the columns that support them at distinct intervals much like the beat of a base drum supports the melody or main theme.

House Design as a Pattern Language

This is my personal favorite. Architecture, much like a spoken language, can be seen as a series of patterns or “phrases” that are used to express an idea. But instead of words, this visual vocabulary identifies patterns that are used as building blocks or essential elements for the design of a house. Christopher Alexander, a professor at UC Berkeley is the author of a very influential book, “A Pattern Language”. It distilled the design of buildings into underlying patterns of behavior and form that are universal to all homes that are great places to live. His theory was later illustrated in an outstanding book called “Patterns of Home, The Ten Essentials of Enduring Design" published by The Taunton Press.

http://www.tauntonstore.com/patterns-of-home-barbara-winslow-ebook-077802.html

The book offers the 10 most critical patterns for creating a successful house design. They come from careful observation about how we inhabit our homes. I recommend you either buy the book or get it from your local library.

The essential patterns in the book are:

www.virtualrenovation.ca/newconst

1. Inhabiting the Site – This pattern was explored in my Blog entry titled “Site Evaluation for a New Home”.  It included: solar path, views, site access, garage placement, outside space for gardens and activities and privacy. Siting the house is a balancing act among these competing patterns. But getting the feel of where the sweet spot is will make all subsequent decisions easier.

realestate.msn.com

2. Creating Rooms, Inside and Out – The outside space should be considered as “rooms” just as the interior spaces are. A house design that uses the site as an extension of interior space will feel “at home” on the site. The shape and careful placement of the exterior space, such as decks, porches, and gardens will reinforce the connection to the interior spaces they share an edge with.  This is very different from the leftover spaces that are a result of ignoring this relationship.

www.gowright.com

3. Sheltering Roof – The shape and orientation of the roof is another very basic element of a house. It shapes perceptions both inside and out. It should be a reflection of how the spaces are organized and inhabited. The shape should also respond to exterior forces, such as solar path, admitting light and diverting water.

homeaway.com

4. Capturing Light – Allowing natural light and warmth into living spaces is critical to their ability to draw people into them and to make them want to stay. Light from at least two directions is needed in the major living spaces.


“When they have a choice, people will always gravitate to those rooms which have light on two sides, and leave the rooms which are lit only from one side unused and empty.
 This pattern, perhaps more than any other single pattern determines the success or failure of a room. The arrangement of daylight in a room, and the presence of windows on two sides, is fundamental. If you build a room with light on one side only, you can be almost certain that you are wasting your money.”

Christopher Alexander, “A Pattern Language”

chameleon.blogspot.com

5. Parts in Proportion – The spaces that make up a house need to be thought of as having their own identity but also as part of something bigger. The aggregation can take many forms. These include: one simple volume with everything inside it, a central volume with balanced or asymmetric smaller spaces, a sequence of spaces strung together, or a series of rooms around a courtyard to name a few arrangements. Regardless of the arrangement, the parts need to add up to something that is visually coherent.

nashvilleinteriors.com

6. The Flow through Rooms – From the moment one approaches the front door of a house, one gets a sense of whether or not the house is welcoming. Is there a covered, protected entry to stand under while waiting to be received? Upon entering, is there a space that allows you to take off your coat and boots? As you continue into the house, is there a sequence of public spaces to more private spaces? Are there views through the house or a source of light that draws you in?

Tauntonpress.com

7. Private Edges, Common Core – A successful design provides a combination of communal spaces and private spaces. The communal spaces are characterized by lots of natural light and support family activities involving two or more people. But the house must also offer private areas for quiet singular activities. Circulation through the house should be at the edges of these spaces and not through the middle. A good test is to furnish all of the floor plans with tables, chairs, sofas, and built-ins in order to verify that a room or alcove’s intended use is not interrupted by the flow of moving from one part of the house to another.

simplyamsterdam.com

8. Refuge and Outlook – There is a basic instinct to be protected while at the same time having a broad view of one’s “kingdom”.  This can take the form of perches, window seats or alcoves that are cozy while at the same time providing views of a larger world outside.

blog.housplans.com

9. Places in Between – These are the spaces that provide a transition from inside to outside. They are protected with roofs but are open to the surroundings. Examples include: front porches, balconies, and breezeways. They allow the homeowner the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors without being immersed in it.

www.mainebydesign.com

10. Composing with Materials – A successful house design uses materials to reinforce what has already been conceived in plan. Exterior materials may appear substantial and monolithic, such as a stone base, in contrast to less substantial walls covered in shingles or clapboards. The size of a roof overhang and whether or not there are corner boards in a contrasting color to the siding can have a dramatic effect. The interior of the house could be a composition of simple, smooth or textured planes of white or bright colors. It could also be a rhythm of columns, bookcases, and coffered ceilings.  There are fundamental themes (such as wood floors throughout that promote the flow of one space to another) and secondary themes (such as wall color and ceiling finishes) that work together to make the house a unified composition. 

So there you have it: house design as seen from three different viewpoints. If it sounds too abstract, then look at your own surroundings and see where these patterns are present (or not) in your own home. You will be amazed to see that, when they’re there, they make a big difference. It may answer the question why, subconsciously, you like or don’t like some things about your house.

Solar Opportunities for Houses

I'm sitting inside on a cloudy day and I can feel the cold air that creeps across my floor, enveloping my stockinged feet. If the sun came out, I could turn off my desk lamp and bask in the sun's warmth and light. The benefits of the sun are so basic, yet not something that's always thought about when designing a house.


In a previous post, "Site Evaluation", I talked about the importance of solar orientation for the house and the placement of the rooms inside it. 


This post is devoted to the sun itself and how to take advantage of its warmth and power. The sun can be used in three basic ways: provide space heating, water heating, and electricity. The benefits are: reduced consumption of fossil fuels and therefore a smaller carbon footprint and saving money.


Solar Evaluation
A solar site evaluation by an experienced solar equipment installer will determine whether or not a solar energy investment makes sense. They will be looking at roof pitch, roof orientation, shading issues, and heating system compatibility.


Bear in mind that in Maine, solar energy by itself will not provide 100% of the space heating and domestic hot water that is needed. Back-up systems will be required.


But hold on! Before any effort and money are put into the benefits of "going solar", you need to size up your current housing situation. Chances are, your existing home is wasting energy in ways you never imagined and until you get a handle on where and how this is happening and do something about it, you're wasting your time on contemplating solar. Only an energy audit can discover such things. Air sealing and insulating are by far the most cost effective strategies to employ first. Your comfort will increase and your heating bills will decrease.


If you are having a new house designed, insist that the architect's scope of work include an energy model. This is a computer simulation of the house's windows, walls, roof, and foundation and how they perform in a specific climate. The computer energy model factors in air infiltration (how leaky the house is) as well. The beauty of this tool is that you can try different levels of insulation, different window glass, and different rates of air infiltration to find out the best combination (usually based on length of payback for the added investment).


Assuming you've made the investment to minimize the current demands for heat in your existing house or have a design for a new house that is really energy efficient, then you can look seriously at solar strategies.


Solar Space Heating
Heating the interior of a house with the sun takes two forms: Passive Heating and Active Heating. Both are best suited to new construction since most older homes, even after an energy retro-fit, are still not energy-efficient enough to justify the investment.


Passive Solar Space Heating Systems
Passive systems for heating are simple in concept and have few if any moving parts. The idea is to trap solar radiation within the building during the day and store enough of it to keep the building warm during a cold winter's night. The two basic elements you need are: south-facing glass and something to absorb and store all that heat after it has entered the house. The two most common materials for storing heat are masonry and water. Typically, for this to work, one-half to two-thirds of the total surface area in a south-facing room has to be built of thick masonry, or the house will overheat. Hmmm, it's a bit daunting for most homeowners to contemplate a house with so much exposed masonry or concrete on the interior. A scaled-back version with perhaps a concrete floor or stone wall and not so much glass is more likely. In either case, it has to be part of every step in the building's design from the initial concept. Another concern is  night-time heat loss through the glass. Thermal window treatments to cover the glass at night is a good idea (even if you don't have a passive solar heating system).


Active Solar Space Heating Systems
Active solar space heating systems use hardware and electrical energy to collect and distribute heat. The major elements are: a ground or roof-mounted solar collector, a separate water storage unit, and a low temperature distribution system, like radiant floors. Unlike passive systems, these systems can be more easily incorporated into new construction. But, like anything that is added to the house, the more you plan in advance, the better it will look and work. 


Solar space heating makes the most sense in a new, air tight, well-insulated home where the heating load (amount of heat required over the course of a year) is brought down to a very low level.


Active solar space heating systems typically use roof-mounted or ground-mounted solar collectors that look like this:


Evacuated tube

or this:
Flat plate collector

                                                             Solaris Thermal


If you are considering a standing seam metal roof, then another option is to integrate the collection system with the roof covering so the entire south-facing roof system becomes the solar collector. The tubes are hidden beneath the metal roof cladding. As a hybrid system, the metal panels can also be covered with a thin film PV laminate to generate electricity. Pretty slick from an architectural point of view, though not as efficient and more expensive then roof-mounted systems.

                                                      Dawn Solar


Solar Domestic Hot Water Heating Systems
This is the solar option that makes the most economic sense for new and existing homes. Up to 80 - 90% of the domestic hot water used annually can be generated from the sun using solar collectors. They are compatible with existing water heating systems. Like the active space heating systems, the collectors are either flat plate design or evacuated tube design. The heavily insulated hot water storage tank has two coils - one for the solar collectors and the other as a backup from the boiler. What's nice is that, in Maine, when visitors start showing up in the summertime, this is when the solar collectors produce the most hot water!


Solar Electricity
Solar electric panels make electricity directly from sunlight. Even though the panels continue to get cheaper and cheaper, the installed costs are still high. But thanks to government rebates and tax credits, the systems are becoming more affordable and cost effective. The simplest and least expensive systems are tied to the electrical utility grid. The grid acts as a bank where you deposit excess electricity on a sunny day when you produce more than you consume and where you draw power when the solar electric panels aren't producing enough.
Photovoltaic potential varies widely across the country from 7 kWh per square meter in the Southwest to 4 kWh per square meter in New England.

                                                        Revision Energy


There's a website I highly recommend for anyone interested in finding out more about solar energy and how to go about making it work for you:


Revision Energy


Next Subject: Design Process for Houses

Site Evaluation for a New Home

You’ve either bought a piece of property or you’re thinking hard about purchasing one that you’ve seen and really liked. What do you do next? It’s time to put on your Bean boots and take a hike. Become familiar with the “lay of the land”. Doing this will help you visualize potential house locations (you may even dream about them!). Regardless of the size of your lot, the process of nailing down a specific location for the house is the same: it’s a balancing act among wanting to maximize views and light, privacy, ease of access to the site, garden and terrace/deck locations, and parking. There may also be limitations due to the presence of ledge or significant natural features (such as an old stately tree) that influence your decisions.

Data Collection

Find out if there are any building restrictions due to proximity to wetlands, shoreland or resource protection zones. Setbacks can range from 75 feet to 250 feet from these natural features. Most town halls have maps with these areas clearly marked. Many towns have made this information available on-line. If the property is part of a subdivision, find out if there are building limitations as part of the development standards. This might include height restrictions, particular exterior building materials (as in “no vinyl siding allowed)”, view corridors, or whether or not an unattached building, such as a barn or storage shed, can be built.

Collect all the hard data available for the site: boundary survey with required setbacks, and location of utilities, such as water, sewer, and electricity. If town utilities are not available, then the location of a well and septic system will have a more significant impact on the building location. If possible, locate the house so that the septic system uses gravity in your favor, allowing for the natural flow of effluent to the leeching field instead of having to pump it.

A topographic survey (which shows the contours of the land) is important if the lot has a lot of irregular or sloping terrain. This information will help determine whether or not a daylight basement makes sense and where to locate the driveway so that it’s not too steep and will be passable in the wintertime. One of the benefits of a sloping site is that, rather than grade a flat spot for the house, use the drop in grade to create a design that incorporates different floor levels and ceiling heights.

Location

If you are building on a hillside, it’s best to locate your house between the ridge and the valley. This location avoids the higher wind velocities at the ridge and the cold, dense air that settles in the valleys. Avoid north-facing slopes wherever possible as they limit or completely eliminate the low angles of the winter sun.

Walk the site at different times of the day and in different seasons.  What looks like a dense natural buffer between you and a neighbor in the summer can end up looking almost transparent when the leaves have fallen. 

Orientation

Bring a compass with you to determine where true south is. This will help you figure out the path of the sun as it moves across the property. Because of the magnetic field, it is necessary to adjust your compass to obtain true north (and true south) instead of magnetic north. Your compass needle will point to the west of true north. It’s anywhere from a 15 to 20 degree deviation in Maine. So true north is 15 - 20 degrees east of compass-indicated north (true south is 15 - 20 degrees west of compass-indicated south). If it’s a cloudy day, it’s a relief to know that the property survey has a “magnetic north arrow” located on it.

Ideally, the house shape wants to be elongated along the east-west axis. This will maximize solar gain on the long walls facing south. The roof ridge line should also be oriented along the east-west axis in order to create a large surface area for harvesting solar energy.  The roof pitch should be around 45 degrees if you want to avoid the unattractive support structures associated with solar collectors. This way, the panels will be mounted just above and parallel to the roof plane. In terms of solar performance, there is some latitude to either side of a true south orientation in order to account for views, vegetation and neighbors without sacrificing performance. 

If you have a lot of young trees on your site, it might be worth it to do some measuring and figure the mature height of the trees. Make sure an evergreen tree to the south is two and a half times it mature height away from the house to avoid shading in winter.

The Garage

Plan for the garage location, even if it’s a future structure. Make sure the only location left is not on the south side of the house where it blocks most of your potential solar gain. Also, make sure the garage doors don’t face north. Otherwise, the driveway will always be in the shadow of the garage and will be ice-bound all winter long. I had a client once with north-facing garage doors and, short of tearing it down and re-orienting it, the client decided to use radiant tubing under the driveway to keep it ice-free: energy intensive and expensive! Some simple planning in the initial stages of deciding where to put the house and the garage would have eliminated the problem. 

The garage can serve as a good buffer to the view of the neighbors and what you don’t want to see going on (or vice versa).

Room Placement, Views and Daylight

Cats and dogs have it down cold. They instinctively know where to take a snooze in the warmest part of the house. You’ll always find them in the sun-washed chair or the warm tile floor. They’re telling us: come on guys, think of how the path of the sun can be used throughout the day to light and heat specific rooms:

East-facing or morning sun is great in the kitchen and dining room and in bedrooms for early-risers.

South-facing sun is great for rooms that are used during the daytime, such as living rooms and family rooms. The room depth for rooms with south-facing windows should be 2 1/2 times the height of the windows from the floor. This will assure that light penetrates the entire space in the cold winter months. Dense floor materials, such as tile, brick, and concrete that soak up the heat of the sun and release it slowly, are a good choice.

West-facing sun in climates like Maine provides strong light at a low angle and often needs to be controlled with window shades or trees. Late afternoon sun works well in bedrooms for late-risers. It’s not so great in TV rooms where, unless controlled with window shades, glare becomes an issue.

North-facing rooms have the least amount of direct sunlight. So it’s good for rooms in which natural light is not as important, such as bathrooms, halls, stairways, closets, and garages.

Let light in through skylights that are strategically placed to wash walls with light. Include shading options for controlling the light and potential glare.  On the north side, skylights are the best light for artist’s studios. 

When given a choice, people instinctively gravitate toward those rooms that have light and good views from at least two sides. This pattern will determine how often a room gets used.

Wait A Minute!

What about the building site that doesn’t lend itself to an easy, straightforward application of the strategies I’ve listed? In many towns, it’s the difficult sites that have remained undeveloped for this reason. They’re too steep, or too flat and nondescript, or the buildable area that remains for the house seems really small. Sometimes these sites are in great locations near the center of town or the schools. It’s even more important to examine these sites carefully and come up with creative solutions that overcome the shortcomings. Prioritize the site influences that will affect the building’s location: setbacks, solar orientation, views, topography, and location of the neighbors. These factors have a huge impact on the form of the house and the placement of the rooms. It is time well spent before any house design is started. The house will sit where it was meant to be - a sweet spot where the solar path, the views, and the topography all come together.

Next Subject: 

Building Methods

The United States of Design: Thirty Companies that Get It

Here are some of the "who's who" of good design, including one from Portland, Maine! 

"Hey, if we're going to make things in our lives, we might as well make them beautiful...." Bud Tribble, Macintosh Design Team 

30 Companies Slide Show

Welcome!

This blog is the start of something new and hopefully newsworthy for By Design! As a residential architect, I think it would be helpful to act as a single source for anyone interested in selling, building, or renovating houses. That's a pretty broad subject! My aim is to bring you comprehensive, useful information on a variety of topics. There are so many informative, useful sites, books, and articles out there.  Please let me know what you want to hear about.  Here are some suggestions for topics: Site evaluation for a new home Thoughts on design in general and of new homes, renovations, and additions in particular Building methods Energy efficiency Solar options Heating and cooling options Green Design resources Lighting & appliances Plumbing Thank you for visiting. Bruce Butler, AIA, LEEDAP By Design 29 Baker Street Yarmouth, Maine 207-846-1359 www.mainebydesign.com