McMansion | Real people don't hire architects...?

Posts Tagged ‘McMansion’

The seen can also see.

February 13, 2017

Land for Sale

House for Sale

Which is better, house or the hilltop?

Strip Mine

German Castle

Anyone who has driven down an interstate through a hilly or mountainous area in the US has seen these places. I often wonder what piece of psychology makes a home owner want to live on top of a mountain enough to cut off said mountain top?

Strip mining for example – I think I just compared a house to a strip mine – is understandable. Miners must cut off the mountain to get the coal, which makes them a lot of money. It is what they value. Big box retailers like Walmart do this too, which is also understandable. They want to be seen from the freeway. It brings them more customers.

Historically, people went to considerable trouble to build on promontories as an act of defense, because the locations were hard to attack. They were very visible, and of course, the seen can also see. Which may be key to my question. Maybe the mountain top home owner likes the view. For a second this is believable, certainly it is what he or she would tell anyone inclined to listen. Then one realizes that the little house half way down the hillside most likely has an equally breathtaking view, until a “Pile-A-House” was plunked into the main site line, that is!

Romantically – Has the mountain top home owner romanticized the historic castle? Does he or she think the pile of bricks, mortar, wood panels and asphalt shingles is somehow it’s equal, or perhaps better. Is there a place for the natural mountain top in this line of thinking?

Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer. I do wish they would stop it, though! One thing I know is that a good architect could fit a house up there without making the neighbor want to move. More population must mean less nature. Careful consideration of where not to build leads to challenges about how we actually do. Challenges best met by an architect.

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Posted in Architectural Criticism, Architecture, Culture, Design, Hire an architect., Residential Design | Tagged green building, McMansion, sustainability, sustainable design, timeless standards, vernacular architecture, where not to build | Leave a Comment »

Who cares if architecture has a soul or not?

October 24, 2016

You guys all recognize these don’t you? Ok, maybe not!

Architecture with a Capital A: Some would say that these images demonstrate the foundation of Architecture, with a capital A. Whatever your opinion, they are proportioning systems with academic roots in the ancient world. They are all based on a thing called the “Golden Ratio” and, like it or not, they work. The temptation, which I will resist, is to go into a discussion of what they are and where they are used. A one minute google search will inform any unacquainted reader and spare me the trouble of saying again what others have said often and better.

Numerous examples of the golden ratio demonstrate that proportion appears everywhere in nature.

Proportion, based on the golden ratio, can be thought of as an infinitely expanding and contracting telescope of repeating pattern: rectangle exactly divide by a square, another rectangle divided by square, another rec…

Proportion is Indigenous: So, if not to explain, then why bring it up? Because proportion, as defined by the “Golden Ratio” is indigenous. It is part of nature, and when used in the built world, proceeds from the human condition; meaning that many, if not most, of us recognize, relate, find comfort, inspiration, and just plain beauty in an entity displaying proportional properties; those being, the parts relate to the whole and they do so in an organized way.

Has Proportion Disappeared? Sadly, proportion, at least in the classical sense discussed here, is mostly gone from our everyday built environment, and based on recent pursuits of everything green, it would seem like it is threatened in nature as well. Proportion, after all, depends on rules, on absolutes. They don’t do very well in a world where everything is relative.

Are classical proportions the soul of aesthetics?

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Consider this old house, built somewhere around 1900. I know this place well because my grandmother lived down the street. If style is the meter, it appears that some history of architecture book exploded onto its facade, typical Victorian, except for the 1960’s aluminum awnings and the 1990 standing seam metal roof. Somehow classical proportions, along with the historic references, crept into the design with happy results. It took very little effort to impose golden rectangles onto the picture, in spite of the perspective for which no attempt at correction was made. The whole is a harmony of parts, even suggesting that if the proportion is right, then the mismatched and mixed styles don’t matter.

Are aesthetics without a soul?

The exercise was much more difficult with this “house” and the one below. Indeed, I couldn’t make it work. No mater how many ways I scaled, rotated, moved, repeated, assembled, disassembled and reassemble the golden rectangle and its various parts, I could torture only a hint of classical proportions out of the image on the top and nothing from the one on the bottom.

Are aesthetics even necessary?

It is only fair for me to reveal that, for me, the two places above qualify for “McMansion” status, which is nicely itemized here: McMansion Hell. Does this disqualify me? Maybe not, since if my analysis is correct, carefully worked out proportions could save even a “McMansion!” If someone sends me additional examples, I am happy to try the exercise again. I’d rather, though, evoke a positive, if fleeting, response.

Maybe it is the other way around. Could classical proportions proceed from the soul?

This little building should have come first in this discussion, as it is what made me examine the composition of beauty that I found residing there. Like some parti for elegance, not only does it appear to be returning to nature, but from the standpoint of proportion, it just might be.

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Posted in Architectural Criticism, Architecture, Art, Culture, Design, Hire an architect. | Tagged architectural theory, dead architects, design ideas, home owners, human scale, Le Corbusier, McMansion, modern architecture, proportion, timeless standards, vernacular architecture | Leave a Comment »

What’s in a name?

May 18, 2016

: Some appreciate this,

: or long for this.

: Some remember this,

: or even this,

: more likely this.

: A few appreciate this.

: Many hope for this.

: A lot can afford this,

: or this,

: and live in this.

: Most end up with this.

: The lucky ones end up with this.

Name Dropping – Did you ever notice that real estate people like to insert the names of house styles into their conversations with potential buyers? “…nice to meet you. I have a move in ready Center Hall Colonial to show tomorrow.” or “…there is a Mid-Century Modern neighborhood that generates a lot of interest.” The local historical committee, of course, has raised name dropping to an art form. Here in Old Town they are the designated authority, champion and voice of all things Georgian and very present at all meetings of the local architectural review board.

Name Listing – There is a list of house styles on Wikipedia with which, truth be told, I have a lot of fun. I can’t wait to tell some realtor that I would like to see a Dingbat house? No kidding. It really exists! It is also possible to get creative and customize these terms. I actually thought of this a few years ago when a potential client brought a fist full of photos to a meeting. She repeatedly told me how much she like Regency style design. The photos were of mirrored replicas made into furniture and finishes of what appeared to be every decorative cliche ever invented by Thomas Sheraton, all of it originating from some shop like Pier One. What, I thought, would one call these? We could say Meta Modern or Pseudo Modern ( I will let you look those up) which seem to be buzz words that include all things previous. How about Post Modern Revival of Regency Revival? That ought to cover it. I think putting things into categories gives us a feeling of control. Although not much in the way of actual control.

Name Cancelling – Does not even the lowest budget shopper have a vision or image relating to his or her expectations about where they hope to live? Think cottage and white picket fence a là now deceased American Dream. What guides this? I don’t think it has anything to do with style, named or real, unless that style somehow fits into the larger world of the individual’s past residential experience, turned into a dream or not. Anyone looking to define a future stylistic paradigm might do well to flush out what is common in places we have lived in the recent past. No easy task in an increasingly small and populated world and further complicated by the manipulations of large scale planners defining a built environment according to their particular terms.

Name Hunting – I have a friend, raised in an urban apartment block, these days sporting a million plus house budget in a quaint suburban neighborhood and hard pressed to find an acceptable house. She has been conditioned to think of a house as a commodity, with stylistic taste leaning towards the McMansion, she will consider only new construction and is completely put off by a yard of any size. Her ideas about security and building in general are still involved with her roots in the apartment block. As a member of a larger similarly inclined shopping group, she is influencing the look of a neighborhood because developers do very good market research. They understand and deliver the absolute minimum that must be provided in order to satisfy this customer. Expanding a customer’s horizons is only part of the program to the extent necessary to sell a newly built home. More complex, better assimilated options are never offered and existing housing is mostly ignored.

Name Finding – The word “finding” may be a little misleading (it fit in the text). It is more as if a new style, rather than directly resulting from the search, just appears, although the looking is still required, and I might add, is considered to be a high intellectual activity in the world of architectural scholars. It is the result of a dialectical process, where the tension between the dominant old style and the emerging newer style become so great that the whole conflict collapses into something else. It is like the invisible whole, which is greater than the sum of the parts, suddenly becomes visible and Voila, a new style is there. This line of thinking, of course, comes from the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a favorite of mine, distained by many, and begging the question, what is the emerging new style? Is it already implemented? Will it be defined by the spatial needs of an expanding population or the desire to be “green?” Will it return to nature like a Hogan, or the earth like a Sod House. Maybe it will look like my favorite Parkitecture! Could we see a Modern Farmhouse, or how about a Star Wars version of the Rumah Gadang? That might work. Whatever the new name, I am pretty sure that some combination of its elements will be easy to locate in the afore mentioned list of house styles!

Images are used under Creative Commons from Flickr and Wikipedia or owned by the author. Please contact us for the links.

Posted in Architectural Criticism, Architecture, Art, Culture, Design, Hire an architect., Residential Design | Tagged architectural theory, dead architects, design ideas, home owners, McMansion, modern architecture, modernist, Post Modern Architecture, primitive hut, sustainability, sustainable design, vernacular architecture | Leave a Comment »

Design for the Sake of Design?

October 4, 2012

Tiny Kitchen with Platform Bed Above

I have noticed that whenever gurus of sustainability want to justify cramming 2000 square foot of living space into 100 square feet of actual space they call on Bucky Fuller. As if such a paragon of modernity, committed as he was to “doing more with less,” was prophetic when he said, “Our beds are empty two-thirds of the time. Our living rooms are empty seven-eighths of the time. Our office buildings are empty one-half of the time. It’s time we gave this some thought.” Well, I have; and lest it appear I take important issues too lightly, I even plead guilty to occasionally quoting the master. For now, though, I say so what!

Do we need our bedrooms, living rooms and offices less for not using them 100% of the time? Does simultaneous occupancy never occur? Can old and young alike, happily crawl up a ladder onto a platform bed mounted above a tiny kitchen that only works for short people? Do we really want to fold up the bed to get to the desk, to live in camper? Of course not. The whole issue may have more to do with design for the sake of design than it does with meeting the housing needs of real people? After all, moderation is boring, and the challenge of designing and living in a tiny house is made so much more fun because it serves as a pointed criticism of the monster mansion.

Posted in Architectural Criticism, Architecture, Culture, Design, Hire an architect., Residential Design | Tagged McMansion, modernist, small architecture projects, tiny houses | Leave a Comment »

Newtons 3rd Law of Tiny Houses?

September 27, 2012

Primitive Hut, from Marc Antoine Laugier’s Essai sur l’Architecture Frontispiece, by Charles-Dominique-Joseph Eisen

Is this tiny house a modern day version of Marc Antione Laugier’s Primitive Hut?

Château de Maisons near Paris by François Mansart (1642)

McMansion

Attention: unemployed students, overworked homemakers, empty “nesters,” outdoor enthusiasts, and all economically challenged humans with/without pets and extended family! According to numerous posts buzzing across the “blogisphere” the answer to your housing “whoas” has arrived in the form of a tiny house; leading me to wonder, are we returning to the Primitive Hut of Marc-Antoine Laugier’s Essay on Architecture(1753), an important work read by architecture students, and a plea for rational thought amidst late renaissance architectural excess?

I would guess that the operative word is excess, as in the ever present 4000 square foot mansions populating the the US sprawl-scape and attending my conclusion that in this case Newton’s Third Law may be the one to watch. All photos used under Creative Commons.

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Posted in Architectural Criticism, Architecture, Art, Culture, Design, Hire an architect., Residential Design | Tagged dead architects, Marc-Antione Laugier, McMansion, primitive hut, rational architecture, vernacular architecture | Leave a Comment »

Real people don't hire architects…?

Posts Tagged ‘McMansion’

The seen can also see.

Who cares if architecture has a soul or not?

What’s in a name?

Design for the Sake of Design?

Newtons 3rd Law of Tiny Houses?

Why & Where

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