TRACE Backwards Home Design Course

Plan3D & Home Design Help From OBX Architect

Brian J. Pilling, AIA — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:13:33 +0000

Plan3D members may distribute their plans and our free viewer to architects, contractors, interior designers, landscapers, friends and associates so they can look at them. You can also print your plans with dimensions to share with others.

You pay $14.95 for one month OR you can buy a one year subscription for one payment of $35.40 (equals $2.95 a month).

Share your designs in progess on OBX Architect!

Introduction

Brian J. Pilling, AIA — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:53:28 +0000

I have designed a ballet studio for a world renowned summer festival, an international “think tank” for economic research, and taught fourth and fifth graders architectural design.

The Struggle

It was two a.m. on a cold December night, freshman year of architecture school, when I was ready to call my parents and drop out! Our project was to design and build an emergency shelter. It had to be easily assembled "on the ground" by refugees (fellow classmates on an overnight camping trip), survive a drop from an airplane (the roof of the architecture building), and keep a person warm and dry. The project due date was only a couple days away. I had been working day and night for a couple of weeks with nothing to show for my efforts. I had designed and designed, started to build and failed a dozen times. I had reached the conclusion all was hopeless but it was too late in the night to call my parents so I returned to my desk for one last go of it. All of it yielded, one idea came after the next, the pieces all fit together this time, and I met the deadline with only minutes to spare. Over the years I have learned not to panic, that every architectural project is a repeat of the same epic struggle.

T is for Trace

Brian J. Pilling, AIA — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:14:49 +0000

Patterning - Cut & Paste

Another approach to architectural design is “patterning” or cut and paste. There is an historical tradition to this approach. You can find pattern books in your local library filled with time tested elements that can be used to build new and unique designs.

You may want to integrate these elements into your final design, side by side with the sketch plans you have already developed. The first step is analysis. Pick two or three of your sketches that come as close as possible to your ideal home. Next, make a list of positives, must keep features and why for each plan. Make a similar list of negatives, must change elements and the whys.

Now make tracings. Now you are going backwards, using tracing paper sketch the plan which comes closest, leaving out the must change and non-issue elements (items which can move or change). Now try and insert those unique elements that you must have. Don’t worry about conflicts or overlaps, get it as close as you can. Remember, it is still a sketch.

Now, test the design.

The final step is to create your exterior elevations. Know that you can modify the look substantially by inserting two or three unique design elements. The most successful approach to modifying roof lines or the massing of the house is to change locations or configuration of the second floor layout.

Finally, analyze your plan for construction complexity, verify square footage, verify room sizes, match up against your checklist.

R is for Revise

Brian J. Pilling, AIA — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:13:05 +0000

Revision is all about jumping back and forth, changing the plan to make desired changes happen to the elevation, changing the elevations to make desired changes happen to the plan. Repeat this process as often as required, back and forth. If you are particularly adventurous, draw ("slice") a section through the most critical rooms of the house, showing heights of ceilings, rooms looking into rooms below, sloped ceilings, etc.

Think about modifications as a process of building bridges between what you know, between what is important, it is a process of fixing in place critical elements. Another technique involves self critiquing your design. It is easy to fall in love too early with your own creation. Look to the strength of a design to find its weakness. For example a design which is unconventional, unique, or creative may be too far outside of the mainstream and adversely affect resale value? When bringing a design to its final solution you must be brave, not afraid to tear it apart and rebuild it. You may come back to the same solution proving its correctness but you may also find a surprising or stronger solution. Last, show your work to others, but know when and when not to value other opinions, don't take criticism personally.

Here are a couple of common problem solving approaches. Reduce the square footage of your design by taking slice out of part of house where most inefficient and push the remaining halves together. Identify rooms that are larger than needed, look for inefficient layouts that create long hallways. Another technique to reducing square footage is to arbitrarily make the house smaller by two feet in both directions, finesse or struggle with design for as long as it takes staying within the confines of the exterior walls.

To repair unattractive window layouts or large expanses blank wall try revising closet locations, revise second floor bedroom window locations by moving room locations, as these are often less critical than first floor living arrangements. To eliminate unattractive roof lines, again look to modify second floor plan, bedroom and bathroom locations often not critical.

Next you must integrate the technical requirements required for construction. Start by identifying critical dimensions, tub sizes, kitchen cabinet sizes and layout, stairs treads and risers, fireplaces and chimneys. Determine if you have allowed for a logical structure. Where are your bearing walls, what is the span of floor joists and rafters (consult residential building code for span charts). A good approach is to use tracing paper to overlay floors, verify bearing walls line up, find duct chases for heating and air conditioning, make sure your stairs are in the exact same location on each floor.

Words of Encouragement

Architectural design is a joyful struggle, a journey not unlike a scavenger hunt, a task akin to assembly instructions for a child‘s bicycle, frustrating and rewarding.

The Epic Struggle of Design

It was two or three a.m. on a cold December night, freshman year of architecture school, when I was ready to call my parents and drop out! Our project was to design and build an emergency shelter. It had to be easily assembled "on the ground" by refugees (fellow classmates on an overnight camping trip) or others stranded in the midst of a natural disaster, survive a drop from an airplane (the roof of the architecture building), and keep a person warm and dry. The project due date was only a couple days away. I had been working day and night for a couple of weeks with nothing to show for my efforts. I had designed and designed, started to build and failed a dozen times. I had reached the conclusion all was hopeless but it was too late in the night to call my parents so I returned to my desk for one last go of it. All of it yielded, one idea came after the next, the pieces all fit together this time, and I met the deadline with only minutes to spare. Over the years I have learned not to panic, that almost every design effort is the same epic struggle, it is always darkest before the dawn, the solution coming when it feels

A is for Approximation

Brian J. Pilling, AIA — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:10:28 +0000

When you start drawing, it should in a sense be from memory, not trying to recreate exactly something you have seen you like, but recreate the feeling and emotion of your "scrapbook" collection. Try to push yourself to get as many ideas on paper as you can. Don’t try and solve the whole problem at once, just play with it for now.

The first step in starting “for keeps” is to create what is called a “bubble diagram” by arranging circles with the names of your rooms by position on site and their relationship to each other. These bubbles are not to an exact scale but try to adjust the bubbles to the sizes and proportions of the rooms as best you can imagine. Do not proceed to next phase until all relationships are acceptable for site orientation and room placements.

The next step is to sketch your floor plans. Start with crayons or magic markers, no mechanical pencils yet, sketch with broad strokes, don't get hung up trying to fix flaws, you are searching for only one good idea to hold onto. I work in fits and starts. I like to let it rest, come back to it in half an hour or even two hours later with fresh eyes. In design you continue to work by a process of elimination, take as many wrong turns as needed until you “recognize the solution“. Design is much more trial and error than invention.

Your final step for now is to sketch your elevations. Your first sketches should ignore the floor plan completely. Sometimes it is better to start with the elevation before the plan because you want to create a style. You should still be working with magic markers or the like. Next start to integrate the floor plan by sketching in the critical elements of your house, the porch or dormers or entry. Now challenge the design for the first time by applying scale to your “concept” sketches, wall heights and windows should be to scale, room dimensions, etc. Does it still "feel" right?

Things to Ponder:

Have you "tested" the design against your shopping list? Do your room descriptions still fit? Are the images and emotional feel all that you had hoped?

MY FAVORITE RESOURCES

Historic neighborhoods, look beyond the peeling paint and disrepair, look beyond the gingerbread for proportions, or design elements, look for cues and clues.

C is for Conversation

Brian J. Pilling, AIA — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:09:26 +0000

Design is a conversation describing a picture of your home. A home often comes with reminders of traditional gables, chimneys, pieces of Colonials and Victorians, and our grandmother's house. You bring your old 35mm snapshots of historic estates and seashore cottages. You listen and in the end find a place for the hutch, the moose head, the sewing machine, the conversations and the Memories. We have all walked through houses that only exist in author’s imaginations, sea captain’s homes, medieval castles, antebellum plantation homes. It is because they have been described to us in vivid and exacting detail. As you and your significant other talk over the next days you will continually be creating a description. It will start with big generalities, “I want it to look like a Federal Style Farmhouse” mixed up with little details, “ I want one of those spice racks that’s built in back of the cabinet door.” So it needs to become like an old story, or rehearsed lines from a play. Build the story over days and days until you can recite it, walk thru your renovation, even if you are only recreating your master bathroom. Then it will be much easier to put your ideas to paper!

E is for Education

Brian J. Pilling, AIA — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:06:40 +0000

The primary approach to architectural design is, “from scratch”, working from a blank piece of paper. The key to this daunting approach is to break it into small steps. First, create a grocery list of sorts. Write one sentence describing each room. Try and create an emotional feel, perhaps identify a style or a theme. Once you have compiled all this information, I want you to put it away in a drawer.

Create A Design Checklist

Categorize you checklist into notes on style, no notes, notes on layout, and notes on special places. Force yourself to brainstorm a complete list. Sit down in a quiet place and work steady, never letting your pencil leave the paper until you have a complete list. Later you can go back and fine tune it.