September! A good time for plans.
Plans designed and drawn now enable construction early in 2016.
The time is right for you to commission me to design and draw plans for your home. An extension or a new one. By starting now we can be ready to submit a planning application this Autumn. Twelve weeks for approval then a few for pricing. So you would be ready to start on site in Spring. Ideal! Timing is everything. The design and drawing of plans needs enough time for our design process to evolve steadily. All possibilities can be tested. Then a complete technical design done. This means your plans contain everything to be built. And so they are the basis of an accurate price. But we need to maintain momentum to keep plans fresh in the mind. Thank you to new clients on High Street in Macclesfield. And for the successful conclusion of commissions in Disley, Macclesfield and Siddington.
Fashion in November…shopping in Knutsford and Dingle!
Doodlings on fashion design and Palladian architecture.
Fashion and design. A dry crisp November day. Time for ladies fashion shopping in Knutsford, or Dingle? I like these colours. They could be found in either Wilmslow or Dingle. Because both are excellent for ladies fashion. The shops there are distinctive and creative. Many alternatives to the same old brands. The autumnal ochre contrasts with a processed pink in these fabrics. Contrast is a simple designer’s device. In ladies fashion it can challenge you? Maybe these colours are for the more daring?
In architecture contrast creates focus. A cameo period texture or object, thoughtfully placed, can accentuate contemporary minimal styling. To a renaissance architect contrast was “chiaroscuro” . “Clear obscure”. My favourite architect of the Italian “Rinascimento” was Andrea Palladio. His Basilica in Vicenza shows how “chiaroscuro” creates depth.
Palladio creates a rhythm of arched and rectangular openings. They open onto the walkway behind. In daylight they are contrasting shadows. In artificial light they are contrasting highlights. Each bay has one arched opening and two rectangular openings. The bays had to be variable to suit the building’s overall dimensions and functional requirements. This had to be a flexible commercial building. In each bay the two openings beside each arch are rectangles. This shape allows unequal widths. To unify his facade Palladio wants arched openings equal in height, therefore width. So he combines the arches with a pair of rectangles. He can vary the rectangle widths to suit the various bay widths. But he retains the same size of arched opening. These unify his facade.
This combination of an arched opening between two rectangular ones is used out of its original context in the English Classical revival. You will find it in many great houses and in the architecture of seventeenth and eighteenth century civic architecture. For example Park Green House, Macclesfield. Commissioned in the the late eighteenth century by textile industrialist Charles Roe. This “Palladian Window” is a full height opening at the end of the main landing of the house. The tiny left hand window was used by servants to see formal callers below.
The architecture reflects social hierarchy. From the landing two doorways lead into the drawing room. One full size for the served. Another almost next to it, smaller, for servants.
October….hearths and Frank Lloyd Wright
October! Welcome to my new website completely updated and re-built by Sue Fernandes who I recommend for friendly professionalism. I will be keeping you updated with all my latest projects and talking about the themes of my architectural life. There will be regular blog posts of my personal insights and observations on those buildings and places which have a message for all of us interested in the design of high quality architecture for our homes and businesses. September was rich with new enquiries, several new commissions and my architectural study tour to Chicago. So thank you to new clients in Bowdon and Macclesfield.
Here is a so called “prairie house” which revolutionary Chicago architect Frank Lloyd Wright regarded as the finest example of this new architecture.
It is called the Robie house, after his client, who made a fortune in the 20’s making bicycles. When you compare this with a typical house of the time you can see how radical a new design philosophy the “prairie houses” was. The new architecture is made from a few typical forms such as deeply over-handing roofs, horizontal emphases, for example bold eaves strips of windows, and simple undecorated rectangular surfaces. The old is complicated with surface decoration and often refers to other architectural styles:- Look in this example for cylindrical forms originally found in military architecture and reproduced in French chateau and Scottish manor houses and also for a triangular classical pediment. In contrast to this is an arch too which adds to the recipe of styles served up. Remember that both of these houses are three-storeys but this is far from obvious in Wright’s tiered massing.
FLW’s genius is widely acclaimed; how many architects appear in a popular song such as Simon & Garfunkel’s “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright” about one of the twentieth century’s most significant architects from one of the twentieth century’s most loved albums? “ So long, Frank Lloyd Wright….architects may come and architects may go but when I run dry I stop awhile and think of you….”
One of the many themes in Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture is the prominence and elaboration of the hearth. Fireplaces and their chimney’s are often positioned centrally in his plans. They are the core of the home in his vision, a warm inviting place to gather in retreat from the glazed perimeter of the house on cold winter nights.
February! Planning for Summer?
Planning for those long days and good building weather.
February is likely to be as busy as January. The year started with several fruitful enquiries from clients. All planning to build this year. A warm welcome to new clients from Bosley and Rawtenstall. I am busy with the technical designs which will enable projects to start on site soon. These pictures show my studio and Stradbally beach, Brandon Bay, Kerry. Sunlight reflects on walls and clouds. Both create unique secondary light sources. Design for transparency is a key objective in my work. For more click on Projects.
Architects design for sunshine? April!
Architects must balance design for light with the law…
Architects are often asked to design interiors with high levels of natural light. But the extensive glass areas needed have significant heat losses. So my designs are calculated to include compensating insulation. This combines compliance with building regulations with bright interiors. Therefore new spaces are affordably warm whilst visually connected to views of spring daffodils. Just such a concept has been successfully designed :- My thermal calculations are carefully balanced for an orangery in Wilmslow. So it saves carbon emissions and money lawfully but maximises natural light and views. Thank you this month to recent new clients in Sale and Macclesfield.
So architects are on a mission to create harmonious designs. The design process is a balancing act. A beautiful image of the final building is always in mind. But the architecture has structural, thermal, financial and functional objectives at the very least. These objectives are all blended into a finely balanced whole. Each firmly in its place according to priorities agreed with you the client. The finely poised design is regulated by building control and planning legislation. So approval under building regulations and planning permission are obviously gateways. Essential ports of call on the way through to a buildable design which will deliver high performance for the right price. And above all delight you.
Conversion project in Dobcross…finally sells house
My client sold his home quickly after our collaboration. The existing house was a village hall before conversion to an unusually large house considering it has only two bedrooms. My client wanted to sell but pricing was limited by the bedroom number. So this design shows buyers a vision of how additional bedrooms and ensuite bathrooms can be integrated within the same floor area. Larger kitchen and utility spaces are created plus re-vitalised “kerb appeal” with a new transparent entrance on the back of footpath.
The face of the house is uplifted, brightening its presentation, with more natural lighting whilst enhancing the street scene within the Conservation Area of a finely detailed stone-built village.
The immediate effect of my design, fully costed by quantity surveyors Dawson Green, was a sale for an increased price after over two years of no acceptable offers. My clients have therefore been freed to move into a refurbishment project for their new home which has yielded two further commissions for myself and Dawson Green.
This project demonstrates the advantage of commissioning an architect rather than those offering to ” draw plans”. The drawing is second to the design process. Architect’s are trained over many years in design and therefore are unique amongst professionals in their ability to conduct a design process. This is the first step in which ideas and visions are created. A drawing without the initial creative content of this design process is like an oyster shell without the pearl.