Designer architects are not always designing architecture!

Designer is a familiar label. It’s tagged to many products. Advertising agencies like this word. Why? Because it adds value.  A ” designer ” product seems more desirable. If we value the product more we will pay more for it.

The creative.

Ad agencies use another key word.  “The creative”. The respected figure in the room. For he or she is the one who creates the vital idea. Words images and music combine in the advert. But they must combine around intellectual content . With no vital intellectual spark there is nothing to publish.

Our personal relationship with the creative.

We want such products because they link us to creatives. So we buy a personal relationship too. Therefore when we buy we link ourselves to an alternative lifestyle. Creativity is often recreational. So we pay designers to have fun! Therefore creating for a living is attractive. This is the reason to be a “creative”. We like to call ourselves a writer, a painter, a musician, an architect? How we earn is often our main identity. And we want our identity to be attractive.

Just specify the bubbles?

Designer architects specify designer products. An example is this bath. The obvious question is “what type of bath?” This bateau is the answer. But architects who design architecture ask more questions. This is because many answers enrich architecture. The second question is “where shall we put it”.  A third question “how can bathers enjoy more than just bubbles?” The answers are shown here. The architect places the space with the bath at an external wall. So this space can have a window with a view. The chosen external wall is private. Because it faces the garden not the drive way. So bathing can be private. But it can also be done in the tranquil garden atmosphere. Thanks to that big window. This architect does more than just specify.

Many of the buildings around us are not designed by architects. It shows! For high quality environment appoint architects.

So thank you for recent client enquiries. They were from South Manchester. Wilmslow, Congleton, Macclesfield and Alderley Edge. My clients say they enjoy working with me. We achieve best value. And we have fun letting design lead us to value. Architects are often far from the TV stereotype. Architects like myself look at all possible design influences. I apply an understanding of these many factors. They shape your new building design. For me cost is a key factor. Clients say I have a keen eye for high quality design. This gets the most for your money. Clients also say I keep a sharp customer focus. So you can expect a high professional standard from me, an experienced architect.

You don’t need an architect for drawings. Very simple home extensions can be drawn by architectural technologists. Many technologists are excellent. But do you need design? Yes if you want more for your money. So you do need an architect. Design comes first. Technical drawings follow second. Architectural technologists are strong on technical input. But for a building which functions best and delights you, hire an architect too. Your architect will help you define your needs and priorities. Then he or she will design creative concepts and options to give you choice.

 

 

…thanks to the recent outline planning approval in Wilmslow I piloted this year.

A prime development site beside the High School in Wilmslow has been created beside my clients’ home on Broadway. Only appearance is a reserved matter in the approval meaning that use, layout, landscape design and scale are now fixed. So the size of this four bedroom new house in Wilmslow is defined whilst leaving its appearance flexible for design my others. The crucial issue of overlooking was managed by a thoughtful design which maintains views out of the house, and natural lighting, whilst preserving  privacy for neighbours and the new residents at this prestigious Wilmslow address. Light will beam into the rear of the house via interior glazing through a transparent stairway wall facing Broadway. Privacy is also preserved by an ingenious upper balcony window with no lateral view but transparency over the plot’s gardens. Much of the existing mature garden can be conserved at the rear. Its sunny lawn will be directly accessed through a sliding folding door screen from a spacious multi-function living space. The master bedroom is located overhead with panoramic views, ensuite and dressing spaces. The design concept is shaped by a careful survey and appraisal of the existing street scene enabling it to be finely tuned in massing and height. The Wilmslow planning officer recognised that these key attributes have been balanced with a distinctive contemporary architecture. The result is a design capable of easy and economical technical development whilst appealing to buyers. This is typical of my value driven design approach. For full details go to the public website of Cheshire East Council inserting application reference 14/0949M at http://planning.cheshireeast.gov.uk/ApplicationSearch.aspx

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.

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.