The houses honored in the 2004 Custom Home Design Awards program come from the very top tier of the housing market. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they come from the most expensive tier. What makes these houses among the finest in the country is the high quality of planning, design, and execution that have gone into them.
You’ll agree, I think, that these houses stand apart from the mainstream, even among custom homes. And that’s one of the central points of the Custom Home Design Awards. The program’s mission is not to reinforce the status quo or to spotlight merely handsome or luxurious houses. Rather we want to present work that stretches design muscles, that challenges stale preconceptions, and that inspires new and better ideas. Each one of the winning projects can offer an insight or teach a lesson on the art and craft of custom home design.
As I looked through the winning entries, a number of themes seemed to emerge. You’ll no doubt come away from these projects with different observations, but these are the five “lessons” that spoke to me.
Think locally. A house, or any building for that matter, needs to fit comfortably into its surroundings. That doesn’t mean a house must be in lockstep with the neighborhood style, but it should offer some respect to nearby houses. This Rhode Island residence and this Texas house are terrific examples of contemporary houses that respect local traditions.
Reach for the light. Sunlight makes us feel happier and healthier. That’s the reason a judicious amount of daylight is one of the most popular amenities a house can have. You’ll find projects among the winners that go to ingenious lengths to bring light into the entire house without overheating it. A notable example is this year’s Custom Home of the Year.
Design with nature. For me, the most important feature of a house is the land it sits on. The best houses seem to be part of the land, not an object separate from it. I think this house makes this point beautifully.
Small is (usually) more beautiful. Scale and proportion are at the heart of good design, but the bigger a house must be, the harder it is to get those two right. This year the judges cited just one large house for an award—click here to see the house. Among the things they admired about it was that its design reconciled human scale with big square-footage requirements.
Materials matter. Several entrants told us that when faced with budget decisions, their clients opted for beautifully finished spaces over more square footage. The wisdom of those decisions is apparent when you see how the skillful application of top-quality materials transforms everyday rooms into art for living. Check out the kitchen here and the bath here to see what I’m talking about.
I invite you to take a leisurely tour of the 2004 Custom Home Design Award winners and see what lessons you can take away from them. There’s a lot to admire and learn from in this year’s 29-page feature.
