A few weeks ago we held the judging for the 2007 Custom Home Design Awards. (You’ll see the results of that day in the upcoming May/June issue.) The judges scrutinized more than 500 projects that ran the gamut from fabulous to simple, with the CUSTOM HOME editors avidly looking over their shoulders. (And, I hasten to add, keeping our thoughts to ourselves.)
So now that our independent panel of building experts has made its decisions, I get to express my opinion, or actually my observation: If you want to build beautiful, functional, perhaps even award-winning houses, work with an architect. Find the very best design pro you can to partner with, market your services to, or design your houses.
Not only the winning houses of the Design Awards, but also the best of those not cited for an award were designed by architects–design professionals trained to resolve complex and competing requirements; to envision three-dimensional spaces; and to balance the often conflicting demands of aesthetics, codes, and practicality. Creating a house, especially a high-ticketcustom house, has become too complicated to do without the skills and design rigor that a talented, experienced architect can bring to the building team.
The kinds of conditions many custom projects face call for as much brain power as a builder can assemble. Take building sites, for example. While they’ve gotten more expensive, they’ve also been trending smaller; they’re often more difficult to build on, subject to more restrictions, and more hemmed in by other buildings. And yet homeowners still expect the privacy and functionality that are so much easier to provide on big, level lots. That puts real pressure on the design phase of a house. Its site plan and floor plan must be designed to consider a thousand conditions beyond setback requirements.
Inside, houses have become more challenging as well. Don’t be fooled by the deceptively simple open floor plans consumers favor today. They’re much more difficult to get right than they look. These plans must integrate functions, provide a variety of spatial experiences, balance private and public activities, interact with outdoor spaces, and respond to the clients’ aesthetic and practical requirements. And all this must be accomplished within a space that is big but also pleasingly and comfortably proportioned. It’s a job for a sensitive, talented, experienced design pro.
To many people, hiring an architect is a kind of status symbol–a luxury you might indulge in if you had unlimited funds but something you could get by without just fine. But I argue that today the stakes have become too high and the requirements too complex to do without the knowledge, discipline, and vision of a good architect.
Leslie Ensor
lensor@hanleywood.com.
