10 Thoughts from 10 Years of Architectural House Consultations…

28 January 2015

It is just over 10 years since Emma Cullinan wrote about my planned new House Consultation service in the Irish Times. Thousands clients later, with budgets from €0 to €2million+, it seems a good time to pause and share some thoughts on those themes that crop up most frequently in the course of my architectural house consultations…

1. Start with the Sun…

One of the first questions I ask people is: ” What sun do you get to at the back of the house?”. When you know this (and not everyone does!), you can track the movement of the sun about the rooms throughout the day. If you’re building an extension, you may be able to harvest some sun at a new time of the day, whether through windows or roof lights. If you’re planning a new home – and especially in the country – it should be possible to have one room that gets sun all day (preferably the kitchen/dining/family room). After all, we are like cats…we too love to follow the sun and lap up whatever precious rays we can.

2. Think of Issues, not Solutions.

I sometimes wonder if people reach too quickly for solutions without really thinking through the issues that propel them to do work to their home. For example, an extension may seem like an obvious solution to pressure on space – but is your existing space capable of being re-organised to better meet your needs? Similarly, a Utility Room may seem like the Holy Grail in a home with big laundry issues. But the issues of washing and airing clothes can all be addressed in a large, heated, ventilated cupboard. This can be a great solution for a home where space is scarce (like the spec semi-d above where I advised squaring off the rear extension and scrapping Utilty: you can see the laundry cupboard on the left of the rear room).

3. Find your Blank Canvas

Knowing how the sun works around your home and making a list of your issues are the first steps in the process of creating the space you need. If you are planning structural changes or an extension, you next need to disentangle yourself from the current reality of your physical space. This means stripping the space back to its essential parts by removing, in your mind, all those non-essential fittings, units and partitions. This stripped back space is your blank canvas, onto which you can imagine your space re-organised or extended to meet your needs and optimise the sun. Sounds complicated? In reality, this is best done with a drawing. The photo, by the way, is our home “stripped back” prior to re-organisation).

4. The Power of Drawings

In my experience, people drive themselves demented trying to figure out how best to make structural alterations to their home or plan the layout of an extension. The opinions of friends and family add to the confusion. A scaled drawing is the only way to realistically explore the possibilities and to unleash the full potential of the work you are proposing. In the hands of a skilled architect, attuned to the art of making a home, the pencil becomes a magic wand…

5. Kitchen/Dining/Family Rooms.

A huge percentage of my consultations concern how best to achieve this new heart-of-the-home: a single space where you can cook, eat and relax. The key is to locate the kitchen in such a way as to make best use of the space – and to maximise the relationship between the kitchen and the space outside. I generally advocate leaving the outside wall free of kitchen units: units can “entrap” a room and eliminate the relationship between inside and out.

5. The Art of Placing Furniture

I always relish the challenge of a “problem room! The solution often lies in simply re-arranging the existing furniture. Some thoughts…

1. If the furniture pieces look like they are “talking” to one another, then the room will feel inviting, whether for one person or for a group.
2. If the furniture is pushed against the wall, the furniture will feel strangled and the room tense. Moving the furniture away from the wall will allow the space and light to flow.
3. Use existing features – fireplaces, windows, recesses etc – to create lines of symmetry, order and calm.
4. Think of “placing” the furniture mindfully. Not putting furniture pieces here and there. Figuring out the best way to place the furniture can be like a healing session for a room.

7. Paint That Wood!

Is your home dark, with timber floors, wooden doors, skirtings and stairs? Then paint that wood! It will still be wood, but it will reflect light, calm your home and help bring your interior together. An example I love is the Greenhouse at the entrance to the Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin. It used to be natural teak and appeared ugly and brooding. Painting it white made it graceful and beautiful. From ugly duckling to swan…

 8. New Homes: Things I wish Developers would do…

1. Add built-in storage from the start. The template for semi-d’s today is pretty much the same as that used for houses built in the 18th/19th centuries. Enough said.
2. Create homes that can meaningfully accommodate families and their needs, especially an appropriately designed and located Kitchen/Dining/Family Room.
3. Place the door to every room in a a place that allows each room to be used in the best possible way. Living Room doors, for example, are frequently located so as to prevent the main couch being placed opposite the fireplace. This upsets the balance of the room and makes it impossible to achieve an inviting layout. The door would much rather be in a corner of the room.
4. Avoid meaningless gestures like double doors into Living Rooms off Hallways. They may look good in a Show House but they do not add in any way to the proper functioning of the room.
5. Accommodate the Guest Toilet gracefully, that is, without taking chunks off Living Rooms and other perfectly innocent rooms.
6. Avoid 45 degree angles in Halls and Living Rooms (sometimes done to accommodate the Guest Toilet). They are a visual assault.
7. The drawings above show a developer’s plan for a House in Sallins (above) and my proposed adaptation (below). “We are delighted with the space, precipitated by your design of course!!! We’re very happy with it and the builders, kitchen guys etc. keep saying we have the nicest kitchen/space of all the completed houses so far.”

9. No Pain, No Gain! The Value of Doing Work to your Home…

    

There is no doubt but that construction work is not for the faint-hearted. There’s stress, dirt, financial strain, disappointments, delays and uncertainty. We ourselves took the roof off our house to add a bedroom extension during one of the rainiest Summers and in the teeth of the recession in 2012. We pushed ourselves to the brink emotionally and financially. But the result – a home that meets the needs of our family in the best way that we can – was worth the trauma. That’s something worth remembering whether you are planning changes or in the throes of a building project!!!

10. Privilege and Potential…

    

For me, it is a huge privilege to be invited into people’s homes and asked my opinion on how they should adapt their space to frame their lives. I created the service based on a gut instinct that people craved professional, informed advice and that they would relish the opportunity to get their hands on an architect to cast an eye over their home project, whatever the size and budget. I have been fortunate in receiving lots of supportive press and exposure in print media, radio and television. This has all paved the way to people placing their trust in me from the outset so that I have been able to get straight down to the business at hand in each consultation. I believe that whatever work you do to your home, you can choose between an adequate solution and the optimal solution  – which hopefully leads to something amazing (like Pauline’s previously dank courtyard above in which I saw a Mediterranean Courtyard: an image of a blue-painted chair from the Aran Islands was the mood board). That is the power of the architect: to see the amazing in the everyday. A huge thanks to all of my previous clients and looking forward to meeting many more of you who seek to achieve a home honed to your every need…

It’s never too late – or too early! – for a House Consultation….

Need help getting to grips with your home? Whatever stage you are with your project, I’ll be delighted to help you optimise your Space, Light & Storage in the course of a 2 hour House Consultation.

Eva, 02 February 2015

087 2940805 info@houseology.ie