FOR MANY OF THE HOMES HE DESIGNS FOR THE SUN VALLEY RESORT area, Idaho architect Rich Childress is asked to find wood flooring that has been purposely (and recently) distressed to look old, presumably so that it conveys character and authenticity. “It would be more authentic to put in a new wood floor and let it age naturally,” says Childress. “That would be an honest use of the material.”
Honesty, however, isn't a word heard very often in home building when it comes to architectural styles and the use of materials. Imagine a 35-foot roof height on a single-story home or vinyl siding with an embossed wood grain and you start to get the picture.
Such deceit even flows into floor planning, where builders and home buyers apparently have a hard time admitting how people really live. “They make the fireplace prominent in the living room and then stuff a TV and video-game player in the corner so they can enjoy their technology every day,” says Childress, who practices out of Garden City, a historic enclave adjacent to Boise. “There's a lot of denial going on.”
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PLAN FOR IT: - To create a varied streetscape and marry site-specific views and orientation with a production building sensitivity, architect Rich Childress of Point Architects in Garden City, Idaho, devised a floor plan whose front square portion can accommodate different roof forms and finish materials while allowing the back of the house to remain mostly as is lot to lot. An interior courtyard, meanwhile, opens to several rooms and can be oriented and shaded as necessary depending on site and sun. “It's a kit of parts that allows you to get different looks without designing a custom house for everyone,” Childress says of the plan .
COURTING CRAFTSMANSHIP: - For a new project on the boards by Centex Homes in Orlando, Fla., architect Geoffrey Mouen of Geoffrey Mouen Architects in Celebration, Fla., adhered to the development's design standards with rear-loaded garages, courtyards, private rear yards, and toned-down exterior detailing that includes exposed, load-bearing rafter tails. “You see the craftsmanship displayed, which requires the carpenter to do a good job,” says Mouen. Another benefit: Centex is relieved of scheduling and managing additional trades for soffit and fascia work that would normally cover up the underside of the eaves.
For an industry facing more competition for buyers after a long, lazy high, it's time to get real. To embrace and demand craftsmanship. To use materials and products, from age-old to new-age, as they are instead of masking them as something else. To satisfy buyer demand for traditional exteriors by reinterpreting and updating familiar styles to suit today's world, rather than replicating (often poorly or incompletely) styles of the past. To consider each lot in each master plan and design homes that take full advantage of those conditions to offer a more livable, comfortable, and truly unique owner experience. In short, to deliver a pure definition of authenticity that buyers will see, feel, and pay a premium to have.
If that scenario sounds too idealistic, ignorant of the mass market, or dismissive of practical business concerns, especially for a production housing operation, consider that some of the nation's largest home builders, including Centex and Taylor Woodrow Homes, have already bought into it. And admit it, you know it will sell.
“I believe every builder is trying for authenticity because they know it sells,” says Geoffrey Mouen, an architect and land planner in Celebration, Fla., where he served as the town architect. “What they often lack is the technology, the skill set, and the time to make it happen.”
That's where folks such as Mouen and other contemporary architects come in with fresh takes on traditional house styles, materials, and forms that address current lifestyle needs and still give buyers a sense of comfort. “So many of those [historic] styles were developed in a certain point in history based on the way people lived then,” says architect Steven House of House + House Architects in San Francisco, who respects the familiarity, if not the livability, that buyers find in traditional house styles. “Our work is derived from authentic traditions but interpreted in a new way, for this time, place, and client.”
The process starts with land planning, lot design, and orientation, and finishes with, well, the finishes ... and includes every stick of material in between. “In so many markets, this one included, builders aren't taking advantage of the climate in a way that truly integrates with the architecture,” says Childress. “I think buyers would really appreciate that.”
In Boise, for instance, new homes along the city's river feature huge windows to the water that have little regard for where the sun rises and sets relative to those expanses. “There are great views and climate to the north, and the southern exposure isn't so bad if you shade it, but you get baked on the west elevation,” he says of those homes along the river's north bank. This lack of thoughtful planning causes homeowners to close their blinds to their high-priced river views and sweat out a summer's heat gain through those windows.
Moreover, savvy buyers sense the illusion. “They can tell the difference between something that is well designed versus a generic floor plan that's repeated over and over with little consideration for light, views, and circulation,” says House. “If you consider those things, the house feels bigger and is more livable and marketable.”
Whether in a spec project or a custom home, a big part of achieving authenticity is successfully marrying site conditions with what buyers want from an aesthetic and lifestyle perspective. “One client wanted a Cape Cod house, but there are issues with that style regarding window shapes and proportions that just wouldn't work for the site and views we had,” says House of a home that was set near San Francisco, not Nantucket. “We used familiar materials and forms but reinterpreted the style. The buyers think they have a Cape Cod, but it's really a contemporary California house.”
BD061001260L8.jpgCLICK HERE FOR IMAGE GALLERY
BD061001260L8.jpgCLICK HERE FOR IMAGE GALLERY
FUZZY LOGIC: Mission-style concrete-tile roofing (right) is a familiar, traditional look in the proper market. But when three-tab asphalt composition shingles are colored to look like wood shakes, the line of authenticity gets a little fuzzy.
ABANDON THE RANDOM: Fiber cement has developed a mainstream following for its performance and attractiveness ... especially if you use smooth plank lines (right), instead of a panel that replicates “random” shingles.
FLUSH IT: Fiberglass entry doors have proven to be an ideal combination of good looks and high performance, but what's wrong with a painted flush finish (right) instead of a stained fake wood grain?
The desire for open floor plans, meanwhile, creates issues with regard to construction materials and methods that can quickly take a home out of its proper scale and proportion—which may make a great first impression from the curb but ultimately doesn't sit right with buyers. “Homes used to be designed considering the capabilities of materials that a man or men could carry by hand,” notes Mouen, which yielded human-scaled houses. “Today, we can do all these gymnastics with trusses and steel to create long spans, but it changes the proportions, [resulting in] these oversized houses where we create height problems on a one-story home. That's crazy.”
Then, the final straw: slapping on synthetic materials manufactured to look real in the name of low or no maintenance that, in turn, foster a throwaway mentality about housing. “There's a sense of ownership that goes away when you aren't required to maintain a material or your house,” says Mouen. “And once these materials wear out, there's nothing you can do but tear them all off and replace them. They aren't maintainable.”
Which is not to say there's no place for product technology. “There's nothing wrong with experimenting with new materials, but when it's made to look like something else, that's dishonest,” says House. “If you aren't honest in your use of materials and [architectural] style, your project will look like Disneyland.”
HONEST APPROACHESOne easy place to get real is in the materials. Instead of enabling the illusion that an embossed wood grain or tile pattern supports, try using building materials—whatever they are—in their true form. (see Photo Gallery on this page)