interior unusual materials
1. Woven resin. :-This woven 3-D surface wall treatment is from 3-Form. Available in many color options, it was once only seen in commercial projects but has become more popular in residences.
2. Three-D gypsum board."- Modular Arts produces a wide variety of fiberglass-reinforced gypsum board panels. These panels come in tiles and are screwed to a substrate. The seams are mudded and sanded by a skillful drywaller to create a continuous effect.
3. Faux leather.:- Robin Reigi is my go-to supplier for this leather look-alike rubber product. It has a beautiful tactile warmth and is available in three different hues: natural, chocolate (shown here) and black.Since it's a rubber product, it's easy to maintain and suitable for kitchen and bathroom cabinetry.
4. Stainless steel.:- Steel has amazing potential and can take on many different personalities, from modern and stark to tactile and warm.
Stainless steel isn't used just as a sheet metal today. In new applications, stainless steel pieces are linked together like chain mail or woven into screens.
This photo shows a woven stainless steel stairwell screen, accentuated by LED lighting at night.
5. Sheet metal:- has been perforated with a laser-cut design here.
6. Laminated glass.:- Laminated glass is made of various flat products sandwiched between two sheets of glass; it has a high-end, pressed look.
Colored glass works beautifully with this application, too. Mirror can be used as a backing for an opaque, reflective insert in a closest door. You can try playing with frosted glass, Starphire glass or different fabric inlays.
7. Laminated resin. :-Laminated resin is often used as a cabinet door insert or for lamp shades, but it can also be applied on a larger scale. The skillful mix of laminated resin in this photo gives a workspace the calm quality of a Japanese tearoom.
8. European laminates.:- This bathroom's curved cabinet has high-pressure laminate fronts that show just how far laminate has come in the past few years. The Italians have been laminate masters since the 1950s companies like Arpa, Abet and Laminati are some of my favorites. Today's laminates mimic textured faux woods, have 3-D effects and come in a range of colors and metallic surfaces.
Unfortunately, not all of these products are easy to find if you're not working with a design professional. I'd suggest getting samples from companies online and then taking them to a cabinetmaker who's open to working with these products.
9. Textured glass counters.:- Glass as a functional countertop material has been refined by the Canadian company ThinkGlass. Laminated layers of glass can be built up to 4 inches thick, with a wide range of textures for the bottom layer. The texture on the bottom creates an appealing visual effect and hides any surface scratches.
10. Woven vinyl. :-Chilewich, well known for its placemats and runners, has a great product called Plynyl that can be used for wall-to-wall carpeting, carpet tiles and upholstery.
Although it's marketed as a commercial-grade product, Plynyl would make for great low-maintenance headboards or kitchen banquette upholstery.
11. Ultra Cool: 3D Printed Bricks Can Cool Homes Using No Power Read more: http://dornob.com/ultra-cool-3d-printed-bricks-can-cool-homes-using-no-power/#ixzz3iVcuthOL
Evaporative cooling is a technique that has been used for millennia to cool spaces without the need for electricity or special equipment. In fact, all it takes is a porous container such as a terracotta pot, some water, and a bit of a breeze. Designers Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello want to bring the idea of evaporative cooling into the present day with a 3D printed porous brick that can cool a home with no need for air conditioning.
The 3D printed Cool Bricks are made from a mixture of clay and organic matter. After printing, they are fired in a kiln – a process that burns up the organic matter and leaves behind teeny-tiny pores that can hold microscopic beads of water. As with ancient evaporative cooling devices, the water evaporates when it meets warmer air, which reduces the air temperature nearby.
The designers, working under the name Emerging Objects, figured that building these cooling bricks into walls would produce the same effect as using an evaporative cooling device, but on a larger scale. Instead of running up a high electricity bill, users in hot, dry climates will just supply the thirsty walls with water and let nature cool their homes.
The Cool Brick combines the best of old-world ingenuity and modern technology to create a pretty smart product. While Cool Bricks aren’t quite ready to be built into new homes just yet, Emerging Objects hopes to soon build a full-scale prototype to show off just how amazing this melding of old and new innovations can be.
.
3D printed cool brick
12. Old Red Goes Green: Recycled Wall Brick Built to Save Water
It might look like your typical old red clay house-building brick on one side, but turn it over and there is a shift that hints at a deeper design change – one that is eco-friendly but also expressive in a way that most walls or brick are not. made from recycled plastic and decomposed leaves, this brick is green from the ground up (so to speak). More than just its composite materials, however, built-in grooves are designed to funnel water for gardening or even long-term underground storage.
13. Liquid Wood Chairs: Classic Material Flows in New Furniture
For all its flawed variability, wood has long remained a leading go-to choice for creating furniture. Still, competitors like plastic (and issues of scarcity and sustainability) make its old uses less appealing with time. Thus, a new form of industrial production: liquid wood built from organic materials like bamboo, flex, hemp, jute and rattan, featured in chair form this year in Milan. Like some sort of postmodern alchemy, a type of resin is created from discarded wood-pulp of the aforementioned plants, natural fibers and fish oils; the murky mixture is compressed, heated and ultimately fused together in a durable, strong and toxin-free alternative to petroleum-generated products.Under heat and pressure, the resulting viscous substance can be used for injection-molding furniture pieces with all the flexibility-but-rigidity of traditional plastics. Best of all, the products are recyclable – no cancer-causing or otherwise toxic agents are fed into the mix. Like conventional wooden furniture pieces, the materiality is still present in the finished chairs (or tables or whatever you wish).
14. Ingenious Joinery: Plastic Shrink Wrap for Wood Furniture:-
Screws and nails have long be staples (in both senses of the word) of the building industry, from whole homes down to individual furnishings, but need they be so essential? Plastic is also a word with two common meanings: it is both a material but also a property of materials – bendable, flexible but ultimately solid it has a great deal of untapped potential as these furniture pieces show.
The combination of warmth and air makes the plastic contract, after which it becomes solid again as it cools and tightens around whatever it surrounds. Think of the relative speed and simplicity, too: no more complex joinery techniques, ugly nails or screws, at least assuming you like the aesthetic results.
In this case, Nicola Zocca paired the colorful structural bands with surfaces of similarly-colored metal to make them fit as part of the larger design – the artificial elements set in contrast to natural ash and oakwood tones. In the same way you can tie a knot in dozens of different ways, these plastic strips can likewise be applied in a variety of creative ways for functional or visual reasons.
Usually used for industrial applications, plastic that shrinks when heat is applied has been around for a long time. Its application range from snug-fitting electrical cord covers to connecting parts of planes, trains and automobiles. Probably the most popular (or visible) uses are everyday things: packaging for your headphones, CDs and other store-bought items.
15. Thin Veneer: Crazy Hardwood Finish for Plywood Furniture
What better way to finish off a piece of furniture than with a beautiful hard oak, walnut, cherry, cedar, dark maple, light birch or soft mahogany veneer? How about mixing and matching a series of hardwoods over the plywood parts instead – after all, the outside is what people see, touch (and bang or bump) anyway?
Though veneers cost less they sometimes get a bad reputation as cheap surface panel alternatives to building with real, solid softwoods and hardwoods. Rohol is a company aimed at changing that stereotype with what they (somewhat paradoxically) term “mass customization” – woodworking that can be mass-produced (with pricing to match) but that has the look and feel of something less cheap, more artistic and unique.
This new series of veneer panels takes the best features of the constituent lumber and makes wonderful works of wood art out of it, combining the best strengths of natural hardwood panels in creative ways. While they are shown in these examples as thin finish surfaces for cabinet furniture, they would be beautiful around a fireplace or used as siding or wall material for other furniture and interior projects.
Some of these combinations are unlikely: contrasting colorful rosewood and classic pine, cheap bamboo and super-strong teak. Whether the sheets come with stripes, boxes or other patterns, gluing these to an underlying board saves on cost but is still much cooler than many standard finishes.
16. New Noise-Quenching Curtains Absorb Sound, Let in Light
Somewhere between thick and opaque noise-blocking curtains and clear sound-reflecting glass windows there was a missing link, and this textile is it: lightweight and translucent, it sucks in sound without obscuring your view.
Specializing in Materials Science & Technology, the EMPA worked with textiles experts, acoustical engineers and computer modelers to weave disparate disciplines into a new compelling set of acoustically-altered patterns. Passive noise cancellation is of course a particularly tricky task in malleable and thin materials due to issues of density and directionality.
sound resistance curtain designs
17. See-Through Concrete: 5 Real-Life, Light-Transmitting Walls
You might remember this wonderful innovation from Litracon® – translucent concrete – from its days as a prototype with small (paid) samples available to interested architects. Now, however, it has begun to be deployed in real-life buildings.
Prefabricated into a single suspended panel, the individual blocks for this particular wall were rotated into place. The result is a semi-transparent facade that lets in limited light and shadow but also provides some privacy for this prominent street-front location during the day (as light trickles inside, and visual interest outside on the sidewalk at night (when the light primarily passes back out).
8 Things Successful Architects and Designers Do
Every architect’s design process is extremely personal and nuanced. For example, I have certain tools that I reach for ritually when I start a new project. One is a favorite lead pencil with a lightweight, medium-size barrel and a thinly ridged grip, loaded with a medium-weight HB lead that’s not too soft and not too hard. It has a broken clip at the top and a small blue button near my thumb to advance the lead.
It’s with this pencil in hand that I begin each design, visiting the project site, writing, taking notes and sketching in a pocket-size gridded sketchbook. I take with me a small corded bundle of Prismacolor pencils — light cream, sky blue, May green, French gray, yellow ocher and oxide red — to fill in the line work of my sketches and suggest order. It has to be this way for me, and I know that when I’m armed with these tools, the ideas will flow easily.
While each architect’s habits are individual and idiosyncratic, the broader architectural habits we share lay the foundations for good design. Here are eight (of the many) habits that help guide successful architects during the design process.
1. They tell a good story. :- Our memories of places are inherently linked to stories. A home that tells the story of a specific client, in a specific place, at a specific time enriches the experience and gives it a reason for being.Architects are taught very early in design school to conceptualize projects by inventing a narrative, which is traditionally referred to as a parti.A parti is like a rulebook, in a way, and a good one allows us to refer back to it when we’re stuck wondering what to do next. It organizes our thoughts and guides us in how to best relate the story through our design.
2. They take risks.:- Taking risks to do something out of the ordinary is part of any creative field. Rethink, reimagine, retool and invent new ways of doing the same old thing — while the laws of physics still apply, even gravity can be challenged. This isn’t to say that everything requires innovation or bold action, but looking at a problem through a different lens often reveals interesting solutions that don’t rely on standard practice.Modern Wine Cellar by Ike Kligerman BarkleyIke Kligerman Barkley Here’s one of my favorite designer hacks for being bold: the 8-foot door. Standard doors are 6 feet, 8 inches tall and 3 feet wide, and roughly correlate to the human form. We’re used to seeing doors this size. Substitute an 8-foot slab, and the difference is instantly recognizable. Just the act of opening this door forces you to sense its weight and its height. Sure, 8-foot doors are more expensive, but the effect elevates a standard design element from mundane and accepted to exceptional. Taller doors can let in more light when glazed, and their proportions can completely reorient smaller, narrow spaces, like this hallway, making them seem larger. I use them often in spaces with 8-foot ceilings where when the door is open, it’s as if the entire wall has dissolved.
3. They sweat the details. :- At its heart architecture seeks to solve problems, but it’s the way we’re able to solve those problems — the poetry we bring to the solution — that separates the good from the bad.It’s possible to solve the problem of a stair guard in many different ways, but here the designer has chosen a minimalist, outwardly effortless expression. The gray of the thin stainless steel cables matches that of the concrete stair run, and their attachment is deliberate and considered.Details matter because they’re often the things we’re most engaged with on a daily basis. The means by which all of the components come together in a structure are the details.
4. They simplify.:- “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak,” said painter Hans Hofmann. Too often we let complexity act as a proxy for interest. Architects are schooled in editing down to the essential components. If it doesn’t have a function, its necessity should be questioned.Here are just a few areas where simplifying can make the design stronger: Simple shapes: They usually cost less, are easier to build and look beautiful unadorned. A simple material palette: two or three materials at most. Devise rules for how each will be used. By varying one material’s finish — from smooth to rough — you can achieve variety without complexity. Simple trim (or none) Simple windows: Choose two window sizes — one for large openings, one for small ones. Leave connections between materials exposed and expressive. Concealed joints are usually costly and time intensive to execute.
5. They establish order.:- Designers prefer applying ordering principles to everything, at every level.Naturally, the need for order requires hierarchy — which basically means you have to decide what’s the most important thing and let the other things defer to it.When beginning a new design project, I usually evaluate three main things: the building site (existing or new), the client and the budget. The overarching concept is derived from the one that asserts the strongest pull, and I begin crafting a narrative around that force. That’s where the ordering begins.Regardless of the strongest pull, it always circles back to the site, where I determine which dominant site features (view, topography, other structures) are most important.Farmhouse Exterior by ONE 10 STUDIO
ONE 10 STUDIOBefore deciding what a building will look like (the form), we have to think about and order the spaces on the site, from most public to most private, and decide how we’ll arrive and the sequence of how the spaces will unfold.For renovations the ordering principles are often set by what the existing structure is lacking — natural light, space, connection to the outdoors etc. For some projects I’ve even gone so far as to develop a rulebook to establish specific modules, the grid, materials and a guide for adding modules to the structure in the future.The wonderfully illustrated compendium Architecture: Form, Space and Order, by Francis Ching, is required reading for every first-year architecture student, and it’s one that I still personally find inspiring, especially with respect to order.
6. They repeat, repeat, repeat:-. Repetition is a good thing in architecture. Common thematic elements repeated again and again help to reinforce our previous habit of establishing order. Windows, doors, columns, beams, materials … these are all part of the natural order of buildings.Repetition doesn’t equate to boring; rather it unifies a design. Repeating patterns, materials, grids and proportions are the underpinnings of order. The cardinal rule of repetition is that it takes a minimum of three of anything to see the benefits. If two is good, three is better.Repetition not only makes sense from an economical standpoint, but it provides a reference point and background against which to highlight the things that we think are really important, laying the groundwork for our next habit.
7. They break the rules.:- The prerequisite to this is the previous habit. Once we have an established repeating pattern, we can decide where to break the rules. Imagine a series of windows aligned on an orderly grid. The one window that breaks this set of rules must do so for a very important and specific reason, like a view to a tree canopy or a distant view.With a repetitive order as the background, calculated rule breaking is assured to have special meaning. It also balances the repetition to keep it from being staid and monotonous.This stair illustrates the power of breaking rules. Look at the restraint exercised in the surrounding space.Traditionally, stairs are composed of stringers at the edges, boxed risers and some combination of a handrail and guardrail.
The designer of this stair reconsidered every one of those assumptions, breaking the rules and turning it into a sculptural object. The stair hangs from the upper story, forcing one to observe the process of moving upward by springing from a heavy concrete plinth to a much lighter stair object.
The risers are open, allowing light and views through, and the plywood “stringers” double as stair support and guard.
8. They engage the senses:-. While the stunning visuals of the architecture we consume online appeal to our sense of sight, our experience of architecture is actually quite different. We’re taught as architects to think about all of our senses when designing.Opening a home to a view is as important as shielding it from unwanted noise or the smell from the ocean or a nearby cedar tree.
Architects consider the difference in feel of cool concrete versus warm wood on one’s feet and the sound rain makes on a metal roof.
How to contact a home pro and get your project going
1. Woven resin. :-This woven 3-D surface wall treatment is from 3-Form. Available in many color options, it was once only seen in commercial projects but has become more popular in residences.
2. Three-D gypsum board."- Modular Arts produces a wide variety of fiberglass-reinforced gypsum board panels. These panels come in tiles and are screwed to a substrate. The seams are mudded and sanded by a skillful drywaller to create a continuous effect.
3. Faux leather.:- Robin Reigi is my go-to supplier for this leather look-alike rubber product. It has a beautiful tactile warmth and is available in three different hues: natural, chocolate (shown here) and black.Since it's a rubber product, it's easy to maintain and suitable for kitchen and bathroom cabinetry.
4. Stainless steel.:- Steel has amazing potential and can take on many different personalities, from modern and stark to tactile and warm.
Stainless steel isn't used just as a sheet metal today. In new applications, stainless steel pieces are linked together like chain mail or woven into screens.
This photo shows a woven stainless steel stairwell screen, accentuated by LED lighting at night.
5. Sheet metal:- has been perforated with a laser-cut design here.
6. Laminated glass.:- Laminated glass is made of various flat products sandwiched between two sheets of glass; it has a high-end, pressed look.
Colored glass works beautifully with this application, too. Mirror can be used as a backing for an opaque, reflective insert in a closest door. You can try playing with frosted glass, Starphire glass or different fabric inlays.
7. Laminated resin. :-Laminated resin is often used as a cabinet door insert or for lamp shades, but it can also be applied on a larger scale. The skillful mix of laminated resin in this photo gives a workspace the calm quality of a Japanese tearoom.
8. European laminates.:- This bathroom's curved cabinet has high-pressure laminate fronts that show just how far laminate has come in the past few years. The Italians have been laminate masters since the 1950s companies like Arpa, Abet and Laminati are some of my favorites. Today's laminates mimic textured faux woods, have 3-D effects and come in a range of colors and metallic surfaces.
Unfortunately, not all of these products are easy to find if you're not working with a design professional. I'd suggest getting samples from companies online and then taking them to a cabinetmaker who's open to working with these products.
9. Textured glass counters.:- Glass as a functional countertop material has been refined by the Canadian company ThinkGlass. Laminated layers of glass can be built up to 4 inches thick, with a wide range of textures for the bottom layer. The texture on the bottom creates an appealing visual effect and hides any surface scratches.
10. Woven vinyl. :-Chilewich, well known for its placemats and runners, has a great product called Plynyl that can be used for wall-to-wall carpeting, carpet tiles and upholstery.
Although it's marketed as a commercial-grade product, Plynyl would make for great low-maintenance headboards or kitchen banquette upholstery.
11. Ultra Cool: 3D Printed Bricks Can Cool Homes Using No Power Read more: http://dornob.com/ultra-cool-3d-printed-bricks-can-cool-homes-using-no-power/#ixzz3iVcuthOL
Evaporative cooling is a technique that has been used for millennia to cool spaces without the need for electricity or special equipment. In fact, all it takes is a porous container such as a terracotta pot, some water, and a bit of a breeze. Designers Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello want to bring the idea of evaporative cooling into the present day with a 3D printed porous brick that can cool a home with no need for air conditioning.
The 3D printed Cool Bricks are made from a mixture of clay and organic matter. After printing, they are fired in a kiln – a process that burns up the organic matter and leaves behind teeny-tiny pores that can hold microscopic beads of water. As with ancient evaporative cooling devices, the water evaporates when it meets warmer air, which reduces the air temperature nearby.
The designers, working under the name Emerging Objects, figured that building these cooling bricks into walls would produce the same effect as using an evaporative cooling device, but on a larger scale. Instead of running up a high electricity bill, users in hot, dry climates will just supply the thirsty walls with water and let nature cool their homes.
The Cool Brick combines the best of old-world ingenuity and modern technology to create a pretty smart product. While Cool Bricks aren’t quite ready to be built into new homes just yet, Emerging Objects hopes to soon build a full-scale prototype to show off just how amazing this melding of old and new innovations can be.
.
3D printed cool brick
12. Old Red Goes Green: Recycled Wall Brick Built to Save Water
It might look like your typical old red clay house-building brick on one side, but turn it over and there is a shift that hints at a deeper design change – one that is eco-friendly but also expressive in a way that most walls or brick are not. made from recycled plastic and decomposed leaves, this brick is green from the ground up (so to speak). More than just its composite materials, however, built-in grooves are designed to funnel water for gardening or even long-term underground storage.
13. Liquid Wood Chairs: Classic Material Flows in New Furniture
For all its flawed variability, wood has long remained a leading go-to choice for creating furniture. Still, competitors like plastic (and issues of scarcity and sustainability) make its old uses less appealing with time. Thus, a new form of industrial production: liquid wood built from organic materials like bamboo, flex, hemp, jute and rattan, featured in chair form this year in Milan. Like some sort of postmodern alchemy, a type of resin is created from discarded wood-pulp of the aforementioned plants, natural fibers and fish oils; the murky mixture is compressed, heated and ultimately fused together in a durable, strong and toxin-free alternative to petroleum-generated products.Under heat and pressure, the resulting viscous substance can be used for injection-molding furniture pieces with all the flexibility-but-rigidity of traditional plastics. Best of all, the products are recyclable – no cancer-causing or otherwise toxic agents are fed into the mix. Like conventional wooden furniture pieces, the materiality is still present in the finished chairs (or tables or whatever you wish).
14. Ingenious Joinery: Plastic Shrink Wrap for Wood Furniture:-
Screws and nails have long be staples (in both senses of the word) of the building industry, from whole homes down to individual furnishings, but need they be so essential? Plastic is also a word with two common meanings: it is both a material but also a property of materials – bendable, flexible but ultimately solid it has a great deal of untapped potential as these furniture pieces show.
The combination of warmth and air makes the plastic contract, after which it becomes solid again as it cools and tightens around whatever it surrounds. Think of the relative speed and simplicity, too: no more complex joinery techniques, ugly nails or screws, at least assuming you like the aesthetic results.
In this case, Nicola Zocca paired the colorful structural bands with surfaces of similarly-colored metal to make them fit as part of the larger design – the artificial elements set in contrast to natural ash and oakwood tones. In the same way you can tie a knot in dozens of different ways, these plastic strips can likewise be applied in a variety of creative ways for functional or visual reasons.
Usually used for industrial applications, plastic that shrinks when heat is applied has been around for a long time. Its application range from snug-fitting electrical cord covers to connecting parts of planes, trains and automobiles. Probably the most popular (or visible) uses are everyday things: packaging for your headphones, CDs and other store-bought items.
15. Thin Veneer: Crazy Hardwood Finish for Plywood Furniture
What better way to finish off a piece of furniture than with a beautiful hard oak, walnut, cherry, cedar, dark maple, light birch or soft mahogany veneer? How about mixing and matching a series of hardwoods over the plywood parts instead – after all, the outside is what people see, touch (and bang or bump) anyway?
Though veneers cost less they sometimes get a bad reputation as cheap surface panel alternatives to building with real, solid softwoods and hardwoods. Rohol is a company aimed at changing that stereotype with what they (somewhat paradoxically) term “mass customization” – woodworking that can be mass-produced (with pricing to match) but that has the look and feel of something less cheap, more artistic and unique.
This new series of veneer panels takes the best features of the constituent lumber and makes wonderful works of wood art out of it, combining the best strengths of natural hardwood panels in creative ways. While they are shown in these examples as thin finish surfaces for cabinet furniture, they would be beautiful around a fireplace or used as siding or wall material for other furniture and interior projects.
Some of these combinations are unlikely: contrasting colorful rosewood and classic pine, cheap bamboo and super-strong teak. Whether the sheets come with stripes, boxes or other patterns, gluing these to an underlying board saves on cost but is still much cooler than many standard finishes.
16. New Noise-Quenching Curtains Absorb Sound, Let in Light
Somewhere between thick and opaque noise-blocking curtains and clear sound-reflecting glass windows there was a missing link, and this textile is it: lightweight and translucent, it sucks in sound without obscuring your view.
Specializing in Materials Science & Technology, the EMPA worked with textiles experts, acoustical engineers and computer modelers to weave disparate disciplines into a new compelling set of acoustically-altered patterns. Passive noise cancellation is of course a particularly tricky task in malleable and thin materials due to issues of density and directionality.
sound resistance curtain designs
17. See-Through Concrete: 5 Real-Life, Light-Transmitting Walls
You might remember this wonderful innovation from Litracon® – translucent concrete – from its days as a prototype with small (paid) samples available to interested architects. Now, however, it has begun to be deployed in real-life buildings.
Prefabricated into a single suspended panel, the individual blocks for this particular wall were rotated into place. The result is a semi-transparent facade that lets in limited light and shadow but also provides some privacy for this prominent street-front location during the day (as light trickles inside, and visual interest outside on the sidewalk at night (when the light primarily passes back out).
8 Things Successful Architects and Designers Do
Every architect’s design process is extremely personal and nuanced. For example, I have certain tools that I reach for ritually when I start a new project. One is a favorite lead pencil with a lightweight, medium-size barrel and a thinly ridged grip, loaded with a medium-weight HB lead that’s not too soft and not too hard. It has a broken clip at the top and a small blue button near my thumb to advance the lead.
It’s with this pencil in hand that I begin each design, visiting the project site, writing, taking notes and sketching in a pocket-size gridded sketchbook. I take with me a small corded bundle of Prismacolor pencils — light cream, sky blue, May green, French gray, yellow ocher and oxide red — to fill in the line work of my sketches and suggest order. It has to be this way for me, and I know that when I’m armed with these tools, the ideas will flow easily.
While each architect’s habits are individual and idiosyncratic, the broader architectural habits we share lay the foundations for good design. Here are eight (of the many) habits that help guide successful architects during the design process.
1. They tell a good story. :- Our memories of places are inherently linked to stories. A home that tells the story of a specific client, in a specific place, at a specific time enriches the experience and gives it a reason for being.Architects are taught very early in design school to conceptualize projects by inventing a narrative, which is traditionally referred to as a parti.A parti is like a rulebook, in a way, and a good one allows us to refer back to it when we’re stuck wondering what to do next. It organizes our thoughts and guides us in how to best relate the story through our design.
2. They take risks.:- Taking risks to do something out of the ordinary is part of any creative field. Rethink, reimagine, retool and invent new ways of doing the same old thing — while the laws of physics still apply, even gravity can be challenged. This isn’t to say that everything requires innovation or bold action, but looking at a problem through a different lens often reveals interesting solutions that don’t rely on standard practice.Modern Wine Cellar by Ike Kligerman BarkleyIke Kligerman Barkley Here’s one of my favorite designer hacks for being bold: the 8-foot door. Standard doors are 6 feet, 8 inches tall and 3 feet wide, and roughly correlate to the human form. We’re used to seeing doors this size. Substitute an 8-foot slab, and the difference is instantly recognizable. Just the act of opening this door forces you to sense its weight and its height. Sure, 8-foot doors are more expensive, but the effect elevates a standard design element from mundane and accepted to exceptional. Taller doors can let in more light when glazed, and their proportions can completely reorient smaller, narrow spaces, like this hallway, making them seem larger. I use them often in spaces with 8-foot ceilings where when the door is open, it’s as if the entire wall has dissolved.
3. They sweat the details. :- At its heart architecture seeks to solve problems, but it’s the way we’re able to solve those problems — the poetry we bring to the solution — that separates the good from the bad.It’s possible to solve the problem of a stair guard in many different ways, but here the designer has chosen a minimalist, outwardly effortless expression. The gray of the thin stainless steel cables matches that of the concrete stair run, and their attachment is deliberate and considered.Details matter because they’re often the things we’re most engaged with on a daily basis. The means by which all of the components come together in a structure are the details.
4. They simplify.:- “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak,” said painter Hans Hofmann. Too often we let complexity act as a proxy for interest. Architects are schooled in editing down to the essential components. If it doesn’t have a function, its necessity should be questioned.Here are just a few areas where simplifying can make the design stronger: Simple shapes: They usually cost less, are easier to build and look beautiful unadorned. A simple material palette: two or three materials at most. Devise rules for how each will be used. By varying one material’s finish — from smooth to rough — you can achieve variety without complexity. Simple trim (or none) Simple windows: Choose two window sizes — one for large openings, one for small ones. Leave connections between materials exposed and expressive. Concealed joints are usually costly and time intensive to execute.
5. They establish order.:- Designers prefer applying ordering principles to everything, at every level.Naturally, the need for order requires hierarchy — which basically means you have to decide what’s the most important thing and let the other things defer to it.When beginning a new design project, I usually evaluate three main things: the building site (existing or new), the client and the budget. The overarching concept is derived from the one that asserts the strongest pull, and I begin crafting a narrative around that force. That’s where the ordering begins.Regardless of the strongest pull, it always circles back to the site, where I determine which dominant site features (view, topography, other structures) are most important.Farmhouse Exterior by ONE 10 STUDIO
ONE 10 STUDIOBefore deciding what a building will look like (the form), we have to think about and order the spaces on the site, from most public to most private, and decide how we’ll arrive and the sequence of how the spaces will unfold.For renovations the ordering principles are often set by what the existing structure is lacking — natural light, space, connection to the outdoors etc. For some projects I’ve even gone so far as to develop a rulebook to establish specific modules, the grid, materials and a guide for adding modules to the structure in the future.The wonderfully illustrated compendium Architecture: Form, Space and Order, by Francis Ching, is required reading for every first-year architecture student, and it’s one that I still personally find inspiring, especially with respect to order.
6. They repeat, repeat, repeat:-. Repetition is a good thing in architecture. Common thematic elements repeated again and again help to reinforce our previous habit of establishing order. Windows, doors, columns, beams, materials … these are all part of the natural order of buildings.Repetition doesn’t equate to boring; rather it unifies a design. Repeating patterns, materials, grids and proportions are the underpinnings of order. The cardinal rule of repetition is that it takes a minimum of three of anything to see the benefits. If two is good, three is better.Repetition not only makes sense from an economical standpoint, but it provides a reference point and background against which to highlight the things that we think are really important, laying the groundwork for our next habit.
7. They break the rules.:- The prerequisite to this is the previous habit. Once we have an established repeating pattern, we can decide where to break the rules. Imagine a series of windows aligned on an orderly grid. The one window that breaks this set of rules must do so for a very important and specific reason, like a view to a tree canopy or a distant view.With a repetitive order as the background, calculated rule breaking is assured to have special meaning. It also balances the repetition to keep it from being staid and monotonous.This stair illustrates the power of breaking rules. Look at the restraint exercised in the surrounding space.Traditionally, stairs are composed of stringers at the edges, boxed risers and some combination of a handrail and guardrail.
The designer of this stair reconsidered every one of those assumptions, breaking the rules and turning it into a sculptural object. The stair hangs from the upper story, forcing one to observe the process of moving upward by springing from a heavy concrete plinth to a much lighter stair object.
The risers are open, allowing light and views through, and the plywood “stringers” double as stair support and guard.
8. They engage the senses:-. While the stunning visuals of the architecture we consume online appeal to our sense of sight, our experience of architecture is actually quite different. We’re taught as architects to think about all of our senses when designing.Opening a home to a view is as important as shielding it from unwanted noise or the smell from the ocean or a nearby cedar tree.
Architects consider the difference in feel of cool concrete versus warm wood on one’s feet and the sound rain makes on a metal roof.
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