Designing a House
Whatever you decide on by way of design, you will need to get it down in drawing form for several purposes
- to be absolutely clear about what you want
- to apply for Planning Permission
- to satisfy Building Regulations
- to price the job
- to communicate with the builders
- possibly for ordering materials
- possibly to help raise finance
- possibly for legal reasons to do with land ownership
There are many approaches to designing a house, depending on what you want to achieve.
- Get acquainted with the principles of green building design
- Check out the section on Green design in detail which includes all the elements of a house such as walls, roofs, floors, windows, doors, sevices etc.
- Look at all the examples of houses you admire and then do something similar. This is, after all, the approach people have taken in the past, with some beautiful results. Take the enchanting houses of the Cotswolds, the Yorkshire dales villages or the crofters houses of Scotland.
- Be aware of the shortcomings of much of the house design you see around you.
- Green design is making much traditional housing look very outdated
- Flexible design is often ignored
- A lot of houses have high maintenance costs
- You may want to follow certain aesthetic values. Could be all sorts of ideas: Modernist, Post Modernist, Minimalist, Rationalist…usually better than aping the pretend traditionalist ‘Tudorbethan’ that volume builders are so keen on.
- Build something that will make a lot of money when you sell it!
- Build in a way that uses your existing building / management skills to the maximum.
- Use guided visioning and see what comes out of your subconscious. There might be more going on in there than you think.
- List all your inspirations,- all the houses and domestic environments which you have found beautiful or that have inspired you. Think back to places you found good when you were a child and places you have enjoyed on holiday. If possible try to get photos of these places and make sketches or notes of what it was you liked. Your own experiences are usually more powerful and relevant than gathering images from magazines, coffee table books and books of plans.
- List all your positive attributes. These might be money, skills, knowledge, helpful friends, access to building materials etc.
- List all your limitations. These may be similar to the items above but in a negative context; financial limits, time limits etc.
Whatever you go for there is a range of design techniques you can use to turn your ideas into drawings.
