A great house does not have to be big. I would rather see a small house
with good architectural detailing than a huge house that has absolutely
no charm. A great house needs to have good flow and traffic patterns and
consideration given to how someone is going to live in it. A house needs
to have good exterior massing relationships. It is important to think of
each exterior mass and how it relates to the other masses that make up
the entire exterior elevation. Proper exterior features like cornice and
eave details, material selections, roof shapes, and color selections
that are true to the architecture style are extremely important.
Fenestration of windows and doors on the exterior as well as the
relationship of windows on the upper floors to the lower windows is
extremely important/. A couple of the worst mistakes that I see as far
as the exterior is concerned are as follows:
1. Too many different materials and too many different textures. Don.t
get me wrong, texture is important but it needs to make sense.
2. Garage masses that over whelm the rest of the exterior masses.
3. Dormer windows with such large roof overhang that dormer looks like
it is getting ready to take off ( the flying nun syndrome I call it).
4. A hodgepodge of windows and doors on the exterior of a home and no
thought given to how the relate to each other.
5. Finally, color is extremely important.
The average person typically will look at a house and realize that there
is something wrong but does not know what it is. Then again some people
have been sold on bad design for so long that they think bad design is
good.
A great house does not have to be big. I would rather see a small house
with good architectural detailing than a huge house that has absolutely
no charm. A great house needs to have good flow and traffic patterns and
consideration given to how someone is going to live in it. A house needs
to have good exterior massing relationships. It is important to think of
each exterior mass and how it relates to the other masses that make up
the entire exterior elevation. Proper exterior features like cornice and
eave details, material selections, roof shapes, and color selections
that are true to the architecture style are extremely important.
Fenestration of windows and doors on the exterior as well as the
relationship of windows on the upper floors to the lower windows is
extremely important/. A couple of the worst mistakes that I see as far
as the exterior is concerned are as follows:
1. Too many different materials and too many different textures. Don.t
get me wrong, texture is important but it needs to make sense.
2. Garage masses that over whelm the rest of the exterior masses.
3. Dormer windows with such large roof overhang that dormer looks like
it is getting ready to take off ( the flying nun syndrome I call it).
4. A hodgepodge of windows and doors on the exterior of a home and no
thought given to how the relate to each other.
5. Finally, color is extremely important.
The average person typically will look at a house and realize that there
is something wrong but does not know what it is. Then again some people
have been sold on bad design for so long that they think bad design is
good.