Design Feedback
June 7th, 2008
I received a request from a reader to post up their plans for a modern home designed by Cottam Hargrave:
Cottam Hargrave is building a home for my wife and I in south Austin. Currently we are in the design phase. Jay has recommended reviewing the plans and model with friends for feedback. He has given me permission to blog them to increase my chances of different types of feedback. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
I love the idea of sharing more things like this (hint hint to anyone out there who wants to have their home - new or existing - profiled on Modern Austin.
Click here for the Flickr set. Be sure to check them out in large sizes (there is a button above each photo to see the big versions). If you have feedback leave a comment below or email me.
Entry Filed under: Architects/Designers
7 Comments Add your own
1. john | June 9th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Well, I can’t say I know a lot about architecture, but for what it’s worth, I think it’s a cool design.
It would be interesting to see the rest of the process through construction documented and posted somewhere.
2. Jonathan | June 9th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I am not an architect either, but here are my untrained-fan-of-architecture thoughts.
On the whole, I like it. The kitchen/dining/living area is especially appealing. Lots of natural light…northlight through the trees…very nice.
I appreciate the cleverness of the “wishbone” design to deal with the area that can’t be built upon.
But that also gives rise to the one thing that concerns me: that narrow hallway in the entry. It feels like it is completely pinching off the 2-story portion of the house from the great room. I am not claustrophobic, but when I imagine myself in that part of the house, it feels very tight and enclosed. It feels like a tourniquet on the flow between the two halves of the house.
Also, that weird little desk/office study nook tucked behind the coat closet reminds me of the tiny study carrels from my college library. Not a desirable quality, in my opinion.
And personally, if I were using this house to entertain, I’d want to share the roof deck with my guests. But the way the stairway to the second floor is tucked off behind that narrow artery, it just feels like it is non-verbally saying “Don’t go in here”. Even the first-floor restroom is on the other end of that tapering passage.
This may all be overly critical, but I hope it will prove helpful. On the whole, when I imagine myself inside this house I like it a lot…it’s really just this one portion of the house that gives me pause.
3. Kris Nielsen | June 10th, 2008 at 5:08 am
Excellent observation. This is exactly the type of feedback we are looking for.
Kris Nielsen
4. derek | June 13th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Im not an architect either but have been interested in modern as well as arts and crafts for quite some time (our new home is actually a mix of both styles), so take this with a heavy grain of salt.
I agree with a majority of what Jon said. The whole entrance hallway leading up to the house seems a bit closed off and walled in to me, and then it is finished off with a closed in entry way once the front door is open. I see how they attempted to open it up with the large window looking upon the tree in the back yard, but it still might come across closed in.
The house doesnt appear overly huge from the plans, so Im assuming that every square foot needs to be usable. When keeping this in mind, the little desk in a hallway seems like it would be completely unused given the large study/library upstairs.
I love the whole kitchen/lr/dining area with the sets of doors opening up the outside as well as the large glazed windows.
Another issue I had from the entertainment perspective - getting from the main area of the house to the outside roof top deck seemed a long distance and would split up your group far too much for my comfort if you had a large gathering at your house. It seems almost like people going to the upstairs patio would be entering more of the “private” area of the house. In addition, Im not a huge fan of a ladder leading there either. Im not sure what the options are, as that may be the only way - it just might come across “odd.”
Overall, I think the house is really cute and even as is it would be a really nice place to live.
5. joy nielsen | June 15th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Many thanks to everyone for their comments. We met with our CH project manager to work out some issues we have, a few of which have been mentioned here.
The distance from LR to the nearest bath (appx 80 ft.) is being resolved by adding a half bath near the kitchen. The study bath will be made more easily accessible to people on the deck. The deck, by the way, should have a skyline view. The entrance foyer is being enlarged. The little desk area we are keeping as a “staging area” for entering and leaving the house- a place for mail, keys, dog leashes etc. We are also looking at other ways to make the deck more accessible to guests. Some ideas for that have been a spiral or floating exterior stairway.
Thanks again to Ben for posting our plans and to anyone who takes the time to give us feedback.
6. Austin architecture feedb&hellip | July 7th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
[...] have received some great feedback via posting on ModernAustin, however I’m hoping to get a few more useful opinions for them. In fact, I’ll sweeten the [...]
7. Red | August 11th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
It would make a great cake.
Red
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