How to Build your Not-So-Big House

Some are now gearing up to create that long postponed new home or remodel. Yet the lessons of the past several years have left an indelible bent towards frugality in most, and so in our practice we are seeing continuing interest in the Not So Big House.

What are the Characteristics of a Perfect Home Design?

Choosing your house design is one of the most exciting phases of building a new home. Essentially the key attributes of a great home include liveability, functionality, convenience, comfort and style. The layout and the way the space functions are key to a comfortable home. If you have young children or are planning on starting a family in the future, it’s important your home grows with you and retains its functionality and comfort for the time frame you intend to stay in it for. Here are some helpful points to consider when choosing the perfect house design for you.

The Ergonomic of Interior Spaces

Ergonomics as a science strives to bridge the gap between man and his surroundings. The knowledge gained in this endeavor is most commonly applied in the workplace setting. That is, it is thought that by applying ergonomic principles to the design of the interior spaces, greater functionality can be achieved yielding higher levels of comfort, commodiousness, and efficiency of effort.

Timing Your Construction Project

As with many things in life, the timing of your construction project can be critical to its success. Construction tends to be a seasonally-driven industry, with the prevailing goal being to avoid breaking ground during the winter rainy season. This is not a hard-and-fast rule of course – there are notable exceptions which we will discuss. To best understand the ins-and-outs of project scheduling, this article outlines the design process, from selecting your design team, to how permit processing can impact your project schedule, to ball-parking how long it takes to build a construction project.

Pros & Cons of Metal Roofing

Due to recent wildfire events, given its fire-resistant qualities, we’ve seen a surge of interest in metal roofing. If you are considering metal roofing for your new or existing home, it’s very important to weigh the pros and cons of metal against other more common roof materials, such as asphalt, wood, and tile. This article offers a close look at some of the benefits and drawbacks of steel, aluminum, and other metal roofing.

Hip Roof vs. Gable Roof – Pros & Cons of Each

Are you in the process of working with your design professional to visualize your new home? If so, chances are you are considering one of the two most popular roof types in the US, hip & gable. This article will help you decide between a hip and gable roof for your new home, or an existing roof re-framing project. Read on to learn more about the pros and cons of each roof type, and find out which one is a more appropriate choice for your needs.

Flat Roof Considerations

Flat roofs are cheap to install, but may face issues with waterproofing.

What is a flat roof?
A flat roof is installed to sit horizontally on top of a building, with very little or no pitch. A flat roof is ideal in many ways – for example they’re cheap, fast and easy to install. The key problem with flat roofs however, is they can be difficult to waterproof. A pitched roof encourages rain, ice and snow to drain or slide off. Water on a flat roof tends to pool and then soak down into the house.

Designing Barcelona in Favor of Public Health

Economic prosperity in Barcelona, Spain during the mid-19th century encouraged the population to rise, but infrastructure constraints seemed to compel the decline of urban design and by extension public health. Presently, airborne pollutants with the greatest impact to Barcelona appear to come from motor vehicles. The city’s solution is to repurpose the existing grid layout in favor of environmentally- and pedestrian-friendly city streets with the application of superblocks.

What is Architectural Design Excellence?

In achieving architectural design excellence there are infinite Everests which beckon us: which Everest should we climb?

“The secret of architectural excellence is to translate the proportions of a dachshund into bricks, mortar and marble.”
Sir Christopher Wren, 1632-1723

There are as many criteria for defining design excellence in architecture as there are architectural designs. And climbing to the summit of design excellence is analogous to that of climbing Mount Everest. Yet in architectural design there are infinite Everests which beckon: which Everest should we climb?

Building Design for Productivity

Effective and efficient use of space means creating the right environment for concentration, learning, communication, and collaboration—the building blocks of productivity for building occupants.

Organizations, business practices, educational settings and learning methodologies, and the workforce have changed dramatically in the past two decades. Technological advances, demographic shifts, and continual demands for innovation have created pressures for environments to catch up with the changing nature of organizations, work and workplace.