Hello Everyone,
I hope you all made it home safely. My luggage didn't make it until just a few hours ago. I thought the airport security was going to taze me, because they did not check my luggage all the way through to Salt Lake City, so I had to get off in San Fransisco and run and grab my bags and recheck them and go through security again. To make things worse I had lost my drivers license on the way out to Boston, however, I have a British license that they accepted. Any way it is great to be home. People at work asked how it was and my words could not explain the intensity and learning leap that took place. I wonder what all of you are doing, and I laugh when I think about our great group of people, and can't help but think that it was not a coincidence that all of us came into this program at the same time. (too deep)
Anyway.
Here goes. This paper, I hope, is just what you asked for, a rough draft! My topic of research is in the form of a question, a question in which Herb brought to my attention. My question is: Do people (particularly in Salt Lake City) look at housing as a consumer product vs. a place where dwelling occurs (which is unique to each person and family)? In Salt Lake City, UT as in many other states across the country, repetition has been occurring in urban sprawl. The repetition takes place in the form and function of houses, Houses in which we see a mass production of, as if humans were all the same. I am curious to know if the repetition is just a consequence of what happened after World War 2 and the baby boomer generation. Are the homes just a reflection of local political paramount by mandatory conformity to zoning and building codes? Are homes owners just buying a floor plan to use because it relieves them from making any possible future difficult questions?
I would also like to explore an idea that I thought could be plausible, that the general public who already owns homes or are about to, may not be educated about their options as far as designing a home goes. Do they know that there are Architects who came meet their needs? Or maybe they do know that they could have an architect design their home but feel that it may be to expensive? Is there a marketing Issue, in which architects do not advertise for some reason? All of these questions are driving me into this topic, it is something I find very interesting and would love find out. Perhaps there is a way to get architects more involved in residential projects, which in my opinion is the most important of all, where families spend time together.
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4 comments:
Hahah!! You thought you were going to be tazed!! Curtis, you crack me up! Glad to hear you made it home (eventually) despite the id issue!!
I LOVE your topic. I think its fascinating and something we deal with out here too.
Perhaps you really hit on something with the marketing. Who made that billboard sign that said "you probably can't afford us but call anyway" or something to that affect? Thats certainly the general consensus out here. I don't think people even consider using an architect as an option. Most homebuyers shop the production builders' model home sites and choose something that looks just like their neighbors but has the granite countertop upgrade and the bay window projection. I've come to the conclusion that people here just don't care about design. They want square footage and thats it. But maybe I am not giving them enough credit, afterall, HGTV isn't wildly popular because people don't care what their houses look like.
There's also the problem of architect-builder relationships. A lot of architects have no idea how much things cost. No idea! Then they design a home that doesn't even make sense and the homeowner can't afford to build it. Which is why design-build appeals to me so much. Especially because the firm that I work for now has really turned away from single-family design. The super wealthy are too annoying to work with and the middle-class homes don't create enough revenue for the time they take. Its really only a recent phenomenon that the architect and the builder are two different people. Historically its been the same person and I think that creates more ownership for the architect as well as a more informed building. Plus, building is where the money is. My side work consists of design and construction. I do the design because its fun but the construction is where I make money. Perhaps thats a good solution for creative and lucrative residential design.
Brother Bingham -
Again, welcome officially to the over the hill club now that you are in your 30's. Glad you didn't get stuck in Boston, my friend. So my next question is, you aren't driving without a license, now are you???
A couple things to consider:
The way you have posed the question to your paper "Do people look at housing as a consumer product vs. a place where dwelling occurs" I think can be answered in less than 2 sentences, with a big fat "YES". I'm not sure you are asking the right question - maybe a simple change ofrom "Do people look..." to "Why do people look..." would solve it.
A few other things to consider - pattern books for houses have been around well before WWII so repetition is nothing new - even remember back to our exercise on Comm Ave...the row houses, for the most part we effectively the same pattern with some variations. Is there something about the post WWII era homes that sets these apart? Is it mass production that makes a poorer product?
Secondly, I don't know if we talked about it on Friday when we were doing this exercise, but I think it would be a fascinating study to somehow do a cost analysis of an architect designed home vs. Joe the Builder designed home. What I mean: In these catalog plans often times you pick not the best house for your needs, but the plan that gets as close to your needs as the catalog allows. Resultantly there may be spaces underutilized, rooms sized too big for how YOU live, adjacencies that could be more effective based on your lifestyle, etc. I wonder if there is anyway to research or somehow analyze that while an architect designed house may be more expensive on the front end to cover the architect's fees, that the construction side will actually be lowered as a result of smaller footprint or more efficient layout.
Good luck on your search - those of us who are deep down residential designers and could care less to do another commercial project (i.e. me) are cheering for you.
I think that architects are kind of caught in a definitional bind here. On the one hand, people think architects know how to put buildings together -- but contractors do, too, at least at residential scale. On the other hand, people think architects just like to design crazy shapes and expensive details. On the third hand (?), nobody's really aware of the differences that designers can make in everyday experience. So I think there's a real market in "lifestyle consulting" of some kind that has everything to do with architecture, but has to be framed in terms of simple emotional outcomes -- happiness, family harmony, entertaining, privacy, pride, and so on.
If we can sell pickup trucks based on a fun drive up the side of the cliff, and sell beer based on being attractive to girls, we ought to be able to sell architecture on the (more achievable) outcomes that thoughtful homes can enhance.
ooooh! I like the idea of redefining how we sell homes. As for how d-b works, check out my website: http://www.northavenuetrades.com/design.html and then there are tabs on the side. I've kinda defined the process there.
This might also help: http://www.dbia.org/
Its pretty simple though, one company takes the homebuyer/renovator from design all the way through construction. Its a huge selling point for me as a designer b/c most people are terrified of builders and want someone they can trust. somehow they see an architect as more trustworthy. but they are also relieved to remove another step in the process.
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