Basic or unique: What will your house style imitate?

Being courageous enough to experiment with different building material like that above will get you a unique beautiful house. And as you imitate house styles like the ones below always go for a design that suits your life style and keep in mind that your end result may not be as good.  

By Joe Nuwamanya
Posted  Thursday, April 21 2011 at 00:00

So what style will you build? What does a beautiful home / house look like? To be modern is to experience this as an awkward and possibly unanswerable question since the very notion of beauty has come to seem like a concept doomed to ignite unfruitful argument.

How can anyone adjudicate between the competing claims of different styles or defend a particular choice in the face of contradictory tastes of others? The creation of beauty once viewed as a central task of the architect has quietly evaporated from serious professional discussion and retreated to a private imperative.

There are several combinations of house plans and styles in magazines, books and on the internet but the designs’ may turn out to be disappointing. You will find that most of the plans are far too large and don’t fit the plot intended. And many that come close to what you are looking for will require some major compromise. Some plan books make you think the only designs with three or four bedrooms must be at least 3,000 square feet.

There are, however, a few up-to-date publications of plans that have very good designs appropriate for today’s smaller plots and more affordable housing needs.

Studying such plans may be a good start for conceiving your future home and getting yourself accustomed to reading floor plans. Collect them as examples of plans that illustrate solutions appropriate to your lifestyle. Beware of the danger of closing your mind to solutions you don’t see in these plans. Instead, let these clippings be supplements for discussing your needs with an architect, if you choose to have some professional help to juggle the interlocking demands of site, budget, energy, space planning and style you will need a professional.

Ask yourself these questions while reviewing a plan: Where will I enter the house from when arriving by car or on foot? Is that entry point pleasant or awkward and tight depending on the plot? Will I have a pleasant view of the house when arriving? Will my guests find the front door or main entrance convenient enough to use, or do the plans unwittingly encourage everyone to pass through the garage if there is one or through the kitchen door? Are the windows of the house appropriate to views and good lighting? Check every room. Is there a principal room that is so “interior” that it will be uncomfortably dark? Does the kitchen relate as desired living area or dining room? If outdoor eating is desired, how do I get to it from the kitchen?

There is need to examine the principal traffic flow from entrance to kitchen to living space or bedrooms. Is any room cut up by such a flow making furniture placement difficult? These and many questions are what you should be asking yourself but it will zero down to your life style needs and demands.

To turn something useful, practical and functional into an architectural beauty is what you should be aiming at. Many times a house or a home is said to be beautiful if it’s unique, bold and stands out from what already exists and what people are accustomed to. Being courageous enough to experiment with different building material other than the ones we are accustomed to, not sticking to a particular architectural style but being outright different is what will bring out beauty in design.

So the question still remains what style shall we build? We have become content with basic functions of the house to provide shelter, keep us warm and prevent thieves from getting in but we need to look beyond the basics and let your house “speak” and that doesn’t mean big and expensive to construct. It just means being different and standing out.

josephnuwamanya@gmail.com