If houses could speak, what would yours say?

A house like this with many plants speaks nature and warmth while a wall with colourful decorative stones says a lot about your style.   

By Joe Nuwamanya
Posted  Thursday, April 28 2011 at 00:00

 

Objects through their shapes, colours, texture etc send messages to us. So a house can also send a message. Just imagine if houses could speak. What would yours say or communicate?

If it is true that the beautiful houses and furnishings evoke aspects of happiness, we might nevertheless ask why we find such evocation necessary. Why does it matter what the environment has to say to us? Why should architects endeavour to design homes that communicate specific sentiments? Why are we negatively affected by places which reverberate what we take to be the wrong allusions? Why are we venerable to what the spaces we inhabit are saying? When you ask yourself such questions you are relying on associative powers that designers will understand what you are looking for.

As a designer, I can line corridors with unpainted wooden planks and dependably allude to rustic and unpretentious or install white railing around balconies and know that the house will be speaking of water front villa or of an ocean liner and the nautical life.




Despite the expressive potential of objects and buildings, discussion of what they express still remains rare. We tend to be more comfortable contemplating historical sources and stylistic tropes than we do delving on bringing strong images, memories, or feelings to mind.

The homes/houses that we admire and that speak to us are ultimately those which in a variety of ways extol values we think worthwhile – which through their materials shapes or colours refer to such legendary positive qualities as friendliness, kindness subtlety, strength and intelligence. We seek associations of peace in our bedrooms, metaphors of generosity and harmony in our chairs and an air of honesty and forthrightness in the design of the kitchen sink and tap.

Houses should be about how much room is given for the imagination, the unique dwellings normally reflect the characters of the owners and how much time has gone into the planning and design process. Each home’s unique appeal—exquisite wall treatments, spectacular floors, rich fabrics, luxurious materials, fabulous furniture and innovative design ideas speak volumes of the owner.

A house that speaks will require a synthesis of personal vision. It also needs, desires and definitely faces constraints from what the site or location have to offer. Once these parameters have been integrated, balanced and compromised, then you have a place to truly call home. But the big idea - aesthetic or emotional comes to pass when the house is done.





When considering your own vision for your house, imagine all the different things you think make up a home. Is home a quiet retreat for relaxation and contemplation? Is it a place for entertaining friends and guests? Is it for raising a large family through all the cycles of family growth? Do you think a home has to last two or three years while your family is young? What are the things that you think of fondly and would like to implement? What do you value in terms of space and arrangement?

Consider the elements of style you’d like to emulate. Is your preferred style craftsman, contemporary, italianate modern bali or do you just want to let your imagination run wild or that of your designer? Do environmental conditions dictate some of the style? Just make sure you know what you want not what you don’t want (many times clients only know what they don’t want versus what they are looking for). Once you’ve considered these things you will probably have a list. The list may be good enough but you might consider distilling that list into a sentence or two. This will be the place to start from and will be a tool to use to evaluate your success as the design process unfolds. Periodically through the process, ask yourself if the design still reflects your vision.

If the design isn’t accomplishing your, vision, it’s time to stop and realign the design. Only then will your building speak for its self when complete. To fully call a work of architecture or designer beautiful is to recognise it as a rendition of values critical to our flourishing, a conversion of one substance into another of our individual ideals in a material medium.

josephnuwamanya@gmail.com