There was this kid in my last office that was the son of a contractor that built track homes, he has a ITT drafting degree and did several MacMasions on the side with some local contractors. There was very little innovation in the approach to the design, at the most he rearranged a previous plan by adding a larger garage or a game room here or there, or changed the plan to incorporate a “walkout†very little site consideration.
There are offices like that all over considered plan services, mainly used by residential contractor building track homes.
It would be nice if all construction work would required an architect, unfortunate some local jurisdictions don’t see it that way in my area you don’t need the services of an architect to put up a pre-engineer building, your building permit set comes ready for submission from the manufacture.
My partner and I just "fixed" a proposed house by a builder that didn't pass the local neighborhood association review - basically it was ugly. In fixing the facade we realized the plan was a mess so decided to tweak it too. Lots of 45 degree angles led to tons of leftover unusable square footage locked into funny corners - "SLOIP" my professors used to call it, for "space left over in plan". Problem is you have to build and insualte and clad all that SLOIP, so this design cost more to build that it should have for usable space. And the interior space layout was really not very functional to the trained eye.
Oh and then the same 45 degree canting didn't really happen on the upper level - the result being a corner of the master bedroom suite that hung unsupported right smack in the middle of the great room. Hmmm, that would have been tricky and not inexpensive to build if you didnt want to drop a column in the middle of the couch!
Basically it was a bad, sloppy, inefficient, and expensive design that would have resulted in an ugly house. This one, doctors, we were able to save. Most we aren't.
Ok, straight up. Right now, I'm working on "fixing" a house design that someone drew up with smoke and mirrors. It looks pretty, but doesn't work at all. The plan isn't the same drawing as the elevation, it is all pure bull. The spaces inside are downright ridiculous, uncomfortable adjacencies, living spaces with no windows, and the main facade feature is the... garage. It has a fake 2 story rotunda at the entrance. The pitched roof plan has a horizontal valley. There is a huge gable end with no windows, just a nice big blank wall.
As an architect I can think about everything all at once at create a unified complete vision. I don't just put a hipped/gable/mansard roof on a stock plan, add a bedroom, and slap the masses together to please however it may come out, drop it on any old site, meanwhile faking what it will actually look like to my client.
Hence my wealth of recent posts on archinect this afternoon, I'm bored out of my mind with this thing.
Go find a job in an architectural office as an office boy or girl. Show interest, get peoples jobs done on time and correct. Show up early, stay late. Sooner or latter someone in the office will notice you and give you other tasks which might involve working on a computer, take this seriously.....work work work and learn, look at all the magazines laying around the office, soak up everything in the library, and read the project specifications of manuals and see if you understand what they are talking about. Once again learn from everyone around, and never never show up late to work,cause mostl likely there will always be a partner in the office before the work day starts. Stick it out for a while and see how much you learn, then go to an accredited architectural school. Not everyone is a designer, infact most acclaimed designers are bad at what they do. I once heard the ratio is about 1 good designer ifor every 10 bad designers is the rule,even after completion an architectual education. I would tell you if your a designer, you will want to pursue an architectural education, if your not a designer most likely your better off heading into some other aspect of the construction world.
Feb 9, 06 8:30 pm ·
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Residential Designers
What do you guys think of the residential designers who decided to forgo college and strictly work on residential homes?
I know in some states you are not allowed too but in some states you are.
straight from high school to designer?
There was this kid in my last office that was the son of a contractor that built track homes, he has a ITT drafting degree and did several MacMasions on the side with some local contractors. There was very little innovation in the approach to the design, at the most he rearranged a previous plan by adding a larger garage or a game room here or there, or changed the plan to incorporate a “walkout†very little site consideration.
There are offices like that all over considered plan services, mainly used by residential contractor building track homes.
It would be nice if all construction work would required an architect, unfortunate some local jurisdictions don’t see it that way in my area you don’t need the services of an architect to put up a pre-engineer building, your building permit set comes ready for submission from the manufacture.
Some people can do it well, some can't.
My partner and I just "fixed" a proposed house by a builder that didn't pass the local neighborhood association review - basically it was ugly. In fixing the facade we realized the plan was a mess so decided to tweak it too. Lots of 45 degree angles led to tons of leftover unusable square footage locked into funny corners - "SLOIP" my professors used to call it, for "space left over in plan". Problem is you have to build and insualte and clad all that SLOIP, so this design cost more to build that it should have for usable space. And the interior space layout was really not very functional to the trained eye.
Oh and then the same 45 degree canting didn't really happen on the upper level - the result being a corner of the master bedroom suite that hung unsupported right smack in the middle of the great room. Hmmm, that would have been tricky and not inexpensive to build if you didnt want to drop a column in the middle of the couch!
Basically it was a bad, sloppy, inefficient, and expensive design that would have resulted in an ugly house. This one, doctors, we were able to save. Most we aren't.
Ok, straight up. Right now, I'm working on "fixing" a house design that someone drew up with smoke and mirrors. It looks pretty, but doesn't work at all. The plan isn't the same drawing as the elevation, it is all pure bull. The spaces inside are downright ridiculous, uncomfortable adjacencies, living spaces with no windows, and the main facade feature is the... garage. It has a fake 2 story rotunda at the entrance. The pitched roof plan has a horizontal valley. There is a huge gable end with no windows, just a nice big blank wall.
As an architect I can think about everything all at once at create a unified complete vision. I don't just put a hipped/gable/mansard roof on a stock plan, add a bedroom, and slap the masses together to please however it may come out, drop it on any old site, meanwhile faking what it will actually look like to my client.
Hence my wealth of recent posts on archinect this afternoon, I'm bored out of my mind with this thing.
straite from 10th grade to dezigner. hi skool is for losers.
lol, haha
Go find a job in an architectural office as an office boy or girl. Show interest, get peoples jobs done on time and correct. Show up early, stay late. Sooner or latter someone in the office will notice you and give you other tasks which might involve working on a computer, take this seriously.....work work work and learn, look at all the magazines laying around the office, soak up everything in the library, and read the project specifications of manuals and see if you understand what they are talking about. Once again learn from everyone around, and never never show up late to work,cause mostl likely there will always be a partner in the office before the work day starts. Stick it out for a while and see how much you learn, then go to an accredited architectural school. Not everyone is a designer, infact most acclaimed designers are bad at what they do. I once heard the ratio is about 1 good designer ifor every 10 bad designers is the rule,even after completion an architectual education. I would tell you if your a designer, you will want to pursue an architectural education, if your not a designer most likely your better off heading into some other aspect of the construction world.
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