So this is the new thread posing the question what makes the house posted in thread "Archinect design off" so bad? I am not an architect and judging the quality of buildings is something that I don't readily understand. Help me.
The placement of the windows in the wall depth suggests a very thin wall, but stucco traditionally suggests thick masonry walls - so that's an uncomfortable contradiction.
The tall skinny window doesn't align with anything - it just floats. And it leaves a tall blank wall next to the main entry that's not very friendly.
Double wide garage doors are just a crappy proportion in ANY situation. They never look good.
The brick is clearly applied to the front cosmetically, it's not an actually masonry base. The brick on one side only of the garage door looks unbalanced and chintzy.
The eave soffits look like they are just glopped over with stucco. There is no craftsmanship/construction revealed in the eaves.
That little recess above the front door is a great place for a pigeon to go to die. And rot away behind the stucco interior corner ebcause you have no way to access it!
Overall the proportions are bad, the materials cheap, the colors boring...
Is that helpful? Seriously: this is a good exercise to go through, whether you're only 4 years into school(is that what your name means?) or 25 years out of school. It's good to exercise those critical muscles.
4 years,
i suppose no one can really tell you why this is a bad house in quantitative terms. i'm sure its perfectly fine and comfortable to live in.
however, when you have studied architectural design it becomes obvious that houses like these are completely unconcerned with good, sophisticated, thoughtful design. when you learn how to appreciate good architecture, this type of home becomes grotesque. what do you do for a living?
lb, you hit it on the nose. The thing i looked at first is how the brick and the living room roof create a little stucco triangle. One of those "Oh well!" moments.
libertybell and Strawbeary hit the major points very well. I'm also bothered by the fact that there is such a large expanse of glass at the living room, so close to and directly visible from the street, and the fact that it has those terrible vertical blinds. It is a big security risk, and the vertical blinds when open create a vaguely jail-cell-like impression. And the brick is bad in every possible way- not only those points liberty and strawbeary mentioned, but it just does not go with the rest of the color palette.
This house appears to be in a california subdivision (not florida), so the climate is arid 8 months of the year.
the vast blanket of turf grass requires significant watering year round to keep it green, along with regular applications of pesticides and fertilizers, and frequent mowing (gas 2-cycle engines will produce 10X the pollution as a car).
there is simple foundation planting of ? in front of the picture window that adds nothing to yard.
The scrawny palm tree is rather pathetic (and may be a fake) and providing no shade. on the opposite side of the driveway is a single shrub- why? There is no mulching around either plant- so they are competing with the grass for water (and may get run over by the mower)
hidden next to the front door is a potted ficus - again, why? not a nice specimen or an attractive pot (probably fiberglass or plastic).
None of the plants appear to be natives to CA.
The concrete driveway covers a vast portion of the yard and causes significant stormwater runoff (along with the lawn). Luckily, the civil engineer has placed an catchbasin centered on the driveway. This is the worst placement possible for the stormdrain, should be moved away from the driveway, so it doesn't get driven over everyday. Much better practice is to create a raingarden or swale to detain the water, allow some to infiltrate the soil, and to reduce the pollution loading while preventing flooding elsewhere.
The fences are fine 6' tall privacy monsters.
this is a 'hood where you don't know your neighbors or even want to talk to them.
well i guess i was wrong, people have done a nice job of explaining many of this house's flaws. but its just plain fugly on the most basic levels in terms of massing and complete lack of creativity, in my opinion. i can even get behind cheap windows (eames house), fake brick and stucco (disneylands main street, come on, it's very pleasant),
but this doesn't even try to do anything interesting and i guess that's my biggest concern.
You architects with your overthought and wordy responses... Have you learned nothing from Mies?!? Less is more. Why waste time and resources with a rambling discourse on the (obvious) flaws, when a simple "it's garbage" would suffice?
can't find any logic regarding where brick hits the ground and where stucco hits the ground. if you're gonna bookend the front room, why not bookend the garage too?
the tile hip roof suggests an attempt at something vaguely mediterranean. the brick has a different association altogether. so a mixing of stylistic tendencies = identity crisis.
while its' not ALWAYS true, i've found that a general rule works a lot of the time: where the area of openings (windows, doors, etc.) is approximately the same as the area of wall - you got a 50:50 relationship - the building generally looks pretty wishy-washy/blah. (this isn't always true: sometimes a very intentional COMPOSITION of 50:50 can be striking.)
it also looks like a structural nightmare over the garage since the second floor is "floating". also the eaves on the lower roofs do no line up. what is going on with the one gable roof since the rest of the house is hipped. wow, i look at that house and can only imagine the amount of waste that was produced in the building in it. the TV ant. on the roof is a nice detail - i guess the 3 sat. dishes are on the other side.
do ya really need a fire place in orange county??? Why dont they just put the fireplace outside...i mean its close enough to the largest opening in the house. they could of at least made it center. and if its a gas fireplace did they need to build a FAKE log box?
you need a fireplace because otherwise theres no place to hang the stockings. what would santa do? come in the sliding glass door? and if the climate doesnt really require a fireplace for heat, than who cares where it is in the room?
owner, who was a trained decorator has also taken some landscaping lessons. but the neighbor insisted on iron fence for homeland security reasons.
back to interior;
is everbody comfortable with fireplace/TV combo?
Those two pics are of the same building.
So the architect got ispiration from Adolf Loos for 1 side and from Richard Meier for the other side.
How clever is that?
Actually I just drove by that house. It is a very ugly house indeed. I kinda happened upon it by accident on the way to one of my clients for a meeting. I was about 30 minutes early so took a right instood of a left to see what was down the road and low and behold the ugglies 5 million dollar house I have ever seen. Actually I don't know if it is on the market for that much, just assuming it is from what matteo is saying. Who was the Architect? I believe the house is known as, "The House of Porn"
"Designed in the classic International Style, this outstanding residence by architect Anthony Ames was distinguished with the 1989 Design Award of the American Institute of Architects."
anthony ames was fairly well-known in the 80s. (a google search indicated that michael hays worked ("consulted" > freelance?) for/with him at one point back then.)
in addition to corb/meier-ish architecture, his drawings had the corb/purism thing going on.
ames has taught all over the country, mostly southeast (va, ga, tx, etc), but some others. was still well enough known in the 90s to be included in coco brown's 'houses at sagaponac development' in ny. his project was one of the better ones, imo.
still practicing in the same white modern vein in atlanta these days and doing some nice work. we're just looking at that '88 house through '06 eyes. in the 80s, that was pretty slick.
Actually Steven, I don't think people in these parts thought it to be so slick. This area has many outstanding works of modern architecture dashed about the country side which were done by the early modernist and some of the more respected architects of today, however as I said
this house is really a Porno House and doesn't merit the time of day.
Most likely the next owner will fall in love with the site, tear the house down and start a new with project more in keeping with the area.
That house is in NZ. Specifically South East Auckland, in an area known as Dannemora. Liberty Bell got it correct in my opinion. In NZ, the typical mode of construction is timber framing, where the thickness of the wall is typically:
10mm gib interior lining
90mm timber framing
Building Paper
Cladding - Choose weatherboards or plaster
Choose colour
The base is of brick cavity construction - essentially the same as above but with a cavity and then bricks tied back into the wall. It is cheap and non-structural.
So the glazing is sitting in about 130-140mm of wall.
A house like this[4 bedrooms, 400-500m2 site] in this area will go for between NZ$450-650,000.
Here's the standard 3 bed/2 bath starter home in MN. All this for only $260k and it's only 45 miles from Minneapolis!
She's even got an empty basement that just needs a little help from Home Depot and you've got a Home Theater room that's all the rage these days.
Your crit...
Does the siding J-Channel HANG OVER the glue-on masonry below?That's some shadow. Is it just the photo or is the siding bending and cupping?
Where does the west facing bay window look? At the roof of the entry? Was this photo taken at noon, sheesh at least I think that's west...
What is in all that mass of roof above the garage? Blank empty attic truss space hogging all that southern exposure? (still assuming this is the southfacing elevation)
Love how the big garage roof dumps right at the drive aisle of the little garage opening.
Did the site ask for a split level, or did they just push dirt around to make one?
Very nice comments Strawbeary. I hadn't noticed the view out the west-facing bay window, as I was so worried about the window below the bay being squashed down by the mass of vinyl siding above it/below the bay window. Those windows don't even line up vertically, sigh.
Also: Smaller front garage roof comes down on two 24" wide support columns; bigger rear garage roof comes down on 12" wide side column.
On the other hand, the complex roofs all come togeher in the middle to feature the toilet vent pipe quite nicely, don't you think?
I was looking for the organization of those windows too. But forgot about it as I was more upset that those are the only windows on this face of the house.
I can't really see the light fixtures, but I'm thinking they are some of those $35 glass and brass specials.
I do like the basement though. High ceiling, lots of windows. But wonder what the finished square footage is for the main level then, selling for 260k?
Awful House?
So this is the new thread posing the question what makes the house posted in thread "Archinect design off" so bad? I am not an architect and judging the quality of buildings is something that I don't readily understand. Help me.
see the dimpled rind..
it is the dimpled hinds that really bother me.
I don't know. I think it's Fab-U-lous.
Is that one of those $1.5 mil LA houses?
Well a few comments:
The placement of the windows in the wall depth suggests a very thin wall, but stucco traditionally suggests thick masonry walls - so that's an uncomfortable contradiction.
The tall skinny window doesn't align with anything - it just floats. And it leaves a tall blank wall next to the main entry that's not very friendly.
Double wide garage doors are just a crappy proportion in ANY situation. They never look good.
The brick is clearly applied to the front cosmetically, it's not an actually masonry base. The brick on one side only of the garage door looks unbalanced and chintzy.
The eave soffits look like they are just glopped over with stucco. There is no craftsmanship/construction revealed in the eaves.
That little recess above the front door is a great place for a pigeon to go to die. And rot away behind the stucco interior corner ebcause you have no way to access it!
Overall the proportions are bad, the materials cheap, the colors boring...
Is that helpful? Seriously: this is a good exercise to go through, whether you're only 4 years into school(is that what your name means?) or 25 years out of school. It's good to exercise those critical muscles.
4 years,
i suppose no one can really tell you why this is a bad house in quantitative terms. i'm sure its perfectly fine and comfortable to live in.
however, when you have studied architectural design it becomes obvious that houses like these are completely unconcerned with good, sophisticated, thoughtful design. when you learn how to appreciate good architecture, this type of home becomes grotesque. what do you do for a living?
so those windows hinge out from the top?
lb, you hit it on the nose. The thing i looked at first is how the brick and the living room roof create a little stucco triangle. One of those "Oh well!" moments.
libertybell and Strawbeary hit the major points very well. I'm also bothered by the fact that there is such a large expanse of glass at the living room, so close to and directly visible from the street, and the fact that it has those terrible vertical blinds. It is a big security risk, and the vertical blinds when open create a vaguely jail-cell-like impression. And the brick is bad in every possible way- not only those points liberty and strawbeary mentioned, but it just does not go with the rest of the color palette.
from a landscape perspective-
This house appears to be in a california subdivision (not florida), so the climate is arid 8 months of the year.
the vast blanket of turf grass requires significant watering year round to keep it green, along with regular applications of pesticides and fertilizers, and frequent mowing (gas 2-cycle engines will produce 10X the pollution as a car).
there is simple foundation planting of ? in front of the picture window that adds nothing to yard.
The scrawny palm tree is rather pathetic (and may be a fake) and providing no shade. on the opposite side of the driveway is a single shrub- why? There is no mulching around either plant- so they are competing with the grass for water (and may get run over by the mower)
hidden next to the front door is a potted ficus - again, why? not a nice specimen or an attractive pot (probably fiberglass or plastic).
None of the plants appear to be natives to CA.
The concrete driveway covers a vast portion of the yard and causes significant stormwater runoff (along with the lawn). Luckily, the civil engineer has placed an catchbasin centered on the driveway. This is the worst placement possible for the stormdrain, should be moved away from the driveway, so it doesn't get driven over everyday. Much better practice is to create a raingarden or swale to detain the water, allow some to infiltrate the soil, and to reduce the pollution loading while preventing flooding elsewhere.
The fences are fine 6' tall privacy monsters.
this is a 'hood where you don't know your neighbors or even want to talk to them.
for clarification, diabase posted this picture first, and I think it is from New Zealand.
well i guess i was wrong, people have done a nice job of explaining many of this house's flaws. but its just plain fugly on the most basic levels in terms of massing and complete lack of creativity, in my opinion. i can even get behind cheap windows (eames house), fake brick and stucco (disneylands main street, come on, it's very pleasant),
but this doesn't even try to do anything interesting and i guess that's my biggest concern.
Liberty, You Go Valley Girl! I think you must have seen at least a million of these in Phoenix growning up.
You architects with your overthought and wordy responses... Have you learned nothing from Mies?!? Less is more. Why waste time and resources with a rambling discourse on the (obvious) flaws, when a simple "it's garbage" would suffice?
because a non-architect needed more than "it's garbage" I thought LB did a perfect job! Let's give her another to diss on!
can't find any logic regarding where brick hits the ground and where stucco hits the ground. if you're gonna bookend the front room, why not bookend the garage too?
the tile hip roof suggests an attempt at something vaguely mediterranean. the brick has a different association altogether. so a mixing of stylistic tendencies = identity crisis.
while its' not ALWAYS true, i've found that a general rule works a lot of the time: where the area of openings (windows, doors, etc.) is approximately the same as the area of wall - you got a 50:50 relationship - the building generally looks pretty wishy-washy/blah. (this isn't always true: sometimes a very intentional COMPOSITION of 50:50 can be striking.)
I've never read such a detailed explanation on an ugly house and an ugly landscape.
Thanks liberty bell and treekiller.
i think the house looks great. when i look at it all i see are dollar signs.
it also looks like a structural nightmare over the garage since the second floor is "floating". also the eaves on the lower roofs do no line up. what is going on with the one gable roof since the rest of the house is hipped. wow, i look at that house and can only imagine the amount of waste that was produced in the building in it. the TV ant. on the roof is a nice detail - i guess the 3 sat. dishes are on the other side.
interior of a 709K house in orange county. analyze this...
not so bad if you get rid of the curtains
it's probably by the beach...
I rather like the futzy neo victoriana curtains- they probably have a flower pattern!
the ceiling fan though, gotta go!
do ya really need a fire place in orange county??? Why dont they just put the fireplace outside...i mean its close enough to the largest opening in the house. they could of at least made it center. and if its a gas fireplace did they need to build a FAKE log box?
you need a fireplace because otherwise theres no place to hang the stockings. what would santa do? come in the sliding glass door? and if the climate doesnt really require a fireplace for heat, than who cares where it is in the room?
owner, who was a trained decorator has also taken some landscaping lessons. but the neighbor insisted on iron fence for homeland security reasons.
back to interior;
is everbody comfortable with fireplace/TV combo?
surroundings = B+
hey, is that swing one of those wind-up gigs that you stick the baby in?
the white picket fence is to provide the neighborhood taggers a nice clean surface to practice their art on...
malibu contemporary
A very bad Meier replica.
The bottom image is an famous Loos building from 1923 in austria- even then, they wanted 3 car garages!
looks like a first year project
Those two pics are of the same building.
So the architect got ispiration from Adolf Loos for 1 side and from Richard Meier for the other side.
How clever is that?
Plus, it's currently on sale, it's located in CT and you can have it for 5 milions dollar.
Actually I just drove by that house. It is a very ugly house indeed. I kinda happened upon it by accident on the way to one of my clients for a meeting. I was about 30 minutes early so took a right instood of a left to see what was down the road and low and behold the ugglies 5 million dollar house I have ever seen. Actually I don't know if it is on the market for that much, just assuming it is from what matteo is saying. Who was the Architect? I believe the house is known as, "The House of Porn"
"Designed in the classic International Style, this outstanding residence by architect Anthony Ames was distinguished with the 1989 Design Award of the American Institute of Architects."
anthony ames was fairly well-known in the 80s. (a google search indicated that michael hays worked ("consulted" > freelance?) for/with him at one point back then.)
in addition to corb/meier-ish architecture, his drawings had the corb/purism thing going on.
ames has taught all over the country, mostly southeast (va, ga, tx, etc), but some others. was still well enough known in the 90s to be included in coco brown's 'houses at sagaponac development' in ny. his project was one of the better ones, imo.
still practicing in the same white modern vein in atlanta these days and doing some nice work. we're just looking at that '88 house through '06 eyes. in the 80s, that was pretty slick.
Actually Steven, I don't think people in these parts thought it to be so slick. This area has many outstanding works of modern architecture dashed about the country side which were done by the early modernist and some of the more respected architects of today, however as I said
this house is really a Porno House and doesn't merit the time of day.
Most likely the next owner will fall in love with the site, tear the house down and start a new with project more in keeping with the area.
That house is in NZ. Specifically South East Auckland, in an area known as Dannemora. Liberty Bell got it correct in my opinion. In NZ, the typical mode of construction is timber framing, where the thickness of the wall is typically:
10mm gib interior lining
90mm timber framing
Building Paper
Cladding - Choose weatherboards or plaster
Choose colour
The base is of brick cavity construction - essentially the same as above but with a cavity and then bricks tied back into the wall. It is cheap and non-structural.
So the glazing is sitting in about 130-140mm of wall.
A house like this[4 bedrooms, 400-500m2 site] in this area will go for between NZ$450-650,000.
turkish developments exist.
more info.
Try again.
http://www.texastwisted.com/attr/munstermansion/
Your modified states of being don't cut the Munstered.
Here's the standard 3 bed/2 bath starter home in MN. All this for only $260k and it's only 45 miles from Minneapolis!
She's even got an empty basement that just needs a little help from Home Depot and you've got a Home Theater room that's all the rage these days.
Your crit...
garage with attached house
It could use a few more roof lines. 7 is never enough.
ugh - i expect that if the right garage door were opened, i'd see the right-half of the left garage door behind it.
Ooooh Ooooh I'll do this one.
Does the siding J-Channel HANG OVER the glue-on masonry below?That's some shadow. Is it just the photo or is the siding bending and cupping?
Where does the west facing bay window look? At the roof of the entry? Was this photo taken at noon, sheesh at least I think that's west...
What is in all that mass of roof above the garage? Blank empty attic truss space hogging all that southern exposure? (still assuming this is the southfacing elevation)
Love how the big garage roof dumps right at the drive aisle of the little garage opening.
Did the site ask for a split level, or did they just push dirt around to make one?
Very nice comments Strawbeary. I hadn't noticed the view out the west-facing bay window, as I was so worried about the window below the bay being squashed down by the mass of vinyl siding above it/below the bay window. Those windows don't even line up vertically, sigh.
Also: Smaller front garage roof comes down on two 24" wide support columns; bigger rear garage roof comes down on 12" wide side column.
On the other hand, the complex roofs all come togeher in the middle to feature the toilet vent pipe quite nicely, don't you think?
you could fit 3 hummers in that joint....
I was looking for the organization of those windows too. But forgot about it as I was more upset that those are the only windows on this face of the house.
I can't really see the light fixtures, but I'm thinking they are some of those $35 glass and brass specials.
fenestration?
I do like the basement though. High ceiling, lots of windows. But wonder what the finished square footage is for the main level then, selling for 260k?
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