Extended Tailgate: John Connell, architect
You’ve said the best houses are more than market commodities. Would you elaborate on this idea?
A place, a personality, an energy…….a story!
How do personal passions breathe life into design?
Memorable buildings result from memorable people (good architecture requires good clients!)
Too often the inspiration for a new home is derailed by excessive focus on the “good investment” criteria. Although important, overstating this consideration is like choosing all your food based on the lowest cost per calorie. You will end up with a junk-food diet!
Just as good civic and commercial architecture reflects our culture and politics, good residential architecture reflects how we choose to live. As social animals, we want to live in community with others but still maintain our individuality. The exteriors of homes express how we see ourselves in the context of our communities while the interiors are more a reflection of individual lifestyles and values.
But sometimes, when a house successfully spans several generations and numerous renovations, it becomes capable of telling a story. This story is writ in the style, craft, and siting of the structure, but also by the selection of materials and methods that allows the house to persist through the years. The more compelling the story, the more likely that house will be valued, updated and preserved.
In this way, houses are like people. The distinctive ones are venerated and tend to inspire subsequent generations.
You founded Yestermorrow Design/Build School. It seems Design/Build firms are becoming more common. What are your observations?
Buildings are much more complex today. Full integration is required to keep track of all the possibilities but also all the pitfalls.
Makers’ movement….
You’ve championed the collaborative process. Does Design/Build leave less to be lost in translation when trying to identify and bring life to a homeowner’s vision of home?
Yes and additionally, it allows mid-course corrections without losing site of the homeowner’s personal goals and values.
Are there specific strategies that can be employed to foster a sense of shared inspiration between homeowners, builders, designers, and architects?
Very few universal strategies because everyone is different. Still, that said:
Build the team early.
Get the client to express themselves in terms other than design. How do they like to dress? What are their favorite movies, artists, musicians, sports? What makes a great restaurant? THEN, open the conversation about creating their home.
Making buildings today has become much more complicated. Environmental, energy, health and carbon concerns alone have made the technical aspects of creating a sustainable building incredibly challenging. Add in the regulatory lift plus the personal features of the homeowners’ dreams and the odds of success become slender indeed.
BUT, if a well-coordinated team of designers and builders; engineers and naturalists, artists and business professionals were to be assembled at the very beginning of the project, the odds of success can be maximized. But this is just a start.
Most important is a broadly understood vision that will keep the team on course when the inevitable problems arise. Unexpected technical, budgetary or regulatory challenges can be successfully navigated if everyone on the team shares the same vision. This is one of the greatest assets of the design/build approach.
Would you say homebuilding by its very nature is personal and must be seen as such to inspire the best work?
Yes, it should be just like our clothes and our food.
Evolutionarily, humans are a “one trick pony”. We are a species entirely dependent on our ability to make things. Indeed, our extraordinary ability to make whatever we need has earned us the dubious distinction of being the ultimate predator….we survive in any ecosystem and often at the expense of other species that can’t relocate.
So before we consider the making of houses as personal, we should first recognize that it is quintessential to our very existence – as flying is to birds, swimming to fish or radar is to bats! I’ve always believed this gives each of us a natural right to design and build our own homes. Rather than buying a cookie-cutter home or having a general contractor build from stock plans, it’s best to collect a team of sympathetic professionals that can collaborate around your personal vision for how you want to live.
What values do you champion in design today?
Embracing the difficult. Preserving the story.
Ultimately, residential design needs to reflect both the individual and collective stories of our culture and our time. In fact, this is almost inevitable. But can we make beauty and sustainability a bigger part of that story??
Embracing the higher design road will always invite derision by those following the easier, less enlightened path. But in time, the striking architecture born from pursuing artful sustainability will define the new norm. The first generation of solar homes were awkward and ungainly but the underlying vision was compelling. Most if those clumsy prototypes are gone today, replaced by more elegant designs that incorporate what was pioneered back in the sixties. Today I see a lot of really unattractive PassivHaus projects featured in the architectural press. This first iteration of net zero designs will surely be followed by a mind-blowing second generation of elegant and artful solutions.
Every beautiful design today builds on the courageous innovations of past design/builders.
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View Comments
This is so true! My home needs to reflect my personality! Great read!
"Are there specific strategies that can be employed to foster a sense of shared inspiration between homeowners, builders, designers, and architects?
Very few universal strategies because everyone is different. Still, that said:
Build the team early."
I think this is true for all spheres of life.