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Affordable architectural designs

(33 posts) (11 voices)

Started 7 years ago by bluemarg
Latest reply from angela

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bluemarg
Member

Hi All,

Firstly let me introduce myself. I am an architect and have been running my own traditional practice for some time now, specialising in energy efficient contemporary residential architecture.

I am currently working on creating a new type of service for self-build clients that would not usually employ an architect, for financial or other reasons, but non-the-less have an interest in creating a unique and custom designed home.

Right now I am doing some research to find ways to add more value to the service and I would love to hear from people who have worked with an architect in the past or self-built without one. I promise I wont try and sell you anything (!), I just really want to find out what you think!

Posted Friday 20 Feb 2015 @ 2:53:08 am from IP #
munter
Member

I have worked with an architect on a renovation project. In my case the architect was fantastic and it was the builder that had all the issues!

What is your value add idea?

Posted Friday 20 Feb 2015 @ 2:57:36 am from IP #
bluemarg
Member

Hi munter, thanks for your response.

I am personally concerned that a large proportion of Australia's housing is built without the input of an architect at the detriment of qualify and living standards.

I am considering producing a set of pre-designed house designs that people can then customise to suit their specific brief and site/orientation. This would make the process much more affordable and allow people to build an efficient, well planned, site specific and energy efficient home rather than relying on a builder/draftman or stock plan.

I suppose at this stage I am just trying to find out what specific issues people might have against employing an architect in the traditional sense, or what problems they encounter during the design process that I might be able to help with.

does this sound like the sort of thing you would be interested in if you were to go through the process again?

Posted Friday 20 Feb 2015 @ 4:54:03 am from IP #
Annette
Member

I guess the question is : how would people customise designs to their own specs without using a designer to do so?

In my experience, designers will not reuse material from other designers - even if not copyright.

However, it would be good to have a suite of house designs grouped into categories according to the site orientation, as well as the usual block size etc.

It would be great to have an interactive website approach where you can enter the details of the block, then 'lay' the house design over. The program could give feed back on suitability of the design for the block.

For example, that the boundary trees will block access fo solar panels. Or that a reverse brick veneer wall on a particular wall will not be reached by the sun's rays so not as effective etc.

Posted Friday 20 Feb 2015 @ 7:49:52 pm from IP #
bluemarg
Member

Hi Annette,

I hadn't actually envisaged it being fully automated. I would still be involved in the customisation of the plans. I was thinking a set price for the service which includes the customisation, but because the concept as majority of the house has already designed then that would take some of the perceived 'risk' out of engaging an architect (you know more or less what you are gonna get), and reduces the amount of work for the designer (not starting from scratch every time) so I an offer it at a much more affordable price.

The analogy I have in mind is like buying clothing. You can buy clothes off the peg but they never quite fit right, or you can have them tailor made and they are perfect but cost the earth. Alternatively you can buy clothes off the peg and have them altered to fit you better or customised to suit your tastes.

Does this make sense? Do you feel there would be a market for something like this?
I really value your opinion on this and thanks again

Posted Friday 20 Feb 2015 @ 10:13:04 pm from IP #
arttt
Member

I like the idea. I think a lot of people are put off the idea of using an architect the relationship is often more like commissioning an artwork (not many people do that) but there is a whole lot more at stake then the aesthetics. The big advantage of your idea is it takes the pressure off the clients around providing a brief and the architect meeting it as much of its bedded down already.

There are a couple of architects that i know of that offer a standard set of designs as a lower cost starting point. Im not sure either cater for self builders particularly as they run the construction side of things as well.
http://strineenvironments.com.au
http://www.jigsawhousing.com.au/

To your query.
I tried to work with a couple of architects for a reno. I knew the direction i wanted to go and really wanted the architects touch to make a good design great. ie value add with the stuff that makes it all work; getting dimensions of rooms and spatial flow right, getting thermal aspects right, the design tricks you learn from experience that save money during construction. The architects i tried to work with seemed to want more freedom over the design. I guess i wanted an applied building scientist (i just made that up im not sure they exist) not an architect. I ended up self building and making up for the lack of professional help by reading,reading,questioning what i had learnt and reading some more. Getting the design right was agonising because i am well aware of, and keen to not be on the wrong end of, the Dunning Kruger effect. The sad thing about the Dunning Kruger effect is i could still be blissfully unaware of how incompetent i really am.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
i hope that helps a little

Posted Saturday 21 Feb 2015 @ 12:16:55 pm from IP #
zobardi
Member

Artt,

That so perfectly describes where I am in my design process.... I have been vaguely aware of the Dunning Kruger effect - i.e. that I know nothing! - but have not seen it named before.

Posted Saturday 21 Feb 2015 @ 10:26:36 pm from IP #
Morbo
Member

google sketch up does overshading and all that. I think in Australia sustainability and all that is still just more for nerds and not the common public. So said nerds will be quite happy to play with google sketch up. Maybe could even get an older copy of Ecotect for free to do the evaluation.
The general populace is quite content with whats out there and merely uses a drafting service for the legal aspect of things, not for design ideas. Then comes the dodgy builder and alas, I think the building surveyor must be one of their mates.
So on that market your efforts are wasted.

Posted Sunday 22 Feb 2015 @ 2:12:18 am from IP #
axess
Member

Hi bluemarg,

The "general public" (whoever the hell they are) generally buy houses via the display home/project builder route. The project home customers will generally accept whatever was on "the block" that week plus whatever is deemed to be the current weakly enforced and non evidence-based star rating (fan door testing anyone?).

Other purchasers who wish to have greater design input via a building design professional will either do their research into the strand that interests them ie sustainable design via Sancuary magazine or Owner Builder or similar. The BDAV is also around to use.(Just google it).

Some people might even contact ArchiCentre who will give their name to some local architects who may or may not have the requisate skills to translate their requests into a reasonably priced design, and even oversee the project and possibly contain some of the inevitable time and cost blowouts.

Some people may even shell out megabucks to construct the type of house seen in any of the weekend real estate supplements (or OZ grand design).

Architects have often trained for years as potential design professionals. Sustainability is a terrific and laudable aim for the shelter needs of the local population.

There was a range of small house designs produced as part of a newspaper/magazine competition/promotion shortly after WW2 in response to the housing needs of the boomers?. These houses tended to be small and reasonably well designed, given the then current building technologies and materials shortages after the war. The designs were produced by architects and could be used by customers for a fee. These designs were enormously popular and successful.

I'm happy to use design professionals to do what they are good at and give them free rein. Design is what makes the world a far more interesting place and can solve technical problems.. However, if the design conflicts with other goals EG sustainability, then the ability to resolve that conflict determines the selection and retention of that design professional.

So good luck with your package of pre-designed architectural solutions. I'm sure there is a place for them but at the moment it seems to be more of a marketing challenge than anythig else.

Posted Sunday 22 Feb 2015 @ 10:47:52 am from IP #
Annette
Member

Hi Axess

It's all to do with cost and certainty. It would be a mistake to assume that people who don't use an architect choose this pathway because they are a bit dim.

I am passionate and fairly knowledgeable about sustainability as it relates to bulding. But when I was considering a knock down rebuild , only the volume builders could do anything that was within a price range that I could pay off without enormous emotional stress.

There is a reason why many of the homes that have featured in Sanctuary over the years are architects own homes - just too pricey for most people.

Some volume builders do allow the buyer to tweak the design. Also, not all architects or building designers are focused on designing for energy efficiency.

Ideally, shows like the Block would have an extra criteria of sustainability in the judging. That would be a way to educate people! However, the show is an advertising vehicle for their sponsors so I won't be holding my breath!

Blue Marg, what may be a challenge for your concept, is when people have a great view to the West or South and want to see that view from their house, not just glimpse it. So you may need designs for the standard block orientations, but also orientations where the view is in the 'wrong' direction.

Posted Sunday 22 Feb 2015 @ 8:18:40 pm from IP #
Morbo
Member

why not make a google sketch up library? I.e., stick in a few components that can be assembled. Its happening with all sorts of things, electronic components in 3D to who knows what. If you use Archicad, you know what I mean, there are some free AC libraries too.
If one wants to go all the way, for a mere $33 BOM gives temperature reading for 3 weatherstations of your choice from start till now, if you really want to simulate your house (in Ecotect, Revit Vasari is rubbish). For another $33 BOM will give you insolation values, there are about 20 stations around that do insolation on hourly level, you will get the whole lot.
Having done all that, LeGo your house into the chosen block, Ecotect or Google sketch up would calculate the proper shading, if you place it onto the proper coordinates. That should not be too hard and its all free.

Posted Sunday 22 Feb 2015 @ 11:11:08 pm from IP #
axess
Member

Hi Annette,

I certainly don't assume people who don't use architects to be "a bit dim". In some ways they are smarter than some people who do use architects!

However, as someone who visits clients' house everyday to advise on disabled access I am constantly appalled at the ice rink tiled surfaces used on brand new project home bathroom floors for example. Or new units that are inaccessible to their owners if disability occurs because of accident.

The design solutions for these problems have been available for many years (like the basics of sustainable house design)but appear to be dependent on the insistence of the customer to be incorporated into the products available from the project home/unit developer.

The market will respond if prodded hard enough either by customers or the regulator (don't hold your breath) but until then most changes to dwellings will come via the retrofit route which is inevitably more expensive unless government subsidies are used as the carrot.

I also agree the shows like "the block" etc would be a great venue to showcase sustainability or disabled access but won't hold my breath.

Morbo:

I already have lots of stuff to do in my normal life and unless I had a specific reason to learn how to use the products and methods you have listed I'd prefer to pay someone to do this for me. I accept many people love to do this stuff but unfortunately I am not one of them.Thanks for the info anyway.

cheers.

Posted Monday 23 Feb 2015 @ 1:42:46 am from IP #
Annette
Member

Completely agree with your comments re access for all abilities, Axess. Maybe this is something Blue Marg can incorporate too?

Posted Monday 23 Feb 2015 @ 2:35:09 am from IP #
bluemarg
Member

Hi All,
Many thinks for your input on this. I agree that access requirement should be included in any house design, indeed this would generally be standard practice unless the house was on a particularly tricky site or has restricted access covenants etc.

Axess - I am aware of the post-war housing you refer to. This was called the 'small homes service' run in conjunction between The Age newspaper and the Australian Institute of architects. Basically they have renowned architects anonymously submit generic house designs that were then sold 'off plan' for a relatively small fee. I think that there was a limit of them too, such that once twenty of the designs had been sold they were immediately removed from sale to maintain the limited edition quality of the designs.

This is similar to what I am proposing, except the designs will be up-to-date with a focus on sustainability and efficient spatial planning (no house will be over 200 sqm). I also propose to include a service that 'specialises' the design to suit the specific site, this could include responding to particular views etc - this wasn't part of the 'small homes service'.

I agree that, unfortunately, project home builders cover the majority of the market in Australia. There is no questioning that, if you want a superior quality building that incorporates thermal efficiency and passive solar and ventilation strategies, it is pretty much impossible to compete with these companies on a $/sqm basis. An architecturally designed home will be more expensive, I can't argue with that. What I do object to is the size of the houses being built today - Australia has the largest dwellings in the world.

I am proposing to cater for like-minded people, and admittedly this will not be for everyone, who value quality over quantity and who would prefer a superior quality of life over a two car garage and a 'rumpus room'. I believe the most sustained form of house design is not once with all the 'Eco-bling' bells and whistles but one which is flexible and able to respond and adapt to changes in its occupants requirements and therefore provide for longevity and more lengthy enjoyment.

Currently as I see it you can accept the project builders stock designs or take a risk and employ an architect or draftsmen (potentially more of a risk imho). I am proposing a middle guide that will provide the design excellence and some of the custom aspects of an architectural service but for a much lower fee.

Thanks again for all your comments and please keep them coming!

Posted Monday 23 Feb 2015 @ 4:33:03 am from IP #
bluemarg
Member

I should add that a an architecturally designed home with a smaller footprint could be built for the same price as a larger project home. With flexible use of space and a focus on spatial quality I belive the 'smaller' house would be far superior.

Unfortunately, we have inherited something from our friends in the states whereby 'small' is a dirty word in today's society.
We should, instead be looking to our European ancestors and our Asian neighbours for inspiration on how the live well, rather than simply trying to live large.

Posted Monday 23 Feb 2015 @ 4:37:10 am from IP #
arttt
Member

bluemarg said:
Unfortunately, we have inherited something from our friends in the states whereby 'small' is a dirty word in today's society.

Not everyone in the states has that mentality
http://www.notsobighouse.com/ was apparently a hugely popular series of books. I have a copy of the first book and many of them are only really small next to a mcmansion. Its all relative i guess.

or to the extreme
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_house_movement

Posted Monday 23 Feb 2015 @ 11:54:27 am from IP #
munter
Member

I applaud you for looking in to this area. It would be great to have an economic and effective option to take instead of just picking a stock standard design. What I think will be hard though is developing sufficient stock standard options to appropriately respond to the large number of variables that will come up such as orientation, block size/aspect ratio, development conditions, climatic conditions etc, all of which should have input into the design solution. Will it really be possible to develop basic designs that are flexible enough to fit a marketable range of real life building opportunities? I think it will be a real challenge.

Posted Tuesday 24 Feb 2015 @ 2:44:58 am from IP #
bluemarg
Member

Hi Munter,

I guess that's the point really, I don't intend to provide a stock plan service. I want to create a small (4-6) number of generic house designs that can then be applied to specific site and climatic contexts. In this way I would expect no two houses would be exactly the same.

Posted Wednesday 25 Feb 2015 @ 2:10:14 am from IP #
bluemarg
Member

Hi All,

How much do you think cost certainty plays a part in these decisions?

Posted Wednesday 25 Feb 2015 @ 3:01:16 am from IP #
lorri
Member

For me, it does play a big part, but saying that if I could get a house designed and well built for only a little more of course I would go for that. But when you only have a certain amount of money that you have , it limits what you can buy.It can make the difference between buying a house or not.
Cheers Lorri

Posted Wednesday 25 Feb 2015 @ 3:28:13 am from IP #
axess
Member

Hi Bluemarg,

I think you are trying (as we all do to some extent if we run a business!)to develop a "killer app". This is not a completely negative criticism of your aims.

Like everyone who has a chosen career we try to simplify our business/professional aims to some extent to cope with the demands of making a living and satisfying our personal goals in a reasonable way in a phenomenally mercantile society.

The use of a well-designed but bounded set of house designs is a great idea and is a not uncommon approach in housing. I grew up in a Ministry of Housing house that was one of a fairly limited range plonked down throughout Victoria.

The project home builders limit their range to control costs, and the new crop of modular home builders also tend to offer a constrained set of designs limited by transportation requirements as well.Being built in a factory allows them to claim environmental kudos including better waste stream control and also the ability to offer employment to non-mainstrean building workers like non-English speaking women.Hmm.

The "kit home" builders also offered an alternative to cheapen the building process for their clients who could dial in the level of involvement. There was and is a significant range of alternatives available to the conventional home buyer who wished to control costs.

Those who chose to "owner-build" (and not as de-facto deveopers)could explore either conventional or non-conventional materials and designs, often very sucessfully.They exercised the control over the building process and might or might not choose to employ an Architect or designer.

You are obviously a highly trained designer who has thought deeply about how to develop/franchise/market your preferred product in a fragmented marketplace. The focus on smaller sustainable/livable homes is terrific.

The logical market would be cashed-up down-sizers,some owner-builders,single home dwellers and micro-families (one parent dwellings with maybe 2 kids)or enlightened housing associations since social housing appears to be off the Govt agenda these days.Another emerging possibility might be group (shared aims/values)self developer looking at "brown field" sites near transport hubs (EG Urban Coupe). The former groups are competing directly with existing developers of course.Goodbye Fishermen's Bend in Melbourne for example.

Architects have always seemed to have struggled a bit in Australia since settlement days. If the government commissions are not there, the lean days are very lean indeed! The notion that people have to be more self reliant for house building and have often come from societies where the notion of owning your accomodation was distant possibly played a part. Stand out modern designs pop up from time to time but still seem uncommon given the large numbers of houses being constructed. Our society is also quite timid when choosing house design and tends to defer to boring ideas wherever possible. How Fed Square and the Opera House snuck through is a mystery!

Good luck with your plan and I hope you find a suitable niche. Lovely to see you doing the research.

Posted Wednesday 25 Feb 2015 @ 11:18:30 am from IP #
aussiesue
Member

Hello Bluemarg. I owner built my house 2010 - 2013. I had never built a house before. I was on a very limited budget. Was living overseas, the house was on an island and I wanted it to be sustainable or at least energy efficient. I wanted it teensy but beautiful with lots of simple but unusual features, partially because I thought it would cost less to build. I soon found out that the most economical way to build - unless you have craftsman skills yourself - is to use stock standard ideas and materials.

I chose to buy a kit (to lock up stage), the plan of which I adapted re window orientation, (eg things like cut out windows from westerly wall, addedpergola tonorth) deck shape and deck orientation. As an owner builder with no idea of what things cost - including design and drafting - a kit allowed me to control costs of design (any changes included in the kit), materials costs, logistics getting materials to the island as everything was delivered at once.The plan was a (approx 95sqm) "long" house which I oriented on the block to maximise northerly aspect etc and painted appropriate colours to reflect heat etc. My garden is designed around aspect,shading etc too.

It could in no way be called a bespoke house. Any "character" I have had to add with interior design aspects. And could probably be made way more efficient. But it works and it is admired. I have no cooling costs in summer and no heating costs in winter. (SE Qld). and the finished house cost me under $140,000.

I like the idea of your proposed service but, even though Inow have some experience of owner building, I still have no idea of what materials wouldcost andhow much extra it would cost for non standard "designed" items. I suspect that eventhough Icould build a smaller house, it would still be out of my budget. But if you were to offer a kit or prefab then I wouldnt have to worry. Another barrier you might face is that people who are into sustainability are also people who like the challenge of designing their own.

Posted Friday 27 Feb 2015 @ 9:40:30 pm from IP #
bluemarg
Member

Hi aussiesue,

Thanks for sharing that. There are certainly some good kit homes out there and I am pleased it worked out for you.
Cost certainty or at least some idea of cost before committing certainly seems important and this is something I plan to incorporate into the designs I produce - so thanks for that.

I think there is a perception that for something to be well designed it has to be expensive. Hopefully the designs I produce will incorporate pretty standard detailing, indeed I only really plan to provide a design service, it will be up to the owner to negotiate planning and building permits and work out the finite elements with the builder.

Posted Saturday 28 Feb 2015 @ 1:15:15 am from IP #
scipe
Member

Thankyou bluemarg for offering to discuss design, bravo

Your statement about 'project builders' being the most competitive for a 'superior quality building' -thermal efficiency/passive solar- surprises me. I have seen a lauded example in summer with a glass wall staring at the setting sun, and another that was just comfortable/warm on a winters day- on complementing the young salesperson showing people through it she advised she had run the heating system for 2 days 'to make it nice and warm' for us !

I think you cant compete with them as a 'package' that smooths and massages its way through the mountain of bureaucratic obfuscation confronting those without inside knowledge ("go and see FlashyDashy P/L, they know the council")

Sadly, the trend I see out of this is peeps say they might as well just buy a 'package'
and throw any amount of cheap solar panels at it to cope with any shortcomings.

More positively could what you are proposing be a good thing for some peeps if you did something with Morbo's ideas and produce an online EASY TO OPERATE design-sketch service that would permit change and discussion cheaply and conveniently ?

I hope you come up with a ripper affordable SMALL dwelling bereft of ego driven waste
(but please don't make it a sealed cell- this is a country blessed with sunshine and fresh air)

Lotsa luck

Posted Saturday 28 Feb 2015 @ 11:48:27 pm from IP #
Morbo
Member

you cannot compete with builders, seems they dont have to comply. We have 100 year flooding overlay, even got hassled for a simple deck and a water tank. And only our backyard is in the flooding zone. Next door is completely in the flooding zone, but their entry is at ground level. And their aircons run at a 20 deg day 24/7, seems mandatory 6star house easily outperformed by our weatherboard, and we haven't even finished insulating.

Posted Monday 2 Mar 2015 @ 4:14:20 am from IP #
axess
Member

Morbo,

Why would you wish to compete with builders? I thought you wanted to build a house for yourself, not "the market".

We owner-built our rammed earth house in a newly declared flood zone with a $19500 1.5Kw PV system and a solar hot water system 15 years ago.

We did have to take our plans to a specially convened appeal panel at the Building Commission to get a revised flood level and apply for an extension to the then solar rebate application to retain our solar rebate because of the building delay.

Not to mention the "M" classification of our site, and the protection works for the 2.7 metre deep stormwater drain that ran through it (ironically). Hence the overland flood plans.

Fortunately we were owner builders then so we kept pushing to achieve our 5 Star house goal. Then unfortunately,rammed earth walls were re-classified by the rating software and we lost one of our stars until the next revision happened.

I then went on to become a registered builder inspired by the journey, and also because the regulatory authorities required me to be registered to keep doing my other work as a disabled access specialist.

If I ever built another house I would probably do as much of it myself if health permitted. Otherwise I would do some intensive research and find a builder I could trust. They do exist. Or a good Architect to design it and refer me to builders they had worked with and who they knew would not rip me off. I would also factor in some evidence based testing such as a fan door test to find the defects before I moved in.

The area I live in has new houses next door to each other where one house meets the flood rules and its neighbour is 1200mm lower! It seems that litigation will be required (after the flood) to brighten up enforcement. That is what happened after the Ringwood? floods 10 or 12 years ago.

Posted Monday 2 Mar 2015 @ 9:28:34 am from IP #
Morbo
Member

it was more about
"Your statement about 'project builders' being the most competitive for a 'superior quality building' -thermal efficiency/passive solar- surprises me."

I think its wiser to chose tradies yourself, skip the builder.

But to the initial quesion, how to get all these material options and all the constraints into just 2 one size fits all layouts? Commission houses have maybe 2 desingns. 2 or 3 bedroom. This is then mirrored so they don't look all the same and then banged onto the street, no regards about orientation and all that. Bit like a volume builder. Guess it has to be narrowed down to some building blocks. Veneer? FC sheet? Weatherboard? Is it just VIC or everywhere?

Posted Monday 2 Mar 2015 @ 11:14:37 am from IP #
scipe
Member

Is it already being done ?

I read of modular housing being constructed on 'assembly lines' in China then shipped to U.S. And Oz business peeps being in China with Oz qualified trades overseeing the quality control and compliance aspect of these modules. They were tizzed up dongas (?)
to begin, but western expectations are now being applied to the product.

This is of course basic housing. A lot of peeps would be very happy to have basic housing.

I am not knocking mcmansions. future generations will probably knock a few walls out and make them into indoor cricket, climate controlled nurseries, or something.

Posted Monday 2 Mar 2015 @ 10:26:39 pm from IP #
Morbo
Member

there is a house in Melbourne, 3 storey or so. All pre fabricated in Austria, glue laminated pine from sustainable forest.
What I tried to say, maybe can make some simple designs and work out necessary properties such as R value and thermal mass. Then it could be "assembled" in a plan to suit the design? I.e., say I need 1t of thermal mass, I pick a wall that does it. Rest is just insulated wall.
Unfortunately townplaning or rather lack of it has failed and the most block are orientated with their long axis facing N/S so its not easy to plonk a standard house design on it and its properly orientated. So if one wants some energy efficient design, most likely an off the box design will not do it.

Posted Monday 2 Mar 2015 @ 11:15:52 pm from IP #
lorri
Member

Well it all sounds like a good idea and if something like this was around I would certainly consider it when we build in a year or two, But you would need to be able to do Tasmania as well as that's where we will be building. Not so sure about kits homes, I always think of some dodgy thing thrown together.
Cheers Lorri

Posted Tuesday 3 Mar 2015 @ 12:14:29 am from IP #

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