When we decided to build the house and that I would design and permit the house as the architect of record, I hesitated. It had been 5 years since I'd left architecture and about 10 since I'd designed a house. I wasn't sure I could do it. So, I'm updating yesterday's post to show drawings vs. (almost) finished photos with some additional notes. I can say with certainty that the concepts survived construction. And having lived in it for seven months, I can also say that some ideas have been even better in reality than in concept.
1-Overall Massing Concept—The house has a clear public and private separation, with architectural components dividing all the pieces. Our main ambition behind building our house was to create a gathering space for friends & family. This meant we wanted large entertaining areas where we could all get together. We also wanted to maintain privacy in the bedrooms, both for us & for guests. This resulted in an L-shaped plan where the long leg is used for entertaining(facing the Wasatch back) & the short leg keeps the bedrooms tucked away from the expected & encouraged ruckus. On the interior, the aspiration is to fill the house with art. Interior-facing walls serve as gallery space, and I maximized exterior-facing walls to capture the views. Overall, the house has over 200 linear feet of interior walls specifically designed to display art. Art that is not expected to compete with the view. That would be unfair.