As a problem solving exercise, this project presented a plethora of challenges. The homeowners had never gone through the design process before taking on this project. The couple had only lived in two houses since they were first married. They wanted the new house to follow cultural traditions from their home country that would heavily influence design decisions, called Vastu Shastra, but they still wanted to have all the amenities of a middle class American home. Thankfully the clients were willing to go through the full design process instead of jumping straight into making construction drawings which so often seems to be the case. Using a collection of photographs to develop an aesthetic palette, our design process explored massing options in plan and in elevation that would evolve into the final floor plans. Some 3d modeling was also used to offer some pre-visualizations of the built home.

What separates a good home designer from the less savvy is their ability to create a home that provides more than just shelter conforming to neighborhood restrictions. Those who live in such subdivisions usually want a spacious home that has a look and feel they think their neighbors and visitors will appreciate. Sometimes the need to meet this goal results in people duplicating a building they had seen somewhere else, without considering their own unique needs and dictates of their property. The Perde family contacted me with the intent of rebuilding the Mindrut house on their property, which was a few lots down from the Mindrut’s home. Clearly the neighborhood review board would not allow that to happen. So, once the Perdes were convinced not to rebuild someone else’s house, we were able to begin designing a house for them.

In the fall of 2007, Lamar Outdoor Advertising and Ford|Dickinson began development of a series of new advertising structures that would incorporate new digital display technologies. It was thought that these new designs would increase public acceptance, and therefore expand the market for placement of these outdoor advertising structures. These new designs would improve the aesthetic appearance of outdoor advertising structures, work in concert with existing support systems, and provide an economical ‘kit of parts’ that can be delivered, installed, and maintained easily throughout the United States. The design process led to the development of four general-concept families with multiple variations that would fulfill those concepts. These conceptual designs were thoroughly illustrated at a temporary online hub where RFP recipients and members of the client body could download documentation about the project.

The Mindrut House is built along the golf course in the University Club, a gated subdivision in Baton Rouge. The house is in a part of the subdivision required to embody the character of New Orleans’ French Quarter. In essence, this house had to adopt a row house exterior’s design strategy, even though the house would have a garage in front of the home. The owners, the Mindrut family, were more interested in more progressive interior designs than the required New Orleans architecture, exterior façade. The final design scheme presents a solid but quieter version of a French Quarter home. The main components of the exterior are a Greek revival frieze and entryway, Acadian shutters, and a Colonial styled courtyard expanding off the garage walls. Once inside the house you realize the aesthetic is just a shell to incase an open, contemporary home nestled inside.

When offered, I jumped at the chance to design a new house for my Aunt and Uncle. Having never designed a real building before – in the sense that what’s going to be built is what’s real – I made certain to work closely with the home owners in the design process. During the interview process I realized that they wanted to live in a park-like oasis but that they were really worried about privacy. Aside from the programmatic requirements, the bulk of the design process explored methods to enclose a private space that would be open to an exterior. The final design provides program clusters connected by a thin hallway.

While the first two years of architecture school introduce students to general concepts of space as the inverse of form, this third year project would begin to ask students to control specific characteristics of space. How fast can space move? How can space alter someone’s mood? Etc. In this project, students were asked to identify the characteristics of space that make people comfortable. While visiting the site students had to articulate what they thought about it and how their design would relate to “the space of human comfort,” and only after having done that would a student be given the full assignment sheet. The building program focused on three sequential spaces: the caldarium, a hot plunge bath; the frigidarium, a community bath in unheated water; and the tepidarium, a warm bath or sauna experience. The bath house facility also had to provide exercise areas, locker rooms, fragrant gardens, and spaces for building staff and administration.