House and Home Magazine is south Louisiana's original home-and-garden magazine, with free circulation in the greater Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas. Published monthly since 1997 by Renaissance Publishing Group, LLC, House and Home's readers have enjoyed more than 100 full-color issues that celebrate the finest expression of south Louisiana style, design, culture and living. In April 2010, the Nauck's house was awarded a publication in House and Home's kitchen design awards issue. In May 2010, House and Home would further recognize the Nauck house with an entry in their best-in-show, "whole house" publication. Finally, in November 2010, in celebration of the magazine's 13th year, two of the Nauck house photos were acknowledge as the staff's top thirteen favorite images.

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.

Photos of the house without the watermark are so expensive. I'l post them as soon as I can spring for them. For now, you can review the proofs with me.

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.

At the beginning of the project, the owners did not plan to implement any major changes in the layout, like moving or removing and walls. They mostly wanted to talk about installing new cabinets and instituting minor changes in the layout of the cabinets. There main goal was to update and brighten the kitchen. Mr. Chatelain, a weekend DIY warrior, would contract the project himself, so I had to take that into consideration. By implementing small, but effective design decisions, this renovation project would ultimately retire the classic isolated kitchen form for the Chatelain family.

If designing a house for my self is the first reason I went to architecture school, designing a house for my father is definitely the second. When my uncle’s residential contractor company, HCH, acquired several acres to develop, I told my dad to ask for the most difficult parcel available. The lot we had was surrounded by two ponds, two massive live oak trees, and an 18’ drop in slope right where the house should go. After hundreds of yards of dirt were added and we met over lots of dinners, we settled on a ‘C’ shaped house that would terrace the landscape. Using collaged drawings and diagrams, and a constantly changing 3d model, the finished design takes full advantage of the beautiful landscape on all sides. The house took almost a year to build but our efforts paid off; the house has been published in local residential design magazines and won my uncle’s contracting company, HCH, a local builder’s award.

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.

The second complete project I'd get to work on was a house deep in a subdivision of Prairieville, Louisiana. Having seen my first project in the Parade of Homes, the owner wanted their project to be similar to the Oneal house. The main requirements of the design were that the house resembles the neighboring buildings (which were not yet built or even designed yet), that the house open itself up to view the woods behind the house (whereas at the Oneal house the design is self-contained), and that the master bedroom be located away from the main house (as it was in the Oneal house). As a problem solving exercise, my biggest task was bringing the home owners to a point where they understood why there house could not be just like the Oneals’ home.

When Highland Custom Homes, a Baton Rouge custom residential housing contractor group, was looking to subdivide some land for development, I worked with them to come up with several proposals to take to the department of public works office. The final plot plan resulted in four parcels of land available for new residence. Two of the lots would be claimed from the get go; one of the lots would go to HCH figure head, Al Nauck, and the other, more difficult lot would be used to design my father’s house. With two lots left to be sold, HCH asked me to produce sample designs for new houses to be built on the vacant property.

To see my father's house, click here.

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.