The answer is quite a lot. It then got me thinking about the house that got built on these ‘other’ sites. Some of them quick visits, some of them we had picnics on with our kids (when very small) and some of them we very nearly bought; in fact one of them we shook hands on and solicitors were in place to exchange contracts. You have to remember that our search for a nice site went back many years (probably 10+ in total), in fact our oldest who is now 16 would be able to spot a ‘Site for Sale’ sign at a great distance, from a moving car.

So, the photos below are the houses that got built on the sites we didn’t buy, if you are the owner of them and are offended that your house is included here, let me know and I’ll remove it. The purpose of this post isn’t to denigrate the houses but simply to show a period of houses that would have been built during the Celtic Tiger days. In fact, any derogatory comment will not be shown.

By the way, I didn’t design any of the houses shown below (except obviously our own at the end), so if any of the architects are offended in any way then the same goes as above. I’m not going to give any locations and the images are simply shown ‘as is’ with no captions; suffice to say that all those shown below are in Mayo and are all reasonably close to where we ended up. These are only a small percentage of those that we saw and our site visits ranged from Blacksod Bay on one side (Belmullet) to Dromore West on the other (County Sligo).

A lot has changed a lot in the period of us buying our site and building our house;residency rules are tougher and I doubt if we’d even be able to build our house now. There are ways around this with replacement houses and extending existing dwellings and if you are on the lookout to build a new house and would like to discuss this further then please CONTACT ME.

I’d also like to quote Frank Lloyd Wright on the recipe for a modern house:

“First pick a good site.
Pick one at the most difficult site-
Pick a site no one wants-
but pick one that has character:
Trees, individuality,
A fault of some kind in the realtor mind”

If I drive by any more (and there was a lot more), I will photograph and add them!…

- What do you need to do to design?

The answers are easy: to design well you need to be doing a lot of it. I’ve written previously on the research that’s been undertaken on perfecting skills; apparently it takes a minimum of 10,000 hours to get good at something. So what are you waiting for, star whittling down the hours.

Next question, what do you need to do therefore to actually design…

I was reading the Sunday Times at the weekend (the Style section, no laughing please) and there was a small piece about the detective author Raymond Chandler who says the secret of writing is just sitting down and doing it. That means sitting down for a minimum of four hours with the intention of writing, no cheque writing, no reading magazines, tweeting or blogging – just trying to write. And being an architect is just the same, just sit down and force yourself to do it, it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t come straightaway-it’s the act of sitting and saying that you’re going to do it that makes it happen.

It reminds me of a quote from a well known actress (for the record it’s Nicole Kidman ahem) who at the start of every film was petrified that the ‘part’ wasn’t going to come but she said that it always comes from somewhere. I suggest that it’s the same idea, it’s the very act of forcing yourself to do so something that makes it happen.

My guess is that this theory translates into every sphere and job and in the words of the ad: “Just Do It!”

So what are you waiting for?…

So, you can now see this font in the main banner header and also on the welcome blurb on the home page. Lovely isn’t it!

Now, maybe I know something that you don’t but whilst sorting out the home page image (that was fun opening up Photoshop, ImageReady and DreamWeaver and rustily image slicing and sorting out the HTML), and whilst downloading the Orbital font for the image, I found this:

Orbital Font Information from typekit.com website

Where, at the end of the world as we know it, the intention is to have a single font that survives (all the other fonts will inevitably be lost or destroyed); the cockroach of all fonts if you like. And that font is Orbital.

At least now I’ve forecast the catastrophic future and won’t have to do a web site update when all the fonts are gone.

The conclusion therefore is that fonts do have meanings and inferences and to give careful consideration to what you are trying to say.

ps. And don’t get me started on Comic Sans…

Pushed into getting the house up to wall plate level thanks to a planning expiry (5 years up in May), a one-off detached house outside of Westport, County Mayo. Quite a long planning saga:

- Outline planning granted (I didn’t do this one)
- Permission Consequent on Outline – refused
- Permission Consequent on Outline resubmitted & FI’d
- Permission Consequent granted
- Extension of planning time limit refused, I’m going to do a fuller blog post on this one.

One of the conditions that the Outline had was for the design to be single storey; there are a few ways to achieve this without it being just a big bungalow but the one we opted for was a traditional double pitch layout.

Found in numerous traditional buildings; the double pitch frequently arose when a building grew too small for it’s purpose and was extended alongside with the resultant double pitch format. Below is a school building on the way out to Sligo with exactly this type of layout:

Adopting this format allows you to have a larger floor area but the design is still single storey and the mass of the building is broken down nicely. I also redesigned our neighbour’s (Mary) house in a similar style but at a storey and 1/2 with roof lights to front and rear.

The use of the double pitch is therefore not unique; there is an excellent contemporary example nearby done by Paul Keogh Architects:

Note:This photo was taken a while back and a lot of landscaping has been done since~lovely contemporary example.

So,back to our project: the ground has been broken, we’ve done a provisional set out to check location and I’m doing a detailed check of formwork setting out (for the foundations) this week.

I’ll keep you updated with ‘in-progress’ photos on each visit. Below is the cut we’ve made to get the house down to level required by planning.

And below is sketch (Vectorworks tentative sketch mode) showing something of what is planned:

Also, I have a two storey staggered block going in for a planning application shortly,not exactly double pitched but quite similar.

More to follow…

My favourite piece of Furniture

Funnily enough I’m currently writing a series of article for URDream Home magazine on classic, iconic furniture and the Eames Chair is included in one of the later pieces. The piece I have chosen however is the classic, contemporary and iconic chaise longue by Le Corbusier; seen in every discerning self-designed architects home and unfortunately as yet not in my own!

Some say that you can only sit in the Chaise-Longue in one position, isn’t that comfortable, blah,blah,blah but just look at it! The sleek lines, the machine aesthetic translated into a piece of furniture, the almost marine like curves, the exquisite use of materials. A work of genius and gorgeousness, I want one!

My favourite Car

Now for this one you could say what eve boy would want like a Lamborghini or a Ferrari but I think you need to be reasonably practical and the car needs to be within limits. Also, for me it would need to be something that would look cool outside my house, to park-up and see it reflected in the glass. So, for this choice I would go for the Audi TT.

It’s a pure embodiment of 1990′s German engineering, with sleek lines, exciting profile and for the cost conscious the Diesel TDI vision is incredibly fuel efficient at 53.3 mpg.

My Favourite Architect

If you are a regular follower of this blog then you will have seen this architects name frequently pop-up. My choice for this is based on an architect that I would like to relate to, an architect that creates an architecture in a similar environment to my own and an architecture that I would like to aspire to. Obviously work by architects such as Frank Gehry is brilliantly but my choice for my favourite would need to be someone that reimagines a rural architecture in a contemporary style using a sumptuous choice of relevant materials. Therrefore my choice of favourite architect is Australian Architect Glenn Murcutt. And as Scott says about Carlo Scarpa, if you haven’t heard about or seen any of Glenn Murcutts work then here’s the Glenn Murcutt Wikipedia entry as a starting point.

My Favourite Movie Poster

The test of a good movie poster must be whether the artwork is a two dimensional, teasing representation of the actual film. It was going to be a toss-up between one of the James Bond posters and the cult Jane Fonda classic Barbarella. I didn’t realise until I did a bit of research that they would have been designed the same person – Robert McGinnis. For those that are interested in this form of artwork, here is a great site for posters and the work of Robert-McGinnis

My Favourite Album Cover

“Ah, the kids today don’t know they’re born”, that excitement of buying the latest vinyl album, poring over the artwork on the bus home, the excitement and care on taking the black disk from it’s sleeve and then delicately placing the needle on the outer extremity of the disk and then finding the meaning in each and every song (especially when the lyrics are included and read and reread).

This is a more difficult one. The choice needs to be personally my favourite and not one that wins the most popular contest like Sgt Pepper:

Or what about the one that started the Virgin empire?, nope:

Or what about the simple and direct punk message from The Pistols?

Or how about ones from the college years? One that actually includes a bit of Architecture?

Or one that was the soundtrack to my student clubbing days?

Nope, none of these, the favourite album cover goes back to the first ‘proper’ LP I bought (excluding classics like ‘Hits of 1971′), and it remembers that excitement and poring I speak about and it’s ELO’s Out of the Blue. Enjoy below the 2 outside images and then the double spread gatee-fold image, ahhh:

Obviously these are my favourites, but what are yours, feel free to comment below, why not set up your own blog post and let me know about it…

Images stolen shamelessly from Wikipedia- Imagine a world without the likes of Wikipedia! CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE CENSORSHIP PROTEST

I posted a FACT SHEET ON HOW THE BUILDER IS PAID and it’s the architects role in a traditional Client/Builder Agreement to undertake the following:

- Inspect that the works are in accordance with the contract documents
- Check that the builders valuation is correct
- Calculate payments to date, retention amount etc…
- Certify the correct amount for the client to pay

Now they’re not the most complex calculations out but they are incredibly important. If the architect over certifies then there is a risk that if the builder goes bust; there’s insufficient funds in the kitty to complete the works.

It is therefore essential that the architect takes this role sensibly and carefully as there can potentially be a lot at risk…

A short post today but probably one of the most important. Comments welcome as always…

FaceBook Personal Page (only if you actually know me!)

FaceBook Business page for Mark Stephens Architects

Twitter (obviously)

Linked-in

Flickr

Posterous

Instagram

Tumblr

YouTube Channel

And obviously the Mark Stephens Architects Blog that you’re reading now

And I nearly forgot Google+

I think that’s it, if i remember any more I’ll add them – Actually it’s not that many, is it?

I also don’t want you to get the idea that I only do very expensive houses for very expensive fees, admittedly some of the work I do is on the costly side but I also provide partial architectural services where the fees run into the few hundreds rather than the many thousands; any I’m just as happy doing this as well.

Also, as a new years resolution if you have an interesting project but genuinely have a minimal budget then I will try and cut the cloth accordingly in order for you to be able to employ me.

So, I’m going to use this blog post to showcase a few of the projects I’ve been working on that have the same levels of design and input but fall into this former category.

I’m going to add additional images to this page as and when I photograph them and also start adding them into the PROJECTS section of the website. So to get the ball rolling below is a photograph at a project where I was remodeling and renovating an existing house, doing a little bit of interior design work and generally completely updating the house:

More to follow, as and when…

Architect as Actor

Architect as Writer

Architect as Psychologist

This simple post says what the architects most important role is:

Architect as Interpreter and Translator

I am always amazed following that very first meeting with a potential client on the outpouring of ideas, dreams, likes and dislikes on what they want for their building project.

It’s almost as if the potential client has bottled up these ideas for years and suddenly in this first meeting (and remember that I haven’t even got the gig yet); the cork is released and all the ideas coming flooding out.

But what do I mean by saying the architect is interpreter and translator? The potential client needs to communicate with his architect three dimensional concepts; the work of the architect is effectively a language of three dimensions and it’s the architects job to translate or interpret these words and pictures into a three dimensional solution that takes into account the clients dreams and aspirations, the context of the site and local planning requirements.

Obviously it’s not a language like French, German or Japanese but it’s a still a language where spaces connect, materials join and surfaces are seen and touched; the architects role is to create a language of three dimensions, materials and textures and his/her role is to translate and interpret what the potential client says and shows into this language.

All for now, comments welcome…

Click below for the:
Practical Completion Fact Sheet

Or choose from the ‘IMPORTANT STUFF’ sidebar on the right…

Comments as always welcome…