Re: [GBlist] houses old, new, borrowed recycled blue

[John Salmen <terrain@shaw.ca>]

One of the continuing ironies here is that small houses can be a 'luxury' -
being outside the vernacular and outside the envelope. The scale of
appliances has already been mentioned but it extends into most
'commodities'. I've often drawn a room and then tried to 'plug in' the
drawing of some manufactured upholstered object only to find that it was
designed to seat some giant and left room for little else. Everything in
N.A. is big or gargantuan. A small soft drink here would serve to satisfy a
daily liquid intake and at least a monthly sugar intake. I'm always amused
at the recommended minimum clearances for toilets - generally enough to have
a few people join you. Without careful planning it generally is easier and
more cost effective to build a 'large house' than a purpose built small
house. The dividing line is probably now about 1800 sq.ft. for standard
assemblies, but even at that level there seems to be a lot of compromises or
'custom detailing'.

I was trying to be a bit of devil's advocate in bringing up the issue of
designing with limitations. Most houses that exist from the 30's-50's have
those limitations and people have experienced the frustration of remodelling
them. Most are based on a rectangle or square with centrespan support
generally within the 10-15' dimension. Centrespan is usually a wall divider.
Remodelling for open concepts has usually required major structural
reworking of the original plan, replacing walls with beams. I've actually
been involved over time in a project that initially opened a floorplan up
with a centrebeam support replacing the original dividing walls and then
subsequently creating new divisions within that space. I think a basic
generic concept for housing now is that is should be designed for open span
between exterior support walls - and interior walls should become less part
of the building process and more part of the finishing process, similar to
how kitchen cabinetry is developing wheels and legs.  It would seem a
no-brainer but having been involved in mult-family housing projects - it is
not happening.

Despite the fact that this is my work, I'm continually and perhaps
progressively amazed at how much income and energy is expended on 'homes'.
Over the last couple of decades the concept of what it takes to 'house'
someone has grown simpler but the details have become incredibly complex.

still enjoying this discussion.

John Salmen
TERRAIN E.D.S.




----- Original Message -----
From: "Aimee M Houser (Aimee Houser)" <hous0088@tc.umn.edu>
To: <deumling@socrates.Berkeley.EDU>
Cc: <greenbuilding@crest.org>
Sent: Monday, January 07, 2002 6:36 AM
Subject: Re: [GBlist] houses old, new, borrowed recycled blue


> I agree with your concern about lavish building of 2000 sq ft houses under
> the misguided assumption that that is living small and in hindsight, I
> would've clarified my stance in relation to her ideas, her books. The
> post-war cape cod (my house) has some problems (it is difficult, tho not
> impossible, to tighten it up because of the kneewalls), but one thing it
> has to its benefit is inherent flexibility. I am working towards
> accomodating my mother and hopefully a child in the coming years without
> adding, only reconfiguring.
>
> I see now where your ideas about sq footage come in--that there aren't any
> such constraints, even suggestions, in the not-so-big house's way of
> thinking. I guess I do not think that Susanka's ideas are akin to
> recycling, but they can be used as a starting point in thinking about the
> architecture of reconfiguration. I think that is where I got my ideas to
> radically rethink my existing space. Its not that Susanka's ideas are
> complete, but that they (to my mind) constitute the first representation
> (iteration?) of rethinking mainstream residential architecture as "the
> sky's the limit".



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