Thoughts on design

Musings on architecture and landscape design

Entry sketch

There are many ways to enter a building.  Personally, I like to have a place to hang my coat, a place to toss all the stuff from my pockets, and to otherwise divest myself of the baggage I have brought in, whether groceries or work angst.

The mudroom.  It is good to think about the implications of this word, you, your guests and certainly your kids will often be coming in with something less then desirable on their feet when the weather is wet outside.  Having a room to contain that mess is I think a good first defense from getting it tracked through the rest of your home.  A good loud voice and remembering to yell at the kids is also generally required, should you have any inhabitants of that age group around.

What is the weather like outside.  Do you open the door and deside maybe two layers are better then one?  I like having a coat closet near the entry. It’s the place you need them after all, you are either trying to get them off or find the one you need so it’s the most efficient place to store them.

Having a mirror on the wall to check your appearance before leaving is a convenient feature as well.  My son who couldn’t be bothered to comb his hair last year is forever checking and messing with his hair before he leaves now, something about middle school and girls I guess.

A front porch.  This is also a good spot to consider.  Where do you put your cup of coffee, or groceries while getting your keys out and opening the door?  Can you put a bench there to get off those messy boots before even going inside?  Do you or your guests have room to shake off an umbrella while comfortably under cover?  A porch deep enough for these functions will also make for a graceful and welcoming entry.  A ledge to place items while getting your door open is a handy feature.  A bench or chair can be handy for removing mud-encrusted footwear or it can simply be an inviting place to sit for a while.

If you design around accommodate some or all of the above activities, you will be going quite a long way towards making a graceful and inviting entry.

Beyond the functions you would like to accommodate, there is also the experience of the entry.  A deep entry, one that gives you a deep but semi screen view into your home is a good way to make an inviting impact.  A shallow entry though a connecting bar can also make for a great impact on first arrivall.

Generally speaking creating a room of some sort is a graceful and elegant way to enter a home and accommodate the functions you would like to have available.  Even if you don’t go with a room creating some sort of definition between the entry space and the rest of the area will create a nice moment of pause while you are shedding the accoutrements of your day.

Coat of Arms Rendering

Well this was fun, I don’t get to draw up a whimsical bit of ironwork every day, but last week I got to play around with this one.  It’s for the side of a client’s barn.  He thought it would be fun to have a European looking wrought iron plaque hanging off his barn’s dormer and asked me to draw up his family’s coat of arms for it.

There were several variations of the coat of arms down through the centuries.  I took one of the older ones because it had the older more stylized look you’d expect to see on that sort of traditional signage.  The image is a continuous piece like you would have when cutting out a silhouette from a sheet of paper.  I drew it in a form our metalworker can directly (more or less) use to cut out from a sheet of  steel plate with his computer driven plasma cutter.

Alan Murakami, a friend of mine has also recently started a blog.  He is writing about the trials and tribulations of life at a crossroads. As are many of us, his life has been turned upside down by the recession and is now at that between spot, where he would like to figure out what he wants to do in the future, and how to keep his head on straight and smiling while he goes about getting there.

So take a look at it! He has a great sense of humor and it’s a good read.  Act Two.

Elements of a great stairway:

• A view ahead

Forest Drive Stair

• Transitions

• In between spaces

• Light to draw you forward

A great stairway should consist of a mix of many elements working together to create a graceful transition from one part of your home to another.

These four make a good place to start,  and are found to one extent or another in most inviting stairs.   Think about homes with stairs that seemed really interesting, and added something to your experience of the house.  If you think about it probaly most of these elements where there.

When considering a stair think of the mental transition you would like to experience when going from a more common public part of your home  into a more personal and private area.   How can the journey help that change in outlook?

So lets look at them one at a time.

Stair landing study

A view ahead:

In any area of your home or yard providing a glimpse of where you are going will make for a more inviting and interesting journey getting there.  If the glimpse is just that a small piece of it offering a taste of what is to come but not the whole view so much the better.  A teaser look lets use know there is something special up ahead but we know there is more we have not yet seen, or would like to experience more of, having seen it before.

Transitions:

A space that is nether here, where you are, or there, where you are going. This can be a change in level of a step or two with a landing or well delineated edge between two rooms.  It can be a change in the width of a hallway, widening out before you get to your room.  The key to transitions is that they allow, even encourage, non-commitment.  You may take a step or two onto the landing to get a better glimpse of what is up ahead.  You may use the steps and seating while taking with your kids in the hall, or step up them to get a better view over guests at a party.  A little short landing makes a great multi-use area, inviting a slue of casual uses.

In between spaces:

This is taking the simple  landing described above and adding some small amount of function to it.  Is there room for a bench, a bookshelf, some object that could be of casual interest or usefulness.  So now the transition area is a space with some use, but it is still a very casual and inviting accidental leftover bit of stuff,  inviting you to take a perusal of a bookshelf or maybe do some minor rearranging of flowers in a vase.

Light to draw you forward:

Natural light is a wonderful, substance, warming our hearts and homes.  We are all attracted to natural light.  When you provide light from above people will be positively drawn to go up and to see where the light is coming from.  We can make great use of it to draw us from and into different parts of our home or yard.

Putting the elements together, an illustration.

• Open the floor plate so the stair becomes an object within its own space.  Allow a view to balcony rails above so a conversation can be freely held with the participants within  easy view of each other.

•  Provide a gradual two step rise up to a generous lading where you can set some piece of furniture, a writing desk, bookshelf, something like that. With more room you might consider an alcove off the landing with a setting nook with an inviting looking chair and side table.

•  Keep the stair runs short and possibly add a turn to them at a generous midway landing.  Make this landing less grand then the lower one, but still consider providing a space for a bench or table to help create a sense of pause where you can appreciate the setting and maybe give you a moment to catch your breath as well.  A grand window with light poring in filling the space with a warm glow would be well placed at this landing as well.

•  Day light; windows twisting up the stair will enliven your journey and draw you upwards along the stair.  A more distant light at the top of the run is also good, it hints that there is an extensive, and possibly interesting space we are headed towards.

•  The top landing like the bottom should be a space of multiple activity’s  and views.  It could be a common area before you enter the bedrooms or some other semi private function.  Think of it as the lobby for milling about in before settling down.  If it has a function or two such as being a study area or exercise area so much the better.  If you can give it a view and a place to sit and read it will be better yet.

All the elements listed are highly interconnected and work together to make an interesting and Inviting event out of moving from one level of your home to the next.

… and a concluding  thought

In more general terms the advantage of creating these transitions, and places to get away from others while yet not be completely separated, is that they provide a useful middle ground.  Marginal spaces, those that are nether here nor there, the in-between unclassified areas, offer a sense of refuge but not total isolation.  They help the house perform on more levels and create a  more complex and welcoming sense of space and enclosure.

Stair diagrams

There are many design considerations involved in making a great stair, but I thought I would start with the practical, I.E. the ease of using them.

The general rule of thumb for a good stair is that the sum of two rises and one run will add up to about 25”,  and that is the ratio I like to use.  Now there is a bit of flexibility on this and I have seen up to 30” being sited at the higher end (for landscape stairs) and 24” at the lower end.  A 23” ratio is going to start feeling a bit awkward, so if space is tight still try and stay with a minimum of  23 1/2″ to 24”, that extra 1/2″ to 1″ does make a difference.

Generally speaking landscape stairs should allow for a longer stride then interior stairs because we tend to take longer steps when we are outside.  A 27” ratio is a normal target for site stairs.  A 6” rise with a 15” tread or 4” rise with and 19” tread are the ends of the typical range

A shallow slope may use extra wide tread that allows for an extra stride between each step.  An average stride is some ware in the 28 to 32” range.  Generally these landscape stairs should also have a shallow treads of  4 to 5” so a tread may be 38 to 42 inches long to provide for the extra stride.  Be careful not to make them too short or you will find yourself doing stager steps one short one long as you go up the stair.

For long tread stairs lite the one above you will be well severed if you can lay a few treads of the stair out and try them out to get the run adjusted to your stride.

Code requires certain minimum standards as well. Most jurisdictions require a minimum rise of 4” and a max rise of 7 3/4”.  The minimum tread depth run is 10” on a straight run of stairs, and on winders it is 10” at 12” out from the inside turn with a 6” min. width at the inside edge.  Spiral stares can be more compact but I won’t go into that here.

Head room is critical and the minimum is 80” measured from nose of the stair treads, don’t forget that carpet and wall finishes take up height!  An 80” clearance feels low and tight and should be avoided if possible, just going up to 84” will make the stairs feel more comfortable to use.