Natural Light

On a gloomy north shore November afternoon it’s hard not to reflect on the importance of natural light in our homes and how it makes us feel. Natural light is likely the single most important factor that determines how a space is perceived and how a mood is created.

Architect Christopher Alexander states in his tome A Pattern Language: “If the right rooms are facing south, a house is bright and sunny and cheerful; if the wrong rooms are facing south, the house is dark and gloomy.”

We all know this but, for many reasons, often fail to act on it. The tenet is a simple one and if held onto without compromise will create light filled spaces that are desirable and a joy to be in.

The position of the sun in the sky is determined by the time of day, the season and the particular location of a property. In northern latitudes, facing south means facing the sun. It rises in the east and sets in the west. It’s obvious information that’s often forgotten or ignored when planning a home.

Rooms should always be organized to best take advantage of the natural light a site provides. This typically means maximizing southern exposure to one degree or another and often tends towards a structure stretching along an east-west axis. But since not every property will permit such a layout it’s essential from the get-go to understand the unique movement of the sun on your piece of land.

This might translate into an en-suite bathroom that basks in the warm glow of a morning sun or a breakfast nook that nudges out into a garden with full morning light. It can mean a home office that faces directly south to maximize its sun exposure throughout the day or a covered porch that catches the dying light of an evening sunset. In the end, the more we anticipate how natural light affects our layout, the more we move towards an optimal design for our homes.

Technology has given us the ability to create functioning spaces even when we ignore our natural environment but invariably something gets lost in the process. The intensity and spectrum of colour in sunlight can’t be matched by artificial light. We innately sense daily and seasonal changes through the light of the sun. The long, cool rays of a winter’s afternoon can never be confused with the sharp brilliance of a mid-summer day.

Everything seen in space is perceived and understood through the light that falls upon it.  The quality of this light adds to the comprehension of what we’re looking at and affects our feelings for it. It’s easy to see why natural light is an essential aspect of any well designed home.

Three dimensional form

How does one move from dream to reality when designing a home? The answer is through a fascinating creative process that architects and designers perform every time they work on project.

The movement from conceptual imaging to tactile reality is one of the most enjoyable aspects of architectural design. I still remember my first built project – a small, very modest basement renovation – that I saw finished just after graduating architectural school. Up to that point everything I had designed had been conceived in the more abstract world of the school studio and never went beyond the conceptual drawing phase but now, after years of imagining things, I was confronted with the three-dimensional reality of my architectural musings. It was an amazing feeling of surprise and satisfaction and proved to be a very important learning experience as well. Certain features that looked good on paper were less convincing in reality while other elements that I had reservations about during the design process seemed to work out perfectly.

What I learned was that the physical realization of an idea can be quite different from the original concept if one isn’t thorough enough in the design process early on. Through my early years of architectural work I would always build a physical model of the project I was working on. Made from cardboard or heavy stock paper, these miniature creations helped me fully understand the three-dimensional form I was constructing. I would bring the model up to eye level and pretend I to inhabit the tiny world, trying my best to get a feel for the object and space being creating. I would continuously sketch snap-shot perspectives of interior and exterior details all the time trying to come to terms with the form taking shape. The idea was to rationalize exactly what was being created, to take the guess-work out of the process.

As years went by I would take note of spaces and forms I liked and would even go as far as to sketch an element that interested me or pace out a room if I liked its proportion and scale. Colour combinations that worked were always put to memory as were the use of interesting materials or the creation of interesting compositions. It’s essential when designing three-dimensional space to have a grasp of what the space will feel like when built. This can be very challenging when one’s limited to a two-dimensional graphic medium.

I still sketch when designing but rely more and more on 3-D graphic software programs that allows me to quickly and easily mock-up a ‘virtual’ worlds in which I can test my ideas. I use a fun, easy-to-learn program called Google SketchUp. I encourage folks so disposed to give it a look. The standard version is free to download.

Regardless of the process, the objective is the same: fully understand what’s being designed before it’s built. It takes years for an architect or designer to be able to look at a two-dimensional plan for the first time and see it in three-dimensional space. Expecting a homeowner, likely with little or no experience in this area, to be able to do just that is unreasonable. For this reason I feel it’s essential for the homeowner to request as much 3-D information from their design professional as possible. The more they know and agree upon early on, the happier they’ll be in the end.

Visual weight

The judicious use of colour is a simple and effective way to make the spaces we live in more livable. Colour affects our mood and well-being and influences the way we perceive a space and is inextricably linked with the concept of ‘visual weight’. A darker-coloured wall is visually heavier than a lighter-coloured one. The darker colour connotes a sense of mass and weight and makes a surface feel closer to us than lighter-coloured one. It’s a simple and intuitive concept and if used properly can make small rooms seem more spacious and cavernous spaces a little more manageable. 

My discussion here is not to address the actual selection of colour in a home but rather to look at how density and depth of colour connotes a ‘visual weight’ to a surface or object.

On many occasions I’ve had clients lament about the claustrophobic nature of a space they’d like to open up and would articulate to me strategies – often very expensive ones – that would alleviate the problem.  Although the strategies often worked, it would frequently be the case that a simple rethinking of the visual weights of walls and ceilings was all they needed for their home.

Ceilings, by the very nature of being above our heads, are profoundly affected by the concept of visual weight. Exposed wood beams with wood decking as a ceiling treatment are very common here on the West Coast. The rich colour of the stained wood mixed with the texture of the decking gives considerable visual mass to a ceiling and tends to make it feel lower than it would in a lighter material. The composition often works successfully in a high space but can often feel oppressive in a lower one. I’ll remedy this by painting the beams a light colour and introducing a thin, lightly painted layer of drywall between the beams, over the decking, to transform the space into a far less claustrophobic one. The rule is a simple, lighter feels higher and equally, when the desire is to create coziness and intimacy – like in a reading nook or homework area - the painting of the ceiling in a darker, warmer colour will make it feel lower and enhance the quality of intimacy in the space.

Painting a single wall within a room a darker colour makes that wall stand out within the space and draws the eye to it. Often called a feature wall or accent wall, this use of visual weight makes a wall more dominant and important within a room and is wonderful way of highlighting an important feature of the home or of making a space more dynamic. Think about using a fun, graphic wallpaper to create the same effect.

Alcoves and nooks can be painted entirely in a darker, deeper colour than the rooms they open onto to maximize their sense of separation. This creates a sense of shelter and protection within the alcove while making a feature of the alcove itself from the room it adjoins.

How we feel within a space can be influenced by many different factors, even the simplest ones. The careful use of colour can influence the ‘visual weight’ of walls and ceilings and can be a positive transformation for any space. 

Rethinking the suburban dream

Public spaces like the plaza at Lynn Valley Village help to connect a community.

Photograph by: Mike Wakefield, NEWS photo

Recently, while lounging in Lynn Valley’s Library Square watching my daughters tempt fate with ever increasing leaps off the plaza stairs, I recalled how just a few years ago this magnificent public square was a forlorn no-man’s land of black asphalt lapping against a Seven-Eleven gas station with a decaying single-storey strip mall forming its backdrop. It hit me: “We’re doing something right here!”

For decades now suburban development has defined the public realm as a place to move through and avoid rather than a place to seek out and inhabit. Library Square is different. The development has eliminated the degraded public space that occupied the heart of Lynn Valley and has given back a dynamic, porous, people-oriented space that draws us in simply because it feels right.

The blight of suburbia is not as obvious here on the North Shore as it is in outlying communities but take a short stroll through Library Square and gaze over the sea of asphalt enveloping Lynn Valley Mall and realize it’s a problem we’re still coming to grips with.

The suburban dream drew its origins from a desire to escape the Industrial city for a cleaner life in the country. It was the classic case of ‘having one’s cake and eating it too’ as good work was in town but the dream was in the country. The dream became entrenched and suburbia pushed further and further outwards becoming a vast tract of semi-urban development that now carpets our local farmland and depends completely on the automobile for its existence.

The very word suburbia is a confusing one. It’s clearly not rural, as the very name defines, and it’s not urban either. The so-called country homes that created the suburban dream are mere caricatures of the original inspiration. What has developed is a civic environment defined by the means of getting too and from it rather than by geographical and cultural forces that would better shape an urban fabric.

But the suburban debacle is in its golden years. The cheap oil era is over and everything will change in coming decades. We’re going to live smaller and more efficiently, we’re going to live closer to work and we’re going to live closer to one another. Hopefully our communities will put less design emphasis on the automobile and more on the human beings that inhabit it. It’s a rethinking of the current urban planning model but it’s certainly not a new one. Take a stroll through the streets of Rome (or countless cities that predate the automobile) and you quickly realize that a deep understanding of successful civic design has been here all along. We just need to know where to look.

We’re on the cusp of major change in coming years. My hope is that a world based less on cheap fuel will produce an urban model more focused on locality and community and with it a public realm that’s worth caring about.

No more McMansions

The unflattering names that describe them: The McMansion, the ‘Starter’ Castle, the “Hummer” home, all sarcastically portray the over-sized, architecturally undefined homes that have crept into the housing tapestry over the years. These monstrous abodes, with their perverse layouts, tortured massing and lack of refinement, bespeak something far worse than their lack of tasteful consideration though, they reflect an out-dated and ecologically insolent attitude that a bigger home is a better one.

But out-dated attitudes won’t change until the modern-day market conventions – ones that often dictate the addition of redundant or useless space - change to reflect the way we live and the way we truly need to live.

With populations growing and resources dwindling we are, by necessity, at the dawn of a greener, more sustainable future where our ecological footprints will be greatly reduced. The ‘monster’ home flies in the face of all this and, like its vehicular counterpart, stands as a monument to a way of thinking that will soon be something of the past.

What we need now are standards and conventions that address our modern lifestyles and that emphasize quality over quantity; standards that reject more square-footage simply for the sake of more and focus on the efficient and multi-functional use of space; conventions that create layouts where occupants use every room in the house every day – as friends/clients told me recently about their renovated home; standards and conventions where all the unique needs and desires of a family are met through the rigors of design rather than through the granting of additional space.

The home of the future should respond to the needs and values of its user, in a comfortable and efficient manner while still presenting the smallest footprint achievable, both literally and ecologically, to the world at large. 

Ceiling heights

A floor plan of a house is a two-dimensional representation of a grouping of three–dimensional volumes connected within space. When investigating a floor plan we often forget this, becoming preoccupied with the horizontal dimensions of length and breadth and loosing sight of the third critical dimension in the definition of a room: height.

Ceiling height plays a critical role in how we perceive a space and how we feel within it. A home with identical ceiling heights throughout won’t be as inviting or comfortable as one that has variation. The reason is simple. The raising and lowering of a ceiling has a direct psychological effect on how we perceive intimacy and community within a space.

Kallweit Graham Architecture

Raising a ceiling height will typically increase a sense of formality while lowering it will increase a sense of intimacy. Picture the soaring atrium in the Vancouver library and how its enormous ceiling height is ideal for its public function while, at the opposite of the spectrum, in the most private place of all, the confining height of a canopy above a marital bed creates the perfect intimate zone. When ceiling heights are uniform within a home the psychological cue to formality and intimacy becomes muddled.

Unfortunately in a world where standard building components tend to direct the proportion of space, uniformity often becomes the norm. The standard 8ft ceiling height is not dictated by a desired proportion of space but rather by a standard length of drywall.

There is no absolute correct height for a given space but recognizing the role of proportion in the perception of space is a critical first step in good design. The Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio evolved theories of proportion relating to a rooms width and length while traditional Japanese architects used formulas to create what they thought was the magic balance. Culture, environment and necessity all play a role on overall spatial size and perceived comfort and all have an influence on ceiling height.

I feel firmly that the most important element for ceiling levels within a home is their variation relative to one another. There is no absolute perfect number for a given room but varying ceiling heights between spaces will directly affect how these spaces are perceived and how they will be comfortably used. It’s simple stuff really that’s almost primal to us. A young child will always tuck themselves away in a nook when feeling insecure or threatened.

A confining space is more intimate that a large one. Incorporating this simple concept in the creation of ceiling levels goes a long way to creating a comfortable home.

Asbestos in our homes

The very mention of the word asbestos sends a jolt of anxiety through most homeowners - and for good reason. The utilization of asbestos fibre in construction material was wide spread until the early 1980’s when it was proven that exposure to it posed a significant health risk.  There’s a lot of it out there and no one wants it in their homes.

Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous mineral found in rock that for centuries has been recognized for its superior strength, durability and resistance to high temperatures. Until its dangers were discovered this multi-functional super mineral proved very valuable in the building industry and was widely incorporated in floor and ceiling tiles, insulation board, asbestos cement, shingles, exterior siding, roofing felt, wall board and textured and latex paints as well as in loose-fill vermiculite insulation where the more dangerous type of asbestos called ‘amphibole’ was utilized.

If you live in an older home chances are you have asbestos somewhere inside it, but don’t panic, asbestos only poses a danger when the fibres become airborne. If the likelihood of this is minimized so is the risk. That said when asbestos is inhaled in any significant quantity it is very dangerous and can cause asbestosis (a scarring of the lungs) or cancer. It needs to be treated with utmost care.

For dense materials such as insulation board, exterior siding, clapboard and floor and ceiling tiles, risk only arises if the material starts to deteriorate or is cut, sanded or disturbed in some way that might allow fibres to become airborne. For loose-fill vermiculite insulation it’s critical that it remains undisturbed and contained behind walls, floors or ceilings and doesn’t become exposed to the interior environment.

The real risk with asbestos is when construction disrupts it, disturbing its otherwise benign condition. Here are a few scenarios that could be of concern:

1.   Coming in contact with loose-fill vermiculite insulation. This is easy enough to do if you’re removing a wall or moving around an attic space.

2.   Removing vinyl asbestos floor tiles or asbestos acoustical ceiling tiles by crumbling, scraping or sanding.

3.   Sanding or scraping older water-based asbestos coatings in drywall, roof coatings, sealants, paint or caulking.

4.   Sanding or scraping older plasters that contain asbestos.

5.   Generally, any sanding, scraping, drilling or sawing (or any similar means) of an asbestos containing product that might allow it to become airborne.

When demolishing a home the standard protocol is to have the various materials within the house laboratory tested for asbestos. This is a simple procedure and is not expensive and can be done right here on the North shore. I’m currently working on a project requiring the demolition of a 1950’s era home that we discovered has asbestos in its floor tiles. The floor tiles are in good condition and pose no threat to the inhabitants but the upcoming process of demolition will pulverize them and potentially send asbestos particulate into the air. As a result the floor tiles must be removed by a certified removal team before demolition starts.

Asbestos is always a concern for the prudent homeowner but is not something to panic about. The most important thing a homeowner can remember is that asbestos fibre is only a danger when it’s airborne. So if you’re planning on making some alterations to your home make sure you know what’s in what you’re altering before you begin.

Lighting

It hasn’t been long, a couple centuries maybe, since most merchants - the baker, the tailor, the shoemaker - lived above or behind their place of work. What we deem as normal, the modern reality of separating our workplace from our place of residence, is actually a relatively new phenomenon.

The simple notion of the work place and the place for living being close together seems genuinely utopian in the context of a world that has the bulk of us travelling en-masse each morning to some distant locale in order to perform our vocational duties. The commute is the modern-day curse but the modern-day status quo.

But things are changing. Advances in technology are allowing many of us to work effectively from home and, as a result, there’s a growing trend to incorporate well-designed office space into our households.

Adding an office to a home can be as simple as renaming a room or as involved as building on a new wing, it all hinges on its intended use. For individuals wishing to create a home office, ask yourself these few questions: How often will you use it?  What are your work patterns? When will you be working? Can you afford interruptions or is privacy a paramount? Will you be entertaining clients routinely? The answers will generally hint to the best size and location.

For individuals desiring isolation from other family members (inquisitive young children come to mind) an office area connected to the master bedroom suite can provide the solitude desired. But the bedroom office creates a dynamic between the place of rest and the place of work that might be unwanted and entertaining clients there can create a stranger dynamic still. The bedroom office can work well for some and not at all for others.

Other individuals might find the bulk of their home office work is “overtime” in nature - evenings and weekends - and they desire a certain connection to the rest of the household when working there. I find this to be the most common scenario these days and I often incorporate such a space near the family activity zone - the living-dining-kitchen circuit - that allows the user to feel part of the activity while still providing a certain level of detachment when needed. French doors work great for such a space providing a visual connection even when acoustics require the doors to be shut.

Taking over a seldom-used guest bedroom is often an easy and economical use of space when creating a home office. The bedroom is typically contained in nature, allowing for privacy, and is often conveniently adjacent to a bathroom. Incorporate a Murphy bed (a fold-away wall bed) into the layout and the room will work like a charm for both office use and for the occasional guest.

For those intending on doing a lot of work from home then an office that’s private and off the main family circuit is your best bet. Locating such a space adjacent to the main entry often works well as it’s typically further away from the heart of the home and allows easy access for clients coming to and from the space. The incorporation of a separate entry door can make the home office more independent still, creating a true stand-alone place of work that’s still inextricably linked to the place you live.

If the idea of the 15-second commute from the kitchen to the office is enticing for you then give some thought of incorporating a home office into your life. Give a little thought to how you’ll use it before you lay it out and before you know it you’ll be reading the morning paper when most others are reading the license plate in front of them.

The home office

It hasn’t been long, a couple centuries maybe, since most merchants - the baker, the tailor, the shoemaker - lived above or behind their place of work. What we deem as normal, the modern reality of separating our workplace from our place of residence, is actually a relatively new phenomenon.

The simple notion of the work place and the place for living being close together seems genuinely utopian in the context of a world that has the bulk of us travelling en-masse each morning to some distant locale in order to perform our vocational duties. The commute is the modern-day curse but the modern-day status quo.

But things are changing. Advances in technology are allowing many of us to work effectively from home and, as a result, there’s a growing trend to incorporate well-designed office space into our households.

Adding an office to a home can be as simple as renaming a room or as involved as building on a new wing, it all hinges on its intended use. For individuals wishing to create a home office, ask yourself these few questions: How often will you use it?  What are your work patterns? When will you be working? Can you afford interruptions or is privacy a paramount? Will you be entertaining clients routinely? The answers will generally hint to the best size and location.

For individuals desiring isolation from other family members (inquisitive young children come to mind) an office area connected to the master bedroom suite can provide the solitude desired. But the bedroom office creates a dynamic between the place of rest and the place of work that might be unwanted and entertaining clients there can create a stranger dynamic still. The bedroom office can work well for some and not at all for others.

Other individuals might find the bulk of their home office work is “overtime” in nature - evenings and weekends - and they desire a certain connection to the rest of the household when working there. I find this to be the most common scenario these days and I often incorporate such a space near the family activity zone - the living-dining-kitchen circuit - that allows the user to feel part of the activity while still providing a certain level of detachment when needed. French doors work great for such a space providing a visual connection even when acoustics require the doors to be shut.

Taking over a seldom-used guest bedroom is often an easy and economical use of space when creating a home office. The bedroom is typically contained in nature, allowing for privacy, and is often conveniently adjacent to a bathroom. Incorporate a Murphy bed (a fold-away wall bed) into the layout and the room will work like a charm for both office use and for the occasional guest.

For those intending on doing a lot of work from home then an office that’s private and off the main family circuit is your best bet. Locating such a space adjacent to the main entry often works well as it’s typically further away from the heart of the home and allows easy access for clients coming to and from the space. The incorporation of a separate entry door can make the home office more independent still, creating a true stand-alone place of work that’s still inextricably linked to the place you live.

If the idea of the 15-second commute from the kitchen to the office is enticing for you then give some thought of incorporating a home office into your life. Give a little thought to how you’ll use it before you lay it out and before you know it you’ll be reading the morning paper when most others are reading the license plate in front of them.

Choosing a builder

You have drawings in hand, a design in mind and the intent to build. It’s time to choose a qualified builder to do your work.

A qualified builder or general contractor is a professional who takes the architect’s and designer’s conceptual ideas and makes them into a built reality. They’ll have a track record of successful built projects to their name and a list of happy clients to back up their claims. An experienced builder will never start a job without first signing a contract and they’ll always carry the necessary liability insurance and workman’s compensation coverage to protect their client and themselves. Through it all, the builder will assume complete responsibility for the contracted work and will provide a full warranty for it when it’s done.

I’ll typically suggest interviewing two or three qualified builders for a project regardless of its size. A contractor may come with the best recommendations in the world but in the end they need to work well with you for it to be a smooth construction process. Sitting down with the builder and getting a feel for how they operate is a critical first step. You’re looking for someone who’s organized and professional and who’s comfortable communicating with you. A construction project is always a challenging journey and good communication skills can’t be overstated.

If you feel you can work with a builder then a fee proposal is the next step. Each builder will receive identical drawings and specifications and will return to you a fee proposal, outlining their scope of work and an estimated cost to complete it. Since it’s very rare to find a homebuilder these days willing to give a fixed price on a building project you can expect your fee proposal to be a cost estimate with an additional amount added on as a management fee. The typical contract between owner and contractor, in this most common scenario, is the CCDC-3 (Canadian Construction Documents Committee) Cost Plus Contract. What it amounts to in the end is that the estimated cost to complete the work is essentially that, just an estimate. The contractor is not legally bound to a number. I generally like to negotiate a fixed administration fee based on a percentage of the actual-cost to complete. This percentage typically runs anywhere from 10-15% of actual-cost and is a number on which you can compare builders. Talking with previous clients about budgets and cost over runs can be very informative at this stage since an initial estimate is not a legally binding bid and the builder’s track record will speak to their rigourness at this estimating stage. An inaccurate low bid might sway a decision in the wrong direction so, once again, depend upon the experienced and qualified builder to give you the most experienced and qualified bid.

Take the time needed to follow up on references and to take walk-throughs of previous projects if possible. Costs and fees are important decision making factors but aren’t the only ones. At the end of the day you should have ‘peace of mind’ at the start of your project that the builder at the helm is an experienced professional who’s going to get the job done smoothly, on time and on budget.