facade help

I think the real problem with the facade is a lot more subtle - and a lot harder to fix than a few surface changes. I believe it's a basic lack of symmetry. Humans love symmetry, all the world's most famous and most loved paintings have a beautiful underlying symmetry. Good graphic design also depends massively on following basic rules of symmetry that most people would never notice.

So some of the problems I see here:

- the top windows are not evenly spaced
- the top windows at either edge are a dfferent distance to each corner
- none of the top windows align with anything on the bottom level
- the front door area also aligns with nothing and so is big source of disruption
- the two end rook peaks are distracting
- the garage doors are different widths
- there are three different horizontal levels to the first story roof. Add to this the horizontal of the top of the front door area, and the two different gutterlines, and you have a confusion of horizontals
- the "border space" around the garage doors is different on each side
- the right-side window is fighting with the front door
- the left-side bottom window aligns with nothing
- the left side of the top middle window almost aligns with the left side of the front door. These "near misses" are especially bad
- the left-side of the top-right window is another "near miss" with the left-side of the garage door.
- Yet another near miss is the edge of the front room wall with the left-side of the top left window
etc etc etc

Now I'm not suggesting for a moment that everything in a design must be lined up, otherwise you'd end up with an incredibly dull and static chocolate box ! Nor do all the things I've mentioned need changing. The list above is merely me trying to identify every element that may be confusing the eye.

It's crucial that angles and sections and spaces are in harmony, that subtle "major lines" are created. This is true of the "reflection lines" in sports cars, and of the way top newspaper designers arrange stories on a page to "lead the eye". Often what looks almost random works because of these subtle alignments. When done well you won't know they're there unless you know what to look for.

So I think the discomfort you feel with this design is your unconscious self being unable to lock onto anything to "lead the eye" through the design. Of course this is based on a flat 2D facade view - perhaps a 3D render would reveal some nice alignments that you can't see looking at the plan front-on ..

One way to imagine a fix is to draw three or four vertuical lines right through the facade and try to line up some elements to these lines. Likewise, draw in three or four horizontal lines and try to align most of your elements to those.

Until at least a majority of elements are "clicked in" to some strong lines I think this design will be aesthetically uncomfortable.

I think it'd be useful to have an informal "facade design chat" with the draftsman. get a pile of "scribble copies" of the facade and a couple of pencils. Say that you want to create some strong lines to tie the elements together.

Just for starters totally ignore the consequences to the interior layout. You'd also need to see what effect such rough changes would have in 3D. Once you go through some of the options you might find that the effect on the floorplan is very small.

I've done an incredibly rough example of what I mean just so you can see how you could try to align some of the elements. It's by no means a good final option ! And again some of these probably aren't relevant when you see the design in 3D.



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cabinfever,

f I had to rate your post on a scale of 1-10, I'd give it 11

Thanks for the information. Not that I need it (house already designed and being bricked today), but that's a very useful post.

Thks.

Paula,

Is there a reason that you didn't just move the garage so that it's LH wall starts on the RHS of the staircase? Ie. shift it to the right?

Also between the back of the right hand garage and the house, you have a passage which seems wasteful and possibly collect dust and dirt. Is there anything you can do to fix it?

Very intresting design with the shower and bath in the ensuite. Be intresting to see in real life. Lots of intresting little goodies in this design.

I agree Cabinfever has done a fantastic job!

My 2c worth - instead of a window in the WIR, you could plant a pretty tree or hang something nice on that wall instead, so it looks more interesting.

Some great ideas in the interior... as for the facade, it's quite hard to see the real implications of some possible changes without seeing a 3D view - the exterior lines are quite complex and need to be seen in perspective as a "real person view" standing on the footpath. I've seen some brilliant designs on paper fail in the real world.

Does your draftsman do 3D modelling ? If not perhaps you could mock up the exterior on some home software ?