Patrick Hansford Associates

In my second installment, we began to introduce our design process and we were going to follow a project through the design process........ well, that project is still on hold from the Summer. So I have decided to move forward with another project.

As stated before, I have developed a design process that provides our clients the ability to be actively involved in the design, plus the process provides them lots of information during design. Our process affords our clients the ability to make informed decisions. Or simply stated......

    Architecture is a process that allows our clients to make informed decisions.

The Project - The Farm

This project is small, but complex. The Owners are a young couple with two small children. They purchased the property over three years ago. The property is a rural farmstead with a house and two barns. The Owner rents the tillable land to a local farmer and is preserving the wooded areas of the property in their natural state.

The house is a one and a half story wood frame structure with complex roof forms. Stylistically, the house is something of a cross between a Cape Cod and a Tudor. The house has had a variety of improvements and modifications. Some good, some not so good.

At some point, the original entrance to the house was closed off and moved to a rear porch. The house presently does not have a public face.

The master bedroom is located on the second floor. The master bath occupies a dormer. The bathroom is small and the tub is located under the roof line. You can use it as a tub, but forget about the shower - unless your under 4 foot tall. 

The Owners have requested our assistance in developing a new public entry to the house and to design a new master bathroom.

Homework - Zoning Requirements

Before our first project meeting with the client, the project starts with us conducting some basic research and a little footwork. We have to research the local zoning ordinance for building setback requirements, allowable lot coverage, allowable height, and in some locations, allowable materials. For the project under consideration - a residential renovation in a rural township - this required contacting the Township Zoning Office.

The existing house is well within the building setbacks for the property and there will be no zoning code issues to address.

Homework - Base Drawings

The second thing we need to do is field measure the house. Field measuring and drafting the base drawings allows me to get a good sense of the house. I can start to see how spaces and elements of the house relate to each other. In this case, there are a variety of roof forms. Just our luck, every roof has a different slope. We will have to work extra hard to make any addition look natural.

Here are the some of the base drawings for this house.
 

Now its time to schedule our first meeting with the Owner. This meeting is the design charrette. The charrette is the part of our process that separates us from other architects and certainly from residential designers.