Architecture: Small is Beautiful
The LA Times has a nice feature on an architect who builds small, elegant, and highly regarded homes in Southern California.
An architect builds big for others but lives within 710 square feet himself. The quality-over-quantity ethos of the 'not-so-big' movement.
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But he is just as inclined to be plain-spoken. "I treat houses basically as a shelter. The chief purpose of a house is protection from the elements, even if the elements are as mild as here in Southern California. It's also a place to put your stuff, as George Carlin says."
The biggest mistake architects and clients make, he says, is not thinking of architectural design as a total environment for living. Landscaping is part of the design, lot line to lot line. There should be a soft interplay between indoor and outdoor, and every room should have its own outdoor space.
"He put windows in my garage. I never had that before," says client Carolyn Craft, a retired teacher. "Everything Doug does is thought out, beautiful, simple — cabinetry, his use of space, glass walls, beam ceilings. I lie in bed and just stare at my ceiling. You can always tell a Doug Rucker house. It's like walking into peace."
Check out these pictures of his home.
1 Comments:
Wow- windows in the garage. As a criminology student in the 70s, I learned about defensible space
http://www.defensiblespace.com/book.htm
A garage with windows is a perfect example fo defensible space. A number of serious violent crimes began with an intruder getting into the typical windowless garage, after which he is home free because, counterintuitively, a place that is totally enclosed allows no casual surveillance by neighbours and passers by as the intruder breaks in any locked doors.
Casual surveillance is the main deterrent to intruders. From the get go they look for concealed entry, hence a car is far safer near a store entrance than at the far reaches of a parking lot at night.
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