BEFORE THE ARCHITECT – THE BIG PICTURES

RESIDENTIAL DRAWINGS –

MAJOR PLAN SETS, FRENCH COUNTRY

ELEVATIONS - FRONT OF HOUSE

Elevations, Front of  House, in PDF

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This sheet is so full of information, it all but bursts open.

There's the visual impact of the front elevation itself. Wow. Elegant. Understated. Warm and welcoming. Distinctively complex, but not confusing. Identifying some individuated spaces inside, but not giving away everything on close inspection let along at a glance. The visual centerpiece will be a magnificent front door inspired by magazine clippings, and to be built on commission by Robert Bowden, Inc., the only door builder the AG contacted that stepped up to the challenge as we defined it, and stepped up without hesitation.

See how the whole front facade is designed to catch your eye, but not keep it as you naturally return to the welcoming front door passage.  This is an absolutely fundamental point for respecting in house design, one that's very, very frequently abused.  

While we'll dwell on interior spaces later on, let's tour the front facade visually. Overall, it's a story-and-a-half structure - the rooflines begin from L1's top plates; L2 occupies space interior to the house lines of L1. Garage on the left with L2 dormers in profile, office to the left of the main entry and the shed dormers above as elements of "Refuge and Lookout", and "A Sheltering Roof" (Patterns of Home by Jacobson, Silverstein, and Winslow, Taunton, 1941, first printing...magnificent design insight). The family room is to the entry's right, with its prodigious chimney, and then a hidden space - a hidden garden - behind a high wall on the far right.

Visually, that's it. Well, that's almost it. Additionally, there is a faint indication of the physical relationship between the house and its crawlspace.

But that's not all this sheet's information by a long shot.

There are legends and codes everywhere. Building legends and coded building schedules distinguish windows, doors, exterior finish, plus both specific house design and house construction notes, leading you back to extensive listings of individual components and cross-references to related particulars throughout the plan set.

Elevations, in total, set a stage of expectation, and they provide a cross-reference by which to gain better conception, fuller conception of the design constructed.

Mechanically, elevations come dead last in our drawing work sequence.  We may sketch this or that, or our clients will send us pics or hand-drawn depictions of what they're looking for in the end. And we're always cognizant of style as we layout interior spaces. But we don't ever set down seriously to draw elevations in other than the barest of forms if at all until all else is in hand and understood and usually in draft. This is especially so for the floor plan - in our book of life experience, the floor plan is the house design linchpin.

Design Tip: You want to make your design life a misery? Then start on the outside, the elevations, and fit your dream residence, your dream home behind it...