Get Inspired
Houseplans.com’s newest feature is a tool for exploring house design around the world. It’s called Get Inspired, and you access it by clicking on the RESOURCES tab at the top of the Houseplans.com landing page. What better time to explore historic examples of architectural styles than when you’re planning your own home. All of these houses have websites so you can learn more about each design and you can even tour them in person. For example:
This is the Villa Savoye at Poissy near Paris, of 1928 by Le Corbusier, one of the most powerful symbols of 20th century modernity — even though the roof always leaked. (The photo is by Omar Omar through Creative Commons on Flickr). Indeed, if you visit the house you may see on display some of the letters from the client to Le Corbusier asking him to do something about all the water ruinning down the interior walls. Despite such evident flaws in construction you can also see what made it so unusual, such as the way the ground floor forms a carport and front entry, and how the second floor becomes a courtyard open to the sky. There’s even a contoured lounging bench built-into the master bathroom. It was clearly a house of ideas, many of them still relevant today.
Or how about Billtmore Estate, Asheville, NC, designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt with grounds by Frederick Law Olmsted (developer of Central Park) for George Washington Vanderbilt in 1891.
The 250-room Chateau style house is the largest private estate ever built in the United States. It was, in effect, a way of bringing the European Grand Tour home — references to Blois and other French chateaux are evident (Photo by Kamoteus through Creative Commons). Though grand in a way that’s difficult to comprehend, it illustrates an idea-collecting habit that is shared by anyone building a new home.
The Art Nouveau house of Brussels architect Victor Horta, from 1901, exemplifies the Art Nouveau style.
The twisting grille on the door only hints at the curvilinear metalwork within. The interior’s nature-inspired design shows how structure and ornament can become extensions of each other. (Photo by Brian Pirie through Creative Commons.)
Many more famous houses are included in Get Inspired. Each example is thought-provoking, especially if you’re interested in understanding the history and characteristics of house design, or think you want to build in a particular architectural style. Explore away. We’ll be adding more examples regularly. I hope this new resource helps you enjoy the plan search process and ultimately achieve a better house — in other words, to know history but not be bound by it.
The Power of the Pebble
The Vine, A Conference on Community, met in San Diego last week and despite the economy brought a measure of inspiration to 140 attending builders, developers, architects, designers, branders, industry watchers, and homeowners. Two presentations galvanized the audience. Documentary film maker Ric Burns (his films include New York: A Documentary Film, Ansel Adams, and The Way West) spoke movingly about how New York City’s density, heterogeneity, and entrepreneurial spirit helped it reinvent itself repeatedly in the face of socio-economic setbacks. British innovation expert Charles Leadbeater, author of the fascinating and important book We-Think: The Power of Mass Creativity made the point that the way you frame a problem determines the answer. (This is especially true in home design.) He sees the world in terms of “pebbles’ and “boulders” where pebbles are all about new ways for huge numbers of people to collaborate (the Web) and boulders are traditionally organized entities that are more about doing things to or for someone. Google and Flickr illustrate the power of the pebble — and so does Houseplans.com. It brings many individuals together to make better houses afforable to more people. Maybe all the pebbles of the Internet can solve the credit crisis…
