Who should design our new houses?

god that made me laugh

NotSpaghetti Our house is still around after 550 years.

Architects practicing now may have designed many houses, but there are few opportunities to design cathedrals.

The master masons who were the architects of Gothic cathedrals learned through experience to understand certain relationships e.g, the height of a tower in relation to its base and wall thickness; the depth of foundations according to soil conditions, or the diameter and spacing of piers to support the masonry above.

Advancement would typically be through making mistakes - frequently catastrophic - and learning from them. A classic example is the collapse (in 1237) of the main tower at Lincoln Cathedral, and the collapse (1210) of the south-west tower of Chichester cathedral followed in 1635 by the collapse of its north-west tower.

Cement is the second most used commodity after water.
It's use has to be challenged if co2 production is to be curtailed.

So much for B.johnsons climate initiatives.

I would have thought it would need an architect to design sustainable cement reduced buildings.

M0nica

NotSpaghetti Our house is still around after 550 years.

Exactly M0nica
100-150 years is still small fry.

Namsnanny

I would have thought it would need an architect to design sustainable cement reduced buildings.

It has already been mentioned Architects are just the designers it’s the Structural Engineers that make sure it stands up. There is no difficulty making a house with no cement, timber, steel and other materials can be used, although there would need to be concrete foundations.

Not every building requires a structural engineer but every building requires a designer and that person should be an architect.

Architects are the only professionals who have been trained in all aspects of building design and consruction and that does include structural engineering.

On some projects the architect may decide to engage a structural engineer, on some projects a quantity surveyor may be engaged, on some the team may include a planning consultant, landscape architect, transport consultant, ecologist, archaeologist, contaminated land expert, heritage consultant, interior designer ot architechtural technologist, but the architect should always be the leader of the design team.

Katie59

Namsnanny

I would have thought it would need an architect to design sustainable cement reduced buildings.

It has already been mentioned Architects are just the designers it’s the Structural Engineers that make sure it stands up. There is no difficulty making a house with no cement, timber, steel and other materials can be used, although there would need to be concrete foundations.

The 'architect/planner/designer' ect has to put forward a design for a sustainable building or house, designed to use less cement.

The fact that buildings can be built with other materials, isn't the problem.
Designs that fulfill the needs of the mass market, and the impetus to build them is whats missing.

Sand believe it or not is actually in short supply as a world resource.

Varian I can assure that every building or structure has to be structurally sound and there are design principles that have to be incorporated. Every house built will have its own set of structural calculations, if they were printed out you would have a file an inch thick, thankfully a computer file replaces the printed calculations.

It’s very easy to build a house that will crack in the first storm or collapse under a heavy snow load.

I do know that structural design is an important aspect of the design of houses and indeed all buildings Katie59.

Structural engineering is part of an architects training and whereas an architect may often engage a structural engineer to carry out this work in other cases the calculations may be done by the architect herself. The structural design work is always checked as part of the Building Regulations approval process.

The Roman architectural writer Vitruvius defined the qualities essential in a good building as “Commodity, firmness, and delight” These three interrelated terms, which, in Vitruvius’s Latin text, are given as firmitas, utilitas, and venustas (i.e., structural stability, appropriate spatial accommodation, and attractive appearance). This is still true today. All three qualities are important. not just firmness.

Commodity means that a building should not only be fit for its present purpose, but should accommodate changes over time. If you watch any tv house buying programs you will often hear talk of the "flow" of the layout and how a house may or may not "feel right". The challenge for an architect designing for an individual client or family is to work with them to design the best possible house they can build on that site, at that time and within their budget, and also be able to adapt to future needs.

When designing for a developer there will be numerous issues - planning, environmental, commercial, political, and many more. The architect works with the developer to optimise the potential of the site in a way that could work well for a variety of people with different lifestyles and constraints. Matters such as disabled access, safety and low energy design have long been part of the Building Regulations and are continually updated but a good developer should aim to exceed the minimum standards. Obviously not all do.

Delight is an elusive quality as to some extent perceptions of beauty are subjective. It is certainly not about competing styles. There are guidelines for design which are timeless. An attractive house should be appropriate for its setting and no house can be truly beautiful if it is poorly constructed or unfit for its purpose.