Often clients have specific, pre-conceived ideas of a particular design when they approach their architect for professional services. This has happened to me on several occasions. While most architects will welcome such input, I try to steer our clients in a different direction: “Let’s see where our conceptual design takes us….”

Clients should trust in the judgment of their design professional for the creation of an original concept. A blank sheet of paper is a great beginning where anything can happen, and surprises loom around every pencil stroke. Right or wrong, this trust enables a new viewpoint, a different approach, a non-systematic endeavor.

Sometimes certain ideas are just not appropriate for the specific project context. Simple functional considerations may not be suited for a particular kind of layout. While innovative ideas are always integral to the process of design, this 'creativity' can also be a very ‘misappropriated’ tool in unrefined hands. Frank Lloyd Wright once commented that: “[sic]… doctors bury their mistakes, we build ours.”

A client’s active participation during the preliminary design phase is best defined by the objective viewpoint an architect provides. Sometimes a successful solution may be found in the unorthodox application of specific design parameters, such as an unusual floor plan or a striking elevation concept. Due to unconventional site conditions, a special plan configuration may satisfy any specific client requirements, and at the same time offer a unique solution. These factors enhance the visual and functional perception of a particular design.

Twenty years ago my father, Alfred Browning Parker, FAIA, designed one of his homes in Miami,Florida, where the rooms were separated by elevated terraces built around the existing flora of tall palm trees. The original purchase agreement for the lot stipulated that none of the trees be moved or damaged.

The dining room, kitchen and guest room consisted of one enclosed structure. The living room, library, guest room, are the second structure. The master bedroom, child bedroom, baths and closets represent the third, most private building. Each of these structures are separated by various species of grown palm trees. All three buildings are ‘connected’ by a swimming pool and elevated concrete terrace. The site, originally a botanical garden became the integrating design statement for this house.

Such creative statements often become architectural ‘landmarks’, increasing the value of a particular residence, as this house has been noted for several national design award honors. Without careful consideration a particular ‘style’ with the passage of time can easily be ‘stale’ or appear dated.

There are other considerations. These unique structures usually require consistent and costly maintenance, and can quickly evolve into a blossoming state of disrepair. Many of Frank Lloyd Wright’s elaborate designs carried such fate as poor detailing, specific climatological factors and neglect contributed to an increased state of entropy. Far from being eyesores, the value of an unkept property would continue to depreciate, despite the applications of a master talent and their historical contribution. Many of the case study homes of Los Angeles are examples of such historical neglect.

Many innovative design ideas need the test of time as a criteria for judgment. A conservative approach to the “design aesthetic” will almost always result in an increased curbside appeal and garner higher public approval. Strange, loud, esoteric design statements -on the other hand- seem to bring out the most vociferous opponents at architectural review hearings, but they do generate press. Al Ries may have made this point in his marketing bible The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, as he once stated: “There is no such thing as bad marketing.” What is new and untried is often challenged and receives notoriety.

Foreign cultural influences also may apply toward creating design diversity. The Mediterranean 'Atrium' layout, the Far Eastern interaction of outdoor to indoor space, the material-specific adobe desert vernacular of white, rounded stucco finishes with trellis and vigas are often emulated as modern design evolution.

The Santa Fe Adobe is a stylistic example that is quite influential in the local California home construction with designers at this time. Since these plans reflect a very climate specific intent and purpose, they may be inappropriate for certain site conditions. The center atrium layout requires a lot of space. With an abundance of expanse in the desert this is not a problem, however on a one-half acre suburban lot, setback requirements and planning regulations may hinder such considerations.

Culturally the ‘typical’ house plan has changed dramatically over the last few years, simply because homeowner needs have become more multi-faceted. From the concept of a simple shelter from the elements, the home has evolved into a complex, interactive ‘environment’, addressing the specific needs of each individual occupant.

The kitchen was once a small, efficient work room, ideal for a single person to prepare the family meal. Today it is tied into the recreational functions of the home, with many contributing factors. Dad, now the semi-pro gourmet, prepares the Bar-B-Que sauce on an open grill. Mom cuts the veggies fresh from an in-house window garden. The house guests prepare drinks from the wetbar and the kids put out hors-d’oeuvres in front of the big screen and light a fire for ambiance. Everybody enjoys instant internet connectivity with TV, Wi-Fi and computer games blurring the definition of privacy. The kitchen is not your little room tucked away between the dining and the laundry anymore. As Michael Lawlor states in his wonderful book A Home for the Soul: “The relationship of earth, water and fire links practical kitchen work to the archtypical realm of the soul.”

Such entertainment “amenities” have revised many aspects of the modern residential floorplan, and have required a rethinking and adjustment of our most basic premises. With a fully functional family room, how often is that ‘formal’ living room really used now?

There are many other modern lifestyle changes, which influence the way we live. The perception of the master bedroom for instance, has changed significantly over the last few decades. Often considered a retreat from the hectic day-to-day activity of family life, it is no longer just a sleeping room. With sitting area, study, fireplace, bar, exercise, and video equipment, this suite has virtually become a reclusive mini-apartment.

The modern bath now features amenities such as a solar greenhouse, a workout area, a multi-function whirlpool, or a accompanied by a multiple shower steam room. The concept of a ‘greenhouse-style’ master bath is not that far-fetched. Instead of fighting the fungus and mildew, perhaps plant and fungi growth should be allowed. Warm sunlight, high humidity, towering green fern plants are natural surroundings for the shower ‘area’. Instead of white-tiled hygiene, we allow the natural sense of a raw, limestone quarry tile with plants, moss and trees to provide a relaxing environmental ambiance. The bath becomes a natural stone, sunken pit, perhaps even with a built-in waterfall feature.

This concept originates from the English Greenhouse, or Tea room. Enjoying the Sunday paper with an occasional champagne breakfast has never been so relaxing. With our notion of “bathroom” evolving from the cubbyhole-hygienic water closet, sink and bathtub into Gatsby-esque opulence, we are learning to spend more time addressing specific lifestyle issues.

With a renewed drive toward more energy efficient, recyclable ‘green’ homes, the evolving house of the future may seem unacceptable today as to our current way of thinking. Everything that relates to energy conservation and lifecycle costing will have a high initial purchase cost, however will show over the long term substantial gains in low maintenance and service upkeep.

Space, as in volume of room size, will be a premium luxury consideration. A twenty by forty foot living room, with sixteen foot high ceiling and select few pieces of furniture, offers it’s own unique statement of elegance and understated design eloquence.

Soon enough perhaps an extreme form of conservation consciousness may force the marketplace to consider building new houses using pre-constructed walls of recycled refuse? The use of translucent, energy-efficient light panels instead of windows is gaining in popularity in high density contexts. Would you rather be looking into your neighbors’ kitchen six feet away or a luminescent, diffused light white panel? Today there are piezo-electric crystal transducer windows commercially available, which by the simple turning of a rheostat knob can either increase or decrease their transparency quality.

Our priorities are changing, and this is a gradual cultural-sociological-awareness shift, one proceeding unnoticed unless you’re actually looking for these specific modifications to your particular lifestyle. Soon enough we will develop homes-bland, formless boxes on the exterior- which adapt via electro-mechanical (virtual reality) technology to the specific individual interior requirements of the occupant. The ‘hologram’ of science fiction is no longer that far-fetched.

Already in a very space-starved downtown Tokyo, there are continuous loop, digital high definition, flat screen TV window walls available, depicting various scenic landscapes for soothing relaxation. Just mount it on your solid basement brick wall and transform your environment. Change is inevitable and sometimes at a very surprising rate, but nonetheless at a constant process in our basic, governing laws of thermodynamics. The universe proceeds, entropically.

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