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My partner designed a “traditional” house for a client of ours. It’s currently under construction and we went out for a site visit. It’s nicely designed. However, the owners have made some poor decisions and mucked up the proportions. It’s now taller than it should have been. As designed, it was pretty good. But I couldn’t like it. I kept wondering why.

Last night, if figured it out. I figured out some of what I don’t like about traditional styles, or why modern interpretations of traditional bothers me so much.

It’s really not very complicated. While I may not like some “traditional” architecture (and by this I mean early 20th century or older) I can appreciate it. I do enjoy their proportions, detailing and I’ve gained a better understanding of why they did what they did.

What I don’t like about modern “traditional” stuff is simple. It’s badly done. And, there is so much of the bad stuff that the good stuff sometimes just gets lumped in with everthing else. The details are similar and from a road distance, the good blurs by. I’m so used to seeing poorly done “traditional” that I’ve stopped looking at it all together. In the end, I may miss well done “traditional”.

It’s much like thinking that Totino’s Frozen Pizza is what pizza is. If most of your experience is Totino’s, then you may not have much of a desire for a really good brick oven pizza from the local pizza parlor. Good pizza is easy to find and make. Unfortunately, good “traditional” isn’t easy to design or build. That’s probably why we don’t see much of it. And when we do, we’re likely to lump it in with Totino’s.

PS: I actually like a Totino’s… once a year. Any more than that and we’ve exceeded my ability to deal with it.

Those of us who desire residential architecture that better reflects our modern times have wondered what it will take to get there.  A look through plan books, Better Homes and Gardens, and a number of places show that we’re not leaning modern, yet.

The “Green” movement might bring hope.  While vernacular designs did take into account the local climate conditions and material availabilities (along with the skills brought by those who settled the area), they didn’t take into account many of the things we’ve learned about construction, energy use, etc.  Show me a “traditional” house that doesn’t look out of place with solar panels.

“Green” brings hope.  “Green” design almost dictates a modern style.  It wants us to be more sensitive to the site, material choices, and energy usage.  All of these are opportunities for us to come up with designs that aren’t traditional.

Green might be what it takes to final get Modern.

We’re currently producing a DVD about working with a designer.  If you have any recommendations, thoughts, ideas or concerns, let us know and we’ll consider them for inclusion.

This post contains correspondance I recently had with Daniel Libeskind (well, actually someone on his staff), I’m sure he has better things to do then to correspond with an obscure architect from the backwoods of Minnesota. Before I get to it, however, I would like to indicate that my intention is not to be rude or disrespectful. This is part of my profession that I have never been able to understand and there is a certain level of irritation when I see it practiced. Thankfully, the internet and email give me a forum to express myself.

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Well, this is my first plan review post. Let me just say that I think this is going to be fun.
While it would be easy to just say, “Everything is crap unless it looks like it belongs on the cover of Architectural Record,” and gain the appreciation of the stereotypical AIA architect who is the product of this countries architecture schools, that would not be my honest opinion. Most of what ends up on the cover of AR is equally crapola, just of a different consistency. This, I think, makes me less than the ideal AIA member, but AIA member I am, nonetheless. Seems they will take money from just about anyone nowadays.

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