Other than some landscaping and touch up paint the homes are finished, and I am personally very happy with the way they turned out. They make a bold, interesting statement from the outside, a statement which demands either awe or insult (we have received both personally). The homes are also nicer on the inside than I originally imagined. The finishes look great and the space is simply nice to be in.
We will have a lot of pictures and video proving all of that soon. For now, I wanted to take a look at the initial imagining of the project and compare it to the finished project. I want to see how close we came to producing the vision. So, without further ado, here is the rendering and the reality.
So, how did we do? You can definitely see some differences, but overall it seems pretty close to me.
Thoughts? Put them in the comments.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Needs a little curb appeal, but I can’t wait to see the interior shots.
I noticed the windows aren’t recessed like in the rendering. I’m curious how that changed.
Looks great!
From Stuart Brand’s “How Buildings Learn”:
“When the building starts looking like the model, that’s when you know you’re in trouble.”
I don’t have the text in front of me so I can’t properly cite the quote but I recall they’re not Stuart’s words. I think a few changes admit some humility and mark adaptive design.
I’ve been trolling around here since well before construction. You all deserve what attention you’re getting and much more praise. The project has been a great inspiration and awfully informative. Thanks so much.
Bill – Agreed. We have some dirt on the long facade of the 120K we were thinking about planting a native grass on. Also, we plan to plant as many street trees as possible. The 120K owners are moving in tomorrow and one is a landscape architect, so we are letting them have as much input as possible.
eagleplex – I guess that stack of windows above the front door do look like they are recessed in the rendering. Not sure what that is about honestly. They also look like the are all ganged together. In reality, there is framing and insulation between each window there.
We also made a decision to change the windows from silver to black as we could get the same performance windows in black for a cheaper price than the silver upgrade.
You may also notice that we added another window in the front of the 120K facade. It seemed to need one more to me right before sending the plans off to our SIP manufacturer. The 120K is uber bright inside as a result of ISA’s window layout. Bravo.
Wow! Great to see the reality, I think it is a little better than the rendering. Though I would have liked to see the recessed windows above the front entry, even though it probably would have been more difficult to do.
Also, I think there is one major thing that is missing, which Chad has already spoke too, and that is the site. Foundation plantings, site trees, updated sidewalks and attention to the backyard will make the above photo easily surpass the rendering.
Also check out http://tinyurl.com/r6yvs7 for turf pavers, better looking IMO. I have no idea of costs though.
I agree that the combined entrance door and windows makes the entrance much more pronounced in the rendering, it’s unfortunate that wasn’t translated to the built form, but overall the actual colour of the hardie panels and their contrast with the black window frames is much more appealing to me. Good work guys.
Looks great, both in the photo and in person. To be honest, in person, the hardie board gives me a slightly unfinished feel, due in part to how different a material it is. Obviously you wanted to be bold in the design and you succeeded.
Like Rob said, its will really be the treatment of the surrounding area that will bring out that appeal. In your designs have there ever been any mentions of incorporating some type of greenery into the facade? What comes to mind is some kind of ivy but I have no idea how that would be executed. It would provide an interesting contrast. I’ll see if I can find some examples. Again, great job, keep up the good work!
Matthew – Good points. The Hardie is in fact unfinished still. We need to caulk the vertical seams with grey caulk, clean and do a bunch of touchup painting.
We actually had the entire rear facade intended to be a green wall of ivy from the beginning. Unfortunately, budget constraints and structural issues that we did not take into account soon enough kept us from pulling this off. I still think the concept could work well on a future home. We’ll see.
I also saw someone mentioned the turf pavers. Check out twitter links on the site homepage today. We installed some in front of 100K. We’ll have a post on this a bit later.
You guys did just fine, but it occurs to me that your architecture firm somewhat oversold the size and scale of the building in their rendering. You did an excellent job taking the picture in the exact position of the rendered image, so there’s really no excuse on the part of the firm for the inaccuracies in the size/scale. It seems like it’s not a big deal, but for clients of architects it’s important to know that the rendering of the finished product they are paying for is as accurate as possible. It’s also important for governmental bodies, like city councils, to know that when an architect comes in front of them to pitch a potential project, the renderings being shown are not “enhanced” to sway opinion.
Get that bloody telegraph post out of the picture please.
Otherwise .. very very nicely done.
CONGRATS.
I have been following the blog for a while and would like to add my congrats on a job well done!
I am curious what board and batten wooden siding would cost compared to the hardie siding.
I know that it would likely require maintenance after a while, but I think that coupling modern designs with a natural material like wood often works well. I remember coming across a link with some examples of modern houses with board and batten but can’t remember where.
Its worth noting that while the window stack is not recessed – it clearly does look that way in the rendering – the front door is not centered on the stack. It actually is justified on the right hand side and steps out to the left by a noticeable amount. What happened there?
Congrats to a job well done! It is definitely a unique look.
Looks great. I think the finished product has much greater dimensionality, and the real Hardie panel reflects the light in a much more interesting way than was suggested by the rendering. I do wish that the budget could have stretched to include the clear anodized windows instead of black, though.
I’m not sure about the complaint about the perceived scale of the house in the rendering, either. It looks like the picture used for the rendering used a different lens than the picture of the house.
Congrats! A lot of time & effort which has resulted in a fine product.