Built-ins

We consider The Not So Big House Book required reading for our clients. We want clients to think about ways to reduce their square footage through good design. One encouragement that author, Sarah Susanka, provides that I question is the use of Built-ins.

Space should be more versatile than what is presented with built-ins. We have ripped out many a built-in. At times it breaks our hearts because they are well crafted and simply do not fit the needs of the current owner. At other times we gladly deconstruct ghastly forms more faux than functional. It is wise to think of a home through the span of a family’s life. This does not lend itself well to spaces that are not flexible. Americans tend to live by the values of disposability. We tend to change things before they are worn out. Think wall colors, cabinets and countertops. Far better to change out a piece of furniture that can be reused by someone else, than to rip apart something that has been built in and send it to the landfill.

Built-ins often evoke imagines of good design and great masters such as Greene and Greene. But there is also a great tradition of designers who integrated interior design to architectural design, designing furniture, wallpaper and even silverware. The art of design must lend itself to the landscapes of our lifestyles. For most Americans, and especially for most American homes, this should exclude built-ins that will inevitably fall victim to whim or fashion.

Welcome to Greenprint

The word blueprint refers to a set of, usually detailed, architectural plans. It comes from the type of printing that was once used to create these plans. Greenprint refers to plans whose aim it is to build something that steps more lightly on the planet. By fractal extrapolation it also means an inclusive plan to save our bio-system.

Green is in vogue. As such there are green bits and green washing. Green bits are the little nuggets of something that may be green… or not, but that is presented in a disconnected way that, at best, obscures its value and, at worst, distorts its lack of value. Green washing of course is the act of taking anything and presenting it in a green light regardless of its quality as something green. Think of it this way, the bots are what gets washed.

On an integrity scale, green bits and green washing do not rank very high. But, let’s not throw the baby out with the green wash. Despite a lack of integrity, these ploys of marketing carry with them the green meme into popular culture.

When I took my first class in “ecological design” in about 1976, the term green referred only to a color. We have come a long way. Predominant cultural paradigms are not unilaterally good or bad. They exist as a pool from which we draw a great deal and, contribute to, if at all, only a very little.

This Blog is an instrument of Stearns Design Build, a residential design build firm in College Station, Bryan and now Austin, Texas that seeks to develop projects in a system that, among other things, is as holistically green as possible. We design and Build custom homes and remodeling projects.

Stearns Design Build works under a design paradigm, developed by company founder, Hugh Stearns known as Transitions. We will use this blog to define, examine, challenge and develop this design paradigm. We invite others in the industry to participate.

We will also explore aspects of particular projects, materials and anything else that pertains to the world of residential design build.