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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Can you do "Modern" houses?




I got a call yesterday from a long time client/contractor that I usually do commercial and industrial work for.
"So, your website is all residential/sustainable, can you do modern style design?"
"Can I do Modern? You bet!"
It was like a strange surreal dream! Most of my work is pretty traditional, not because I prefer it to Modern/Contemporary styles. In fact, if I were to design my own home (which honestly I am constantly doing) it would be a very Asian inspired modern home.
Most of the potential clients I speak with aren't interested in Modernist design. They usually have a "traditiional" style in mind when they first contact me and more often than not the preceding conversation would have been,
"Hi Dwellsol, can you do Victorian style homes?"
"Why, yes I can."
The most interesting thing about this is that most people don't REALLY want a Victorian/Mission/Tudor home, what they want is a home that the exterior APPEARS to be traditional. A home truly designed in one of the preceding styles has an interior that is highly compartmentalized, small bedrooms, and few bathrooms. Like the one pictured.

Most clients want a highly Modern interior, with open floor plan, rooms that transition into each other without doors and long hallways, they want a spacious kitchen and 1 bathroom per bedroom plus 1 and 1/2 for guests. Most want a nice cozy traditional exterior and a clean, flexible modern interior.
So, my contractor freind was looking for someone to help him with his own home. He recently bought a more modernist looking home that had been renovated in a less than compatible manner and was hoping that I might help him to get the clean modern look back. I said it sounds like fun.
I guess we will see...
j

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