Passion in the Architectural Design of your House

We just saw an interview of James Dyson, the gentleman who reinvented the vacuum cleaner, room fan and many other prosaic items. He said that you have to be passionate about what you do in order to do it well. We couldn’t agree more. You have to be passionate about architectural design in order to design houses that function well and look great.

Fareed Zakaria, the CNN anchor who interviewed James Dyson, is one of those rare TV reporters who have the courtesy and intelligence to listen when a great man answers the question asked. James Dyson said that he gets an “angry passion” about things that don’t work well. He focuses on what the problem is, then works on creating solutions to solve the problem. Dyson is also an artist, in that his solutions are beautiful pieces of industrial product engineering. For his vacuum cleaner, he said he created 5,127 failed prototypes before completely solving that problem.

So it goes in architectural design. A residential architect must examine thousands of interconnected components, heights, dimensions, materials, structural systems, ductwork, piping, views, doors, windows, specifications, appliances, finishes, fireplaces, building codes, site constraints, building setbacks, septic systems, wells, driveways, vehicular circulation and a host of other aspects when designing just one house for you.

It takes passion for design to remain focused on a design issue until it is thoroughly resolved. That’s what Rand Soellner Architect does. Starting at age 15, Soellner took drafting classes in high school, and undertook drafting assignments for an architect in his neighborhood, laying out churches and houses, and also worked for his father and grandfather and other builders in his time off from school, building houses. Now, some 45 years later, he continues designing custom houses. He jokes that he no longer personally builds them, although he has been seen with a hammer in hand, fixing things. He also became a Licensed Home Inspector, to increase his knowledge and share his understanding of the building systems in residential architecture.

“It does take passion,” said Soellner, “This is not an easy thing we do: the design of houses.” Soellner refers to the American Institute of Architects’ identification of residential design as one of the most complex assignments that an architect can accept. There is a lot happening between the walls, more so than most laboratories, hospitals and other complex facilities. Soellner should know, he has designed these types of projects as well as homes. There are so many roadblocks thrown up during any project, that you have to love what you do: be passionate about it, in order to find solutions, said Soellner. Experience teaches you to: Overcome, Adapt: go around, under, over, or through the barriers. Solve the problems; find the best answers.

Truly passionate architects are always trying to perfect and improve what they have done. At some point, they have to develop a process that allows them to move forward, once the plans are what they should be, so that they can create the elevations and building sections and wall sections and details. “Frank Lloyd Wright said that you don’t become a good architect until you are over 50, and I would agree with that. It takes a tremendous amount of experience,” said Soellner, “and love for what you do.”

And a passionate architect, who loves what he does, creates better architecture: better houses for you. Make sure your architect has that fire in his belly for your project and that he has a love for what he does. That will result in a better house for you and your family.