House Designs – I Love My Job

Home Architects Discussing House Designs and How They Feel About Their Work

“I love my job,” said Rand Soellner, creator of custom house designs, ” I can’t think of anything else I would rather be doing with my life.”  Rand Soellner AIA/NCARB first became a licensed architect in 1982 in Florida, and has since become licensed in mutiple states, across the USA.  He also has earned his certification from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), the nationwide entity that facilitates reciprocity throughout the United State for registered architects.  Rand Soellner’s architectural practice focuses primarily of the design of what he calls “nice” house designs.

Soellner points out that some of his house designs involve cottages as small as 393 hsf (heated square feet).  He said that he has also designed 1,000 hsf 2 BR/2Ba guest cottages, that feel like they were twice the size, because of the way he arranged the spaces, walls, partitions, windows and doors and ceilings.  Soellner had a minor in Environmental Psychology while he was earning his Masters degree in Architectural Design, a special, customized field of study he put together to help him understand how people respond to space and building elements in house designs.  Soellner also said that his house designs routinely include the creation of homes of 2,500 hsf, 3,500 hsf, 4,700 hsf, 6,000 hsf and larger.

Big homes, small homes, medium house designs

“I often receive phone calls from potential clients, wherein they seem to be embarassed to inform me that they are after house designs of “only” 2,500 sf,  or 3,500 sf.  I can tell by their voices that they believe that I may not be interested in their project because it is not a gigantic castle or something,” said Soellner.  “The reality is, I love my job and it does not matter to me how large or small a project is.  We create house designs, regardless of the size.”  Soellner said he actually designed a doghouse once, with special clearstory ventilation and precautions for cleanliness and to keep insects out.  His point is: the house designs of Rand Soellner include houses of any size, large, medium or small.

Soellner mentioned that he actually gets a kick out of seeing how efficient he can make a small house design and still have it feel luxurious.  He recalls that he used to design ultra-compact projects for governmental agencies like the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and others.  “They had strict guidelines,” recalled Soellner, “Each room had to have a certain amount of space, +/- 5%, no more, no less, to be approved by the jurisdictional and funding agencies.”  This kind of discipline and responsibility has given Soellner an appreciation for functionality, even in his large designs.  “Just because a home is a mansion does not mean that you waste space or anything else,” said Soellner, “Everything that is there should have a function and reason, even if it is a place for dancing, movie theater, games, pool tables, or other space-consuming activities.”  It is this appreciation for logic and function that allows the house designs of Rand Soellner to result in being so well-thought out, even in smaller homes.  Soellner said they watch the inches add up along a wall, including drawing in the door and window trims, fireplaces, wall finishes and other things.  He said that when you are trying to create efficiency that you have to know exactly how much room you need for things to properly function.  This appreciation for having his designs work carries through into Soellner’s medium and larger projects as well.  “It is all the same thought process,” he pointed out, “Function is function, regardless of  how big or small; things have to work in our house designs.”

The miracle of house designs and their creation.

More than these matters of logic and function, Soellner said he gets a major charge from just doing the work and coming up with the ideas and then drawings them and seeing them get built. “It’s a miracle,” Soellner said, “The very act of inspiration, creation, drawing and then seeing something that was only an idea become reality.  There is something spiritually guided about the whole process.”  Soellner said that designing homes is his passion and along with his family, his great joy in life.  In his house designs, you can see the passion and focused inspiration.

Soellner points out that the source of his designs are based in two main things that come from his clients: their description of their desired lifestyle and their project home site.  “It is a merging of these two elements that becomes the source of the inspiration for house designs.”  In the end, Soellner said: “Let me just put it this way: I love my job.”

Contact for house designs:

Rand Soellner AIA/NCARB
www.HomeArchitects.com
828-269-9046

Links and resources:  home architects

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