“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world.”
-Woodrow Wilson

We agree! That is why we have named our firm VIVUS!

“You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning… a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be.”

Joseph Campbell

We’d love to design a space to fill your needs.

Firmness Commodity Delight

“These are properly designed, when due reard is had to the country and climate in which they are erected. For the method of building which is suited to Egypt would be very improper in Spain, and that in use in Pontus would be absurd at Rome: so in other parts of the world a style suitable to one climate, would be very unsuitable to another. For one part of the world is under the sun’s course, another is distant from it, and another, between the two, is temperate.”

This quote came from the “Builder’s Guide to Cold Climates” by Joe Lstiburek, which I am currently reading. Firmness, commodity, and delight are three key words for architects, since they encompass the whole profession.

We have consulted with several clients who had a house that just barely met the energy code in the interest of low upfront costs. In their existing homes, they’ve been tied to high energy bills and faced high remodeling costs to improve their building envelope, since they needed either to reside or re-drywall to add insulation. It gets expensive when you have to deal with all the details, trust me. I feel for these clients, since they bought a home that could have been better.

But I am also aware that new construction will see multiple owners or tenants through its lifetime. So, the low upfront costs of today’s house really only benefit the first occupants and penalize the generations to follow.

I contrast these homes to our recent project in Nerstrand, which gets top scores for each of the big three. It’s well built, beautiful, functional, fits its site, and will have minimal utility bills for the rest of its days. I think this is what Vitruvius was after, and it feels good.

Fortunate indeed are those people of acute sensitivity who are able to find continuous aesthetic satisfaction in the everyday experiences of life.
Harold H. Titus

One of the books I am reading these days is called “Living Issues in Philosophy”, written by Harold Titus. He wrote the phrase above in the chapter on Art and Aesthetics, followed by this quote from Hunter Mead:

It is through daily, even hourly use of this perceptual awareness and aesthetic sensitivity that life is genuinely and permanently enriched. And since for most of us, frequent contact with great painting, good music, and beautiful scenery is impossible, the solution clearly lies in securing as much aesthetic experience as possible from ordinary daily living. Admittedly, these everyday experiences will seldom have the breath-catching intensity or thrilling scope of great art and magnificent scenery, but since the press of practical affairs does not often spare us the time for sustained enjoyment of powerful aesthetic emotions, the minor character of these incidental perceptual experiences has its advantages. Their frequency and ubiquitous accessibility will compensate for what they may lack in scope and intensity, and many persons of acute sensitivity find the larger part of their abundant aesthetic satisfaction in the common pattern of everyday living.

We strive to help make everyday life more beautiful through architecture. As this quote suggests, it is not primarily through the greatest or magnificent works of art, but through those we encounter each day that we enrichen our lives.

Responsible design is about providing for real needs, not perceived wants.

I found this one on Treehugger.com as part of a blurb on an anti-malaria watch.

It’s bluntness is great. And, it hits at the heart of an issue with which I’ve been wrestling.

Many of the homes that are built today are built based on hypothetical needs of a hypothetical home owner; translated: perceived wants, not real needs. A great example is the formal dining room, which rarely gets used but is often built anyway. Hottubs are another “feature” that are often underutilized (I think I heard that the average hottub is used 7 times in its lifetime).

This may be due to housing being handled as a commodity to be purchased and sold, rather than really lived in. Example: how often have you thought of the resale value of your sofa? Comfort and fit are more important in our sofa selections than the list of features it may have (built-in drink holders, stainless steel legs, double stitched seams, …)

So, do we really need 4 full bathrooms, or is the real need bathing and toilet facilities to get a family of five through their morning routine between 7:00am and 7:20 am (insert your schedule here)?

Responsible design is about providing for real needs, not perceived wants.

“Oh for a book and a shady nook…”

John Wilson obviously likes to read. Perhaps his longing for a special place to read suggests that his home lacks that nook!
As designers, we understand the need for spaces that nurture us through the activies that help us unwind, relax, and recharge. An alcove or nook can be a perfect space for reading a book, knitting, sketching, or writing letters.

Alcoves are so important that Christopher Alexander dedicated a chapter of his Pattern Language to them. Here’s the jist: No rectangular room of uniform height can accomodate a group of people well. Togetherness as a group requires space that allows a chance to be alone or in groups of two. These “alone spaces” let the occupant(s) have a small degree of privacy in a space proportionally suited to the activity and yet allows them to see and to be part of the larger activity. A classic example is the bay window seat: cushioned and wonderfully illuminated by the sun, these small places are both wonderfully personal and accessible. And, their charm is undeniable.

“Order is not pressure which is imposed on society from without, but an equilibrium which is set up from within.”

Here’s my revision:

“Order is not pressure which is imposed on architecture, but an equilibrium which is set up from within.”

This is timely in my life; we just toured the Hougen-Eitzman residence this weekend with my brother-in-law, John. He is a residential contractor in Brainerd, Minnesota. Over beers Saturday night, we got talking about design and he asked my what I would have done differently on his last house. The primary thing I saw that was lacking was order. While I was explaining it, he said something like “So, you’ve got this box and the question is how are you going to fit everything in in…?” No. The opposite. The question is how will the form and space reflect the realities of the use of the space. In essence, architectural order is defined from the inside and it permeates the whole design. It is the designer’s task to recognize the emerging patterns, relationships, and needs, and to coallesce them into a meaningful composition.