You've got to know to the rules before you break the rules. I don't know about McMansions. Certainly (~20th century) Dutch architecture follows somewhat differ

You've got to know to the rules before you break the rules. I don't know about McMansions. Certainly (~20th century) Dutch architecture follows somewhat different design guidelines. We don't have as much space, sometimes sacrificing balance or even proportion. We definitely have much bigger windows (voids), it's a cultural thing. Similarly, fig.2 "Secondary Masses: 6" looks to me like it could be a Mediterranean communal farm, grown organically (truly don't see what's wrong with that one tbh). But I don't want to go into details. The most important rule of design is: You've got to know to the rules before you break the rules. Some of these rules are grown by circumstance, and you can't always break them (or build a shitty house--but sometimes you can be clever). Some of the rules are grown by taste or preference. These you can play with. Some of the rules are grown by circumstance, turned into preference, because technology advanced and preference didn't. These you can also play with. Relating this to HN: The above holds just as much for designing webpages or app user interfaces.