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I designed/built my own house too[1], giving sketches to an architect and working with him. Some major takeaways for others who have yet to build: * No one wil

I designed/built my own house too[1], giving sketches to an architect and working with him. Some major takeaways for others who have yet to build: * No one will care about your project as much as you and this includes the architect :( * Few(???) architects and zero builders seem to understand light/wind/circulation like people apparently intuitively did 200 years ago. You might be better off with the average curious engineer designing the house than the average architect. Everyone is astonishingly lazy, even mansions around here have terrible light/circulation problems. * VR is no match for IRL! It's best to actually get a measuring tape and stake out the dimensions of the house on the land. An even better, get chalk and go to a big flat parking lot and draw out the entire floor plan (compass-correct) and walk inside, looking at the sun (keeping in mind what season). This worked well for me, I should have done more of it. I didn't build a porch though, which is where getting more exacting summer/winter sun angles would matter. I actually got the chalk idea from the excellent movie The Founder, where the creators of McDonalds try out different kitchen workflow models this way. * Draw and sketch a huge amount. Sketch facades freeform, with the ruler, etc. The fidgeting will help you discover things. * Read a bunch of books about old houses. Maybe most approachably: Get Your House Right and A Pattern Language * Get a pinterest board for you + spouse. We used ours heavily and it was great for keeping track of interior detail decisions. [1] It's a fundamentally simple house, basically a box that maximizes light and airflow and wood burning heat, so I probably had a much easier task than you. Some of the original drawings: https://twitter.com/simonsarris/status/1183150002002112512 https://twitter.com/simonsarris/status/1183150002002112512

throwaway744678 7y ago
Drawing your plan on the floor sounds a good idea, but isn't there an effect where outdoor surfaces look much smaller than the same surface indoor? How do you account for that?
- simonsarris 7y ago
  Actually that seemed to be a big problem of computer models to me too. When I was a kid I modeled the houses I was living in using Counterstrike Source's Hammer editor, and they always felt SO SMALL to walk around "inside" when they were correct to scale, even though one of them was a fairly big 1800's house. So either way you simulate things you have funny perceptions. And during construction you are kind of thrown about by the perception of the size. When framing is done, it feels huge. Once all the plaster is on the walls, it feels extremely "small" at first because you were so used to the big openness of the frame, then finally as more finishes are applied it just feels correct at last. It's hard to describe exactly what feeling happens. But suffice to say it's never easy to get "right" feeling simulations of a structure until you put up literal walls. For this reason, if you want to build a 5x7 bathroom or 11x13 bedroom or whatever, the best possible thing you can do is find one that already exists. Or find a 11x11 room or something and try to imagine it with 2 more feet. Then you can carry these mental rooms around with you. At least, that's what I did a lot of.
  - Mirioron 7y ago
    >and they always felt SO SMALL to walk around "inside" when they were correct to scale, even though one of them was a fairly big 1800's house. Is that due to the Field of View being lower in games compared to real life? When you increase the FoV in games then things further away look smaller.
    - pfisch 7y ago
      You also move incredibly, absurdly fast. Play half-life 2 in VR and you will get very motion sick, but you will also realize how insanely fast you are moving.
- greggman2 7y ago
  This has been my problem. Planning with a floor plan is not remotely the same as being there. What I think will work on a floor plan doesn't when I actually try it. VR would work for me because the sense of space exists in VR where as it does not in floor plans nor on 3D renders views on 2D screens.
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asavov 7y ago
I really enjoy the discussion that emerges here. It is rare to find so many viewpoints and constructive criticism on the way architecture services function today. As an architect I am taking notes. You mention circulation, so I wanted to share a service I’m currently working on to check floor plans for how good the circulation is. Sunlight is coming soon too. I would appreciate your thoughts on it. https://www.floorplancheck.com https://www.floorplancheck.com At the moment it simulates the most common scenarios in a home and the paths in the house that correspond to them, for example, getting back home with the groceries bags. Then it tells you if those paths can be improved and suggests how.

throwaway744678 7y ago

Drawing your plan on the floor sounds a good idea, but isn't there an effect where outdoor surfaces look much smaller than the same surface indoor? How do you account for that?

simonsarris 7y ago
Actually that seemed to be a big problem of computer models to me too. When I was a kid I modeled the houses I was living in using Counterstrike Source's Hammer editor, and they always felt SO SMALL to walk around "inside" when they were correct to scale, even though one of them was a fairly big 1800's house. So either way you simulate things you have funny perceptions. And during construction you are kind of thrown about by the perception of the size. When framing is done, it feels huge. Once all the plaster is on the walls, it feels extremely "small" at first because you were so used to the big openness of the frame, then finally as more finishes are applied it just feels correct at last. It's hard to describe exactly what feeling happens. But suffice to say it's never easy to get "right" feeling simulations of a structure until you put up literal walls. For this reason, if you want to build a 5x7 bathroom or 11x13 bedroom or whatever, the best possible thing you can do is find one that already exists. Or find a 11x11 room or something and try to imagine it with 2 more feet. Then you can carry these mental rooms around with you. At least, that's what I did a lot of.
- Mirioron 7y ago
  >and they always felt SO SMALL to walk around "inside" when they were correct to scale, even though one of them was a fairly big 1800's house. Is that due to the Field of View being lower in games compared to real life? When you increase the FoV in games then things further away look smaller.
  - pfisch 7y ago
    You also move incredibly, absurdly fast. Play half-life 2 in VR and you will get very motion sick, but you will also realize how insanely fast you are moving.
greggman2 7y ago
This has been my problem. Planning with a floor plan is not remotely the same as being there. What I think will work on a floor plan doesn't when I actually try it. VR would work for me because the sense of space exists in VR where as it does not in floor plans nor on 3D renders views on 2D screens.

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asavov 7y ago

I really enjoy the discussion that emerges here. It is rare to find so many viewpoints and constructive criticism on the way architecture services function today. As an architect I am taking notes. You mention circulation, so I wanted to share a service I’m currently working on to check floor plans for how good the circulation is. Sunlight is coming soon too. I would appreciate your thoughts on it. https://www.floorplancheck.com https://www.floorplancheck.com At the moment it simulates the most common scenarios in a home and the paths in the house that correspond to them, for example, getting back home with the groceries bags. Then it tells you if those paths can be improved and suggests how.