How We Design Custom Homes

If you’ve been following along on our social media channels, you know lately we’ve been sharing moments from our design process for our projects “on the boards”. We’ve received lots of positive feedback from our clients, fellow architects, friends and followers on how we’re documenting the unique story of each project along with the process of how we work. We hope sharing these “behind the scenes” moments in the studio will shed some light on what it’s like to work with us to design a custom home that is more than just a house, but an ideal place for you and your family to live… #homesnotjusthouses.

Just as we shared the process behind the Schematic Design Phase for Tranquil Abiding, today we’re sharing some of our favorite moments captured in the studio during the process of designing a modern home in the Hudson Valley, Cat Hill.

Behind the Design: Cat Hill

Our first Pre-Design meeting for Cat Hill. We start each project with an information gathering session – in which we ask a lot of questions about how our clients live and how they intend to live in their new home. This is our chance to get to know our clients better and learn what they are really looking for and need in their new home.

 

 

Part of the information we collect during the Pre-Design phase includes our client’s wish list for their home, including their favorite “styles”, inspiration images, and likes and dislikes. After this meeting we get started planning out ideas for our design. 

 

 

We take the information we collected during Pre-Design about our client’s wants and likes, along with details about the site, project budget, timeline, and design goal – and come up with three design schemes for our clients to review during our first Schematic Design meeting. You know it’s a good meeting when your client says you’ve exceeded her expectations and spoiled her with options!

 

 

Schematic Design is also the time to help our client understand the space inside her new home and how she’s going to use it.

 

 

During one of the Pre-Design meetings with our Cat Hill client she mentioned wanting a home that is “simple and comfortable, but stylish with some dramatic ‘wows’.” By using wood screens and playing with light and shadow throughout the home, we’re creating the “magic moments” that our client has expressed an interest in experiencing.

 

 

Our design for Cat Hill responds to the steep and dramatic topography of the site, creating natural angles between programmatic elements. A long gallery space highlights a meaningful art collection and culminates in a glass fitness studio that extends above the ridge, providing unrivaled views of the cascading cliff and the creek far below.

 

 

Standing on the patio one will be able to just make out the sounds of the running water, giving visitors a chance to appreciate their surroundings and take a deep breath of the fresh mountain air. 

 

 

Our goal for the design of the fitness studio is for it to feel as though it is floating out among the trees on this property.

 

 

Spaces, sunlight, sound and sight… Cat Hill was designed in direct response to its site conditions, these are the driving factors that helped define it.

 

 

Our Cat Hill client has a strong belief that with hard work anything is possible. A celebration of her accomplishments in life thus far, this much awaited retreat for an avid runner and cyclist is perched on a ridge with views of the Catskill Mountains. Inspired by our client’s own journey in life, our goals for this design are to create a house she will be proud to live in with a few special “magic moments” that make it home.

The dark wood cladding emulates the large pine trees on site, obscuring the home within the densely forested landscape. Combining her intensely personal journey with a deep love for the nature of the Catskill Mountain region, this home is named after its surroundings, the client’s beloved pet, and a few magical memories.