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We’re always intrigued by the continual “advancements” in material technologies, “green building systems”, etc. But there is something to be said about the materials from nature and their.. dare I say... soul. This is a big idea and a foundational principle of this entire theory. But first, I have to admit-we love technology. We have robots and will soon be interacting with A.I. systems in ways only dreamt of in sci fi movies. That’s exciting. But what’s the difference between you and me and all this technological wonderstuff? We are organic. We are made of nature. That fact ties our essence, or what I’ll call our soul, to natural things. No two people are identical. No two trees are identical. No two rocks are identical. We exist in a world where the differences of details within nature create an infinite variety within a species. Each individual thing embodying the essence of the overall character of the species. That variety is where we experience beauty. We are not machined clones and nor should our building materials be. There sure is a lot packed into that paragraph. What I’m essentially saying is the more you take nature out of the material, the more you chemically alter it and machine it, the more soulless it becomes. It will feel more dead, cold, and lifeless. There are ways to bring the life back when using engineered materials and we’ll get to that later, but you can design a fairly disorganized building and if you’ve used natural materials, there will be something pleasant about it. I fully recognize that building with natural materials in today’s world is a near impossibility, but I bring it up to illustrate a point about our humanity and our infatuation with technology. The primary reason historic and old buildings, whether in ruins or still functioning, resonate with us is because of what they’re made out of ---natural materials. After a natural material completes its useful life for mankind in a building, it will return to nature. Engineered materials don’t do that—just think of the great plastic garbage patch. No one looks at a vinyl fence falling apart and thinks to themselves how much character it now has as it ages. But you may think that for a wood fence or stone fence. As you work with natural materials, you’ll notice that each stone and each piece of wood will have a unique grain and color. That variety within natural materials resonates with our soul as it reflects the natural order of things and we find within it beauty. I fully recognize that historic buildings were made of solid masonry and if you live in a region where you still build your houses in solid masonry, kudos to you, you’re already miles ahead. If you live in the US, it’s virtually impossible for you to build a real brick house. But that’s ok. We can do the best we can and use the materials we have access to in a manner consistent with their physical properties and come up with something really nice. There was a lot of meat in this post and will likely bring up many questions. Don't be shy; leave a comment down below and let's get connected! I'm always happy to help. #ClaytonVance #Architecture #TimelessDesign #Wixblog

Remember that materials less engineered will return to their natural state as they age. They will keep increasing in character as they weather. Engineered materials have the opposite effect. They are in their most attractive state at the beginning of their life span where. It’s the perfection of the material that makes it attractive and as it weathers, becomes less perfect and less attractive. Let’s look at some samples together. Pictures don’t do this topic justice, but we’ll do our best. We’ll start with brick which spans the continuum from natural to engineered. You can see what happened as you line these bricks up in chronological order. The oldest bricks were hand made in wood molds. They had a lot of variation and texture. Things changed during the turn of the last century and machines, rather than people started making bricks. The brick formula began to have additives and they were more engineered to perform and carry heavier loads. There was less variation. The mortar lines became more perfect. The aim for precision and perfection ironically diminished the character. Then in the 90’s we had a reaction to the staleness of brick and companies then added more color options and more varieties that completely ruined brick. We tried to get variety through mechanized ways and just ended up with garbage bricks of colors that bricks were never meant to be. We engineered the natural color out of brick. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. When we use these engineered brick colors, we’ve turned against brick’s natural state. Now let’s take a quick look at wood. It obviously doesn’t last as long as masonry, but it's still an essential building tool. Strong, earthy, and reliable. We use engineered materials because they are cheap. And if that’s what we can afford, we should use them. We just need to make sure we use them as authentically as possible. With the right vision and capable hands, achieving the impossible suddenly becomes a thing of the past. #ClaytonVance #CV #TimelessDesign #Architecture #wixblog

I want to open this blog post with a quote from Shakespeare: "All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts". Why open with this? Because it's true. We all play out our own story. And that story exists within a set. And that set is on a stage composed of our corner of the world where we live. And we live among our set pieces: our houses, places of work, play, civic engagement, etc. There is a dramatic set variation between cultures and across time. But they are losing their regional dramatic character to monotony and McMansion suburbs. We've lost the art of architectural storytelling in our cities. Think about some of the greatest cities and houses you've seen and love. What did a spire mean in a traditional city? What about the public park or square in the center of town? There will always be foreground subjects and background subjects. As each plays a role in how to tell what a town is all about. Take the medieval walled city of Lucca in Italy for instance. On its entrance gate, the word "Libertas" was a promise of liberty for all within the city walls. Defining that of a sacred precinct of urban life and human flourishing. Architecture is the visual representation of our collective and individual values. There is no getting around that fact. So we have to ask; what does our architecture today tell future generations about our time? Are we proud of our legacy? Most of us are doing our best, but the results aren't meeting our needs over time. We no longer see a house as a cultural legacy or landmark but as an investment. I fear people get to fixated on the lowest price per square foot to achieve a good ROI (Return on Investment). Thus they miss out on the fact that they have left nothing of cultural value for future generations. This generation will portray an architectural legacy of convenience, efficiency, and self-indulgence. Can we do better? Yes. Will we do better? Well, that is completely up to us.. Keep reading my blogs to learn how we can make a difference in the world of architecture. Learn about creating architectural legacies that age with grace and dignity through time.

In this post, we are going to start to poke some fun at ourselves and our architecture. I want us to struggle together for an answer to the question: “Why we are seemingly incapable of producing houses and or neighborhoods that are still aesthetically viable or visibly relevant hundreds of years from now?”. While some of you will have fun with this, others may come to realize "Oh #%@^, he’s talking about my house.” Just so you feel better, I’m also talking about my house…until I remodel it. If we look back at historic homes prior to 1920-ish, we have no problem admitting they are still visually rich. This visual richness and character wasn’t just for the rich like it is today. All classes had a great architectural heritage. But today, our architectural heritage is the “McMansion”. Mc "stuff" represents mass produced products that are merely a hint of the original thing. They are often disposable cheap representations of something that used to be made by artisans and are now made by machines or assembly lines. McMansions are the architectural manifestation of this idea. There is no real artistry as artisans no longer work with natural materials. We now “assemble” mass produced building materials. The materials get cheaper and cheaper and have become more uniform like a massed produced burger you can dress up with toppings, but in the end is empty calories of sameness. However, I must be grateful for this mass production in some sense. We have been able to make homes more cost effective in terms of price per square foot allowing for more people to get into homes. Another huge loss due to mass production is that of the artisans/craftsman like stone masons, finish carpenters and so on. They used to take a lot of pride in and put their heart and soul into their work. Some still do, but most subcontractors are just hired hands for assembly and we rarely value true artisans’ skills as we once did because we are so focused on price per square foot and getting the best return on our real estate “investment.” So as we talk about McMansions, for those of you who love modern architecture, you’re not out of the woods. There are also modernist McMansions as well as modernist timeless homes. The principles we talk about here apply to both. So, lets start. First-Character versus caricature. Character represents the essence of something where all the individual components are composed in a way that proportionally relate to each other in scale and hierarchy. A caricature is the result of making the individual components of a thing out of scale and proportion so different aspects are exaggerated and/or diminished. This is appropriate in cartoons and theme parks, but our neighborhoods probably shouldn’t be theme parks. Most of us live in these types of neighborhoods. Most of us like these neighborhoods. But I ask, do we really want home that will be dated within a decade? I hear that complaint from everybody. I remodel houses to “update” them continually. If we can (and we can), why not build homes that never go out of style? In the next posts we’ll look at the different aspects of the McMansion that make it a caricature of the authentic mansion