What is Good Design?

Budget aside, what sets a stunning building apart from a mediocre one?

Good Design! Any human artefact no matter how small or seemingly insignificant can be well designed - from the curvatious perfume bottle to the handsome Swiss Army knife. Whatever the budget, stunning buildings typically have the following designed attributes: They relate well to their context whether natural or urban; use forms and architectural language - typologies and patterns - that are appropriate and culturally significant (for example spires, minarets, gables, verandas etc); they are designed in terms of a theory of ordering principles - for example: axes, symmetry, hierarchies, transformations, repetition, rhythm, and proportions whether classical or abstract; they are functional and inherently logical in plan; the relationship between interior and exterior volumes and the degree of enclosure is well considered, with openings being placed to cast sensuous light on surface textures and to define space; ecological sustainability issues should also be tackled; finally they are vibrant places for living catering for all human rituals,

100 years ago local hand-crafted vernacular buildings had many of these attributes, a currency which is sadly lacking in the new subdivisions of 'non-designed' buildings. Today, Registered Architects are the only profession with the academic training and design skills necessary to create stunning buildings. Given the substantial investment and longevity of buildings you should hire an architect and have a chance for Good Design.

(This was published in the Our Homes Today supplement in the Howick and Pakuranga Times, 16 August 2005)