Ask the Architect

A house more like those Down Under?

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Q. After traveling to Australia last spring, we came home to reflect on how different their architecture is: much more modern and unique than ours. I took a lot of pictures and want to make some changes to our home, like open stairs without a banister, large glass panes that meet in the corners and a stone patio that goes from indoors to outdoors separated by just a sheet of glass. Can I do this? When I look around, is it just a style, or why don’t others have things like this? Are there just not enough creative architects doing houses, or is it much more expensive?

A. You’re very observant and have an artistic eye, but you need to know that there are limitations on buildings and techniques from climate to climate, state to state and village to village. Our state and local codes are much more restrictive with energy requirements, wind, flood, earthquake and fire prevention. Some clients have asked for glass corners, which are certainly possible to design, provided we meet all those other requirements. To create a glass corner, the structure has to be cantilevered overhead (extended like a balcony structure), and the glass has to be self-supporting to resist high winds, flooding and impact from heavy objects, like lumber, being blown into it.

Stairs cannot have an opening in the risers (the vertical part of the stair) or the handrails of more than 4 inches, since a child’s head could fit between the vertical balusters while the larger body is caught, causing a child to accidentally hang himself. My own daughter, at age 2, managed to get her head stuck through a handrail two steps above a sunken living room, and that was frightening enough. The only thing you asked about that can be done is the patio going straight through with glass embedded, but only if the glass is tempered and resistant to the force of someone walking into it. Markings on the glass have to be added to prevent someone from not recognizing it.

Between building codes and the way we build in the U.S., it’s hard to find creative clients and a cooperative contractor. It seems that many contractors are resistant to new or different things, either because they want the easier way out or don’t have the tools for the job. In some cases, the fewer the subcontractors, the greater the profit. Why frame a house out of safer, better concrete or steel when the contractor is used to wood? In any case, they step in after the design is made and tell the owner it can’t be done, will be too expensive, or whatever divisive phrase to detour the project to the way the contractor wants it and turn the owner against the architect. Many architects avoid the confrontation. The owner has to set the ground rules with the contractor, stick to those rules and trust the architect’s advisement.

© 2016 Monte Leeper. Readers are encouraged to send questions to yourhousedr@aol.com, with “Herald question” in the subject line, or to Herald Homes, 2 Endo Blvd., Garden City, NY 11530, Attn: Monte Leeper, architect.