Detailed Dissonance

In every design problem there comes a time when something just isn’t harmonizing with the rest, a distracting dissonance that won’t blend in and insists on being that problem child with a voice. My first inclination is always to reason with it and try to change in a way to make it work, but typically I’ve tried all of that already which is why I’m still in the dilemma that I’m in.

My next tendency is to mess with the surrounding voices and manipulate the texture of the piece as a whole, but this is usually a mountain of work with little audience. Over the years I’ve found that the best solution is to change the bit part into a larger role, one that complements rather than competes with the composition. There was a house in my neighborhood that I was working on years ago with lovely rooflines and deep overhangs, but the eaves were sagging where the dormers were. Try as we might we simply couldn’t figure out an elegantly invisible way to solve the problem, so we decided to make a feature of it by erecting a large double bracket with a yoke beam that fit seamlessly into the Arts & Crafts composition of the house. The very next day passersby began walking right down the driveway, uninvited, to bathe in the glory of this new star.

SALA Architect Eric Odor

More recently, on a new house in the same neighborhood a basement exit was required to gain direct access to the backyard with its pool and poolhouse. The basement floor was four feet below grade and under an overhanging sunroom. It was destined to be a dark, dingy descent from the backyard, so we, once again, decided to transform its role and feature the passage. We stretched the stairs and bloated the landing to create a covered amphitheater for play and performance, as well as for passage. The glory of the space never sings “stair”. In short, never hide a problem, celebrate it!

SALA Architect Eric Odor

SALA Architect Eric Odor