Sunday, June 21, 2009

The Garden and The Home



A beautiful landscape can enhance any architectural project. A talented landscape architect, landscape designer or homeowner with a green thumb makes any project we design more beautiful. That partnership works even better when it begins early in the design process.

Architects spend a lot of time on the placement of a new home or addition in the landscape. Views, sun angle and orientation, prevailing winds, relationships to the approach and internal flow are all part of the mix when designing the spaces. Often part of our design extends into the landscape and includes retaining walls, patios, porches and outbuildings. The landscape designer takes those elements and incorporates them into an overall plan of the entire property. We work as a team to create a wonderful experience which integrates the home and the landscape.

Just as the architect creates spaces inside the home, outdoor ‘rooms’ can be created on the property surrounding a home. These spaces can be private getaways, cutting gardens, meditative retreats, or just a fun place to sit and talk.

In addition to creating interior spaces from which to observe the flora and fauna, we often design garden structures which can be utilitarian, but sometimes they simply punctuate the landscape as part of the grand scheme. A garden folly can be just a sight to behold or a working potting shed or pool house.

Home owners vary in their garden choices as much as they do in their architectural tastes. Whether a garden is formal or free form, natural or completely staged, the object is always to create a wonderful experience which has been integrated with the home.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Parish Hall

Crisp Architects specializes in home design. We design new homes, renovate and add to existing homes, and we restore old homes. In the course of our practice we are frequently asked to design other types of buildings and we happily comply. Those include horse barns, indoor tennis courts, office space, small commercial projects, all kinds of accessory buildings and parish halls.
One of our favorite examples of non residential projects is St Peter's Parish Hall. Working with the committees was a lot of fun and in the end we all were happy with the results.
EXTERIOR



INTERIOR

For this project we won a national American Institute of Architects award for design. The jury felt that our new building fit very comfortably next to the carpenter gothic church built in the nineteenth century.