Customizing a Timber Frame Home | Interview with Architect Jeremy BoninBuilding a Custom Timber Frame Home Q & A with: Architect Jeremy Bonin Creating a masterpiece involves more than handing over your ideas to a design team; it requires a little homework and lots of collaboration. Every room has a story, and your job is to make each story resonate. The good news is that you’ll have a little help. Indeed, the people who design your home will have years of experience and a mountain of input from you—at least that’s part of the formula used by architect Jeremy Bonin, whose new book, Timber Frames: Designing Your Custom Home (Heliconia Press), outlines why every homeowner should dive into the process of helping create a masterpiece. We recently asked Jeremy, who’s the principal architect at Davis Frame Company, to share his philosophy for perfecting a home’s development.  Q: When designing and building something that'll stand for generations, what should potential homeowners keep in mind?A: First, legacy is something I find incredibly important. Timber framing was used in Egypt as early as 2000 B.C., and timber-frame structures—hundreds of years old—still stand in Japan and in Europe. Several revivals of the craft have been seen in throughout architectural history, and here we are again, recognizing it once more as a valid, lasting and economically viable construction method. To create a home that’s truly different, think about how the timbers will frame views from space to space or room to room. They also differentiate public space from more private or intimate ones by changes in ceiling height, frame height and timber sizes. From there, work with your design team to establish your wants, needs and aspirations—what do you want out of each space? It truly must be a collaborative process in order for a singular and appropriate design to emerge. Q: You write about “fundamental” and “elemental” considerations in your book. How do these factors impact the development of a home? A: Fundamental considerations are tangible and knowable. For example, how many people will be living in your home? How much do you wish to invest in the home, both financially and emotionally? Is it a home you’ll use after retirement, which might dictate single-level living? Only you can determine the emotional investment you’ll have in the house. This varies from person to person and typically affects how much day-to-day input you’ll have in the home’s development. Elemental considerations are less tangible. The three I find most important are light, views and permanence. Light makes visible the spaces we inhabit. Light also has its own characteristics such as intensity, color, texture and depth. Light and its absence also must be considered when designing. For example, if you have two identical rooms—one on the east side of a house and one on the west—each space will be perceived differently, even if they have the same colors, furnishings, textures, volume and design. Yes, it all comes down to sunlight. For example, if you’re not a morning person, it might not be a wise move to place your bedroom on the east side of the house. Views come next. One of the advantages of a timber home is the ability of timbers to frame views of different spaces. A pair of posts might define the entrance from the dining to the living room; and a floor girder might delineate the dining from the living room in the same manner, acting as a soffit between different ceiling heights. Our experiences in a space are often based upon what we see or feel from it even before we enter a room. The last is permanence. Obviously, a home is more than shelter. It can be a place of retreat and serenity, and when we can see and understand the structure that protects us—the posts, beams and braces—we gain a primal understanding of security. Again, many timber homes built long ago are still around today. We might not understand the comfort and security these structures provide, but we all perceive and feel those qualities the minute we set foot in one of these homes. Q: Your book also mentions the important steps of pre-design. What role should homeowners play at this stage? A: It’s definitely the big-picture part of the process, so you’ll need to list the number of spaces inside the house—three bedrooms, three baths, dining nook, and so on—and their approximate dimensions. We also need to define other characteristics, including whether the home is one story or two, and if the home has an attached garage. I also talk to homeowners about how the house is approached from the road and, once inside, how each room should be situated for the best views and energy efficiency. Finally, you’ll help define the home’s aesthetic. Will it be a mountain home with an Adirondack look or a classic manor house reminiscent of the English countryside? This is when you’ll bring in magazine clippings or books that showcase the look and feel you desire. Q: It’s clear that refining a house’s design is the heart of the process, so how much give and take is there between a homeowner and designer at this stage? A: Quite a bit. Design is a cyclical process, and it’s also iterative. So, an idea may get tossed aside early in a home’s development and resurface later—becoming the perfect solution to a new design challenge. It’s important that you and the designer constantly reassess the collective vision for the house, as well as its budget, and always balance these elements when new ideas and drawings spring up. Communication is crucial, and everyone must be able to communicate their ideas clearly in order for the true beauty and function of each space to be understood. Q: How can homeowners foster a solid designer/client relationship? A: Conversations should be descriptive and easy to understand, and questions should be welcome from both parties. I also think all formats of visual communication should be used, including two- and three-dimensional drawings, sketches, computer models, renderings and physical models. Remember, the one thing that isn’t always flexible is your budget, so there must be compromise between wants and needs. Research and education are critical, too. I love clients who’ve done their homework. It’s not required, of course, but I often find that the give and take in the design process becomes a part of the emotional investment homeowners make in their new house.
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