Courtesy of Henry Louis Miller

小住宅案例：解救客户大体量住宅的固化思维
The Case For A Smaller House: Talking Clients Out of The Big House They Want to Build

由专筑网李韧，蒋晖编译

建筑师也常常将自己陷入矛盾的境地，例如，当客户无限地追求住宅的面积时，建筑师应该怎样让他/她明白，其实3500平方英尺（约325平方米）对于四口之家来说已经绰绰有余？

一方面，建筑师也很想为客户设计大住宅，说白了大的项目能获得更高的经济报酬，而另一方面，建筑师又应当如何协调可持续发展理念和建筑师的责任呢？

为了让项目有更加高的收益，施工方也并不乐于建造小建筑。建筑越小，信任的建造商就越难找。我曾经与一些承包商进行过合作，他们一般不考虑低于200万美元的项目。

我一直不太了解为什么人类总是喜欢追求过大的生活空间，有的房间他们甚至根本不会使用到，但是他们就是希望拥有这样一个空间。换句话说，项目成本永远不会随着施工的结束而结束。

每当我试图说服客户接受小住宅时，都会以失败告终。我因此甚至快要被公司的上司开除，因为有的潜在客户常常会因此而流失。于是我明白了，要么给客户真正所需，要么为客户介绍其他适合的建筑师。

我的客户常常处于矛盾之中，许多人自称有环保意识，但是又想要拥有大住宅，所以他们总是希望我多多使用竹面地板和壁柜，有时他们甚至想要在屋顶上设置光伏发电设备。
   
于是我告诉他们，竹子这种材质在英国并不多，它们只常见于中国，但它们在中国进行种植、切割、加工、包装，就劳动法和环境法而言，这些行为并不受到支持。可是每当我为客户传达这些理念时，他们也许已经找到其他合适的建筑师了。

许多人都会有一种错误的想法，那便是只有大空间才适宜生活。但就我个人而言，我与妻子，还有两个小孩一起生活在面积只有750平方英尺（约70平方米）的三层公寓中，同时下部两层还正在装修，我可以很负责任地说，如果小住宅能够经过精心的设计，它绝对比一个大广场更加具有空间感。我十分明确地告诉客户，我可以将1000平方英尺（约93平方米）的住宅设计出3000平方英尺（279平方米）的感觉，并且可以让他们在其中完全不受任何约束。我的一些客户对此仍然抗拒，而另一些客户则可以接受这个理念。

有的客户希望能够为不同的功能活动设定不同的空间，例如单独的起居室、单独的书房、单独的娱乐室、单独的客户、单独的办公室等等。

我的客户并不是建筑师，他们常常无法接受一个空间内有多个使用功能这样的概念。

最近，有一个客户始终坚持要有独立的美术工作室，但是由于这个项目的预算有限，她却坚持希望建筑面积能够达到2500平方英尺（约232平方米），一些合作的施工方都建议她可以缩小一些面积的需求，因为每平方英尺的建造价格约为325美元，这样计算下来整个项目花费大约800000美元，而她的预算只有250000美元。

一看到这些数字，她就感到十分难过，而我并非如此。

As architects we are often conflicted: what do we do when we have clients who want really big houses, houses that by any measure surpass anything they could really need? How do we walk them back from the idea that they need 3,500 square feet of home for a family of four?
On one hand, we want to design it for them. In fact, a bigger project keeps us employed and financially solvent much longer. On the other hand, how do we reconcile that with the idea of sustainability and the architect's responsibility to promote it?
To complicate things, builders don't want to build small houses, either. The smaller the house, the harder it is to find someone reputable to construct it. I have worked with contractors who won't even consider projects that are under $2 million.
I don't know why we as Americans feel like we need an excessive amount of space in order to survive and live comfortably. I have designed homes for people with rooms I know they will never use. Yet, they still have to maintain it, heat it, cool it, etc. In other words, the costs don't end with the construction.
Every time I've tried to talk a client out of building a bigger house, I have failed. I've been removed from the discussion by the partners of the firm, or when I am working on my own, my potential clients turn on their heels and run to another architect. I have learned: You either give a client what they're asking for, or they find someone who will.
My clients are often conflicted. I can't tell you how many of them have asked me for a massive home and then announced that they are "very environmentally conscious," so they want me to fill the place with bamboo floors and cabinetry. They may even want to throw a photovoltaic on the roof for good measure.
I point out that there aren't any bamboo groves around us, and that while this material may grow quickly, it does so in China, not in New England. I go on to argue that the bamboo is grown, cut, processed and packaged in China where the labor and environmental laws are lax, to say the least. Unfortunately, by the time I am able to communicate this to them, I may have lost the project.
Americans have a distorted sense of how much space they "need" to live and be happy. As someone who has lived with his wife, two young children and a big, goofy Weimaraner in a 750 ft.2 third floor flat while the bottom two floors were under renovation, I know personally that if a home has been thoughtfully designed and spatially organized, it can feel much bigger than the square footage would have you believe. I've told many clients that I can design a 1,000 ft.2 home that feels like a 3,000 ft.2 home and will have all the space they need to feel unconstrained. Some of my clients bite, others do not.
Often times it doesn't occur to my prospective client they don't need different spaces for different activities. There does not have to be a singular living room, a singular den, a singular playroom, singular guestrooms, a singular office, etc.
My clients aren't architects. They either do not like or do not initially consider the concept of spatial overlap: the idea that one space can perform multiple programmatic functions.
I recently had a client insist that she needed a separate painting studio for the home I was designing for her. The budget was tight, but she wanted this new home and studio to be built at over 2,500 ft.2 The builders with whom we had met all told her to get comfortable with some compromise, because at $325.00 ft.2 to build (that's the starting going rate for new construction in my neck of the woods) the house she wanted was headed way over $800,000.00 and she had a budget of $250,000.00.
Needless to say, upon seeing these figures, she became despondent. I did not.


Courtesy of Henry Louis Miller

作为建筑师，我仍然更喜欢小而紧凑的设计，而且设计小型住宅的难度会更大一些，因为必须综合考虑很多因素，一些不必要的空间就必须减免，只留下真正所需。

因此我提议为她设计一座独特的阁楼，面积大约800平方英尺（约74平方米），工作室兼具餐厅、起居功能。这样她就能够在这样一个充满艺术气息的空间里和朋友共进晚餐。

我告诉她，我和妻子的二人生活就在这样一个小空间里度过的，我们甚至还可以在这里举办派对。我通过手绘来给她描述这样的画面，在这里她的艺术作品仍然能够得到展示，同时还可以摆设大大小小的画架，她的雕塑作品能够自如地摆放在房间内，她甚至还能为朋友们递上新鲜出炉的意大利面。我为她构思了属于她自己的艺术空间，地面上满是色彩斑斓的颜料，房间的中心是一个大型的不锈钢餐桌，同时这也是她的工作台。亲朋好友随时可以来参观她的大作，甚至可以在这里举办派对。当然，她还能在这里举办私人作品拍卖会。

但她似乎无法接受这个面积尺度。

“只有800平方英尺？可是我有很多家具，这根本不够呀。”

“那就扔掉一些不必要的东西吧。”我如是说。

I prefer designing smaller, more compact homes anyway. Designing smaller homes is more challenging. It forces you to edit and be reductive. It requires you to eliminate the superfluous, leaving only that which is necessary.
I suggested that we build her a singular "loft" like, 800 ft.2  building in which the studio space could also triple as a dining room / living room space. This would give her the opportunity to have dinner with and entertain her friends in the middle of an art filled, real-life working studio.
I described to her how my wife and I had lived in just such a space before we had kids. I told my client about the dinner parties we use to have for my wife's friends and colleagues. I described, both verbally and in drawings/ sketches, a space that would have her large paintings, in various stages of completion, leaning against and/or hanging on the walls or propped up on easels. Her clay sculptures, both finished and in progress, would quietly reside on pedestals throughout the space, and preside over her guests as they mowed down on her freshly made pasta. I tried to help her visualize an art-filled space, the floor beautifully splattered with colorful paint, at the center of which would sit a large steel dining table that would be her primary horizontal work surface when she was not entertaining. Imagine the conversations this would spark! People wouldn't have to go to a stuffy gallery to see her work. Instead, they would spend their evenings within the studio itself. I pointed out, she might even sell work out of it!
But she simply couldn't get past the size of it.
"Only 800 ft.2?  I have too much furniture...too many things. It will never all fit," she protested.
"So get rid of it." I'd respond.


Courtesy of Henry Louis Miller

说服一个人丢弃掉许多原有的生活物件是一件非常困难的事情，因为随着时间的流逝，人们会积攒下各种各样的小物品，这些都是历史的见证，抛弃之如同割肉。对有些人来说也许毫无困扰，但是有些人则不同，例如我的这位客户，她就很不愿意抛弃原有的物件。

于是，这个项目自然地泡汤了。其代价太大，客户始终不愿意通过四分之一的预算来打造一座面积只有预想空间三分之一的住宅。

在造价这一方面，我花了很多时间进行研究。就当前来说，住宅项目中60%的成本都用于施工。近期我设计建造了一座住宅，造价为385000美元，其面积为1200平方英尺（约111.5平方米），计算下来大约每平方英尺320美元，其中并不包括施工或工程费用，这些费用大约占总成本的8%，为150000美元，余下的费用则主要用于工人施工、项目利润，以及其他的开销。一个好电工的时薪是120美元，管道工的收费也大致如此。每个行业都有专属的劳动成本，但是时薪几乎不会低于40美元。

总的来说，人们应该尽量地精简空间。为了降低建造成本，我建议客户能够开放思维，结合考虑空间的多种功能形式，并且以轻松的心态开始设计过程，这才最为现实。

To insist someone just get rid of a life's worth of stuff is a big ask of anyone. We all accumulate artifacts over the course of our lives, and these things are the physical manifestation of our history. How do you just abandon them?  Some people have no problem letting go. Others have difficulty but manage. Still others, like my client, just can't.
At the end of the day, the project languished and died. It was expensive to build, and she couldn't bring herself to spend a quarter of a million dollars on a home that was a third of the size that she wanted.
I spend a lot of time just trying to educate my clients on how much it costs to build. Right now, almost 60% of a residential building's cost goes to cover labor. I built a house recently that came in at $385,000.00. It has a whopping 1,200 ft.2 Doing the math, this amounts to about $320.00 ft.2 not including architectural or engineering fees, which in this case amounted to about 8% of total construction cost. Of the $385,000.00, just over $150,000.00 went to materials. The rest was all labor, profit and overhead. A good electrician charges around $120.00 per hour for himself/herself and an apprentice. A good plumber/pipefitter charges about the same. All the trades have there own labor costs, but nobody qualified and good gets less than $40.00 an hour these days.
So that's it in a nutshell. People that build your homes have to live. To keep costs down, I’d encourage clients to be less rigid, to think of spaces performing multiple functions, and to come to the design process with an open mind. It is only realistic.


Courtesy of Henry Louis Miller


Courtesy of Henry Louis Miller


Courtesy of Henry Louis Miller


Courtesy of Henry Louis Miller


Courtesy of Henry Louis Miller