Jonathan Miller Architect Writing Exerpt

This is an Article I found on this website.

Your Home: A Place of Beauty?
Beauty is a fascinating topic and one that is worthy of consideration. It is a word in our culture that has been reserved for people, fashion, art, and on occasion music. We also recognize beauty in the natural world; our mountains, plains,and oceans are most easily recognized as “places of beauty”. Quantifying or defining beauty, and applying our understanding to the design of a home, a building, or a community is a worthy effort for both the professional designer and the lay person. It will mostassuredly involve the intellect applied to the memory of places and events found meaningful throughout life's journey. What building would you remember as exceptionally beautiful? Chances are it is not an industrial plant, shopping center, or modern office building, and would rarely be found in our flashy new subdivisions or contemporary churches.



Beautiful places have been seared into our minds and emotions and are most likely wonderfully natural places,places with rich history, old materials, as if they had always been there.It might be our grandparents' home, a farmhouse on a winding country road, a church spire nestled in a serene valley, a grand old house at the end of a tree lined driveway. For me I think of that quiet Cotswald village in Central England I discovered some 15 years ago. I will never forget the quiet town square lush with a green blanket of grass, framed by an almost random collection of grand oaks whose branches seemed to wrap around the small stone cottages on each side. A creek ran down the middle of the square with ducks waddling along the stone edges. Small walls defined front yards with simple wooden gates, climbing vines over doorways, and open windows to quiet restful rooms beyond. It was a perfect place, designed over hundreds of years, by simple people with practical needs. They used materials they found on their land and built each place with trades and techniques that had been handed down from generation to generation. The scale was human, not vehicular and the materials were absolutely real, not fake. The buildings did not lack detail but provided it only where needed: a simple dormer penetrating the eave line, a classical trim pattern around an entry, a leaded glass window looking into a kitchen.There are many things to learn from places like these.

The following are principals I find helpful in home plan design as we endeavor to create places of beauty:

Nature: I like to think of a home as the largest sculpture in a garden. A house or building should always take the land into consideration: the topography, the sun, and the view. A house through the use of its form and scale should complete its surrounding not compete with it. Wherever possible a home should establish new outside places, or new outside rooms; these might be gardens, lawns, terraces, or courtyards. These outdoor rooms invite the natural world into a home and establish a setting for the home to become part of nature.

Materials: Should be real, but if not real they should emulate their predecessors with authenticity. Rather than building bigger build wiser. Use materials that you believe in and are natural. If possible use materials found in the region you are building in. Take time to find and reuse things that you have found to be special. Materials should always be strong and durable, capable of lasting for generations to come. You can never go wrong with historical materials such as stone, wood, timbers, stucco, masonry, slate, clay tile, granite, iron.

Precedent : Buildings that are timeless are often buildings with real style that were created using a very simple set of rules. Unfortunately, most architects and builders no longer use such rules. Find photos of buildings and places you love and study the details. Read about the style and use this as a inspiration and a pattern for your home.

Scale: Even if grand, a home should always be human. Do not allow the garage to dominate a home, but instead let if be a garage. Make the entry noticeable, usable, and welcoming rather than foreboding. Use traditional forms consistent with the architectural style.