Thoughts on my dream home design (Colonial French-Cambodia)

I like it, but, I too have my doubts about how comfortable it would be in Oregon.

To OP: This may seem irrelevant but do you happen to be Asian? Otherwise that would make things weird when people come over and you'll have to explain to them why you have a Thai house.

Originally Posted by chrisjustinparr

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To OP: This may seem irrelevant but do you happen to be Asian? Otherwise that would make things weird when people come over and you'll have to explain to them why you have a Thai house.
Same reason he has a ladyboy in the master bedroom.

Originally Posted by PaulSLH

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In my view (which is quite possibly too pretentious, since I'm an architect), the house if dropped in Oregon, would retain its beauty as an object, it, in itself would still look the same, but it would lose its beauty as a home, as a usuable, practical building, it becomes a museum piece, a disney theme park.

Thai houses are on stilts to avoid flooding and predation, they are of an airy, lightweight wooden constructions because they are built from the locally available hardwoods in a hot humid climate, that has little variation in temperature, either day/night or seasonally, and they have large overhanging gables on all sides to shield the house from the baking sun. I would suspect that most of these features would be unnecessary in Oregon, and would probably leave you with a very cold, draughty and gloomy house, built on stilts at great expense and for no valid reason, and one that looks even more like a disney house than the Thompson House would, as a needless pastiche with no real heritage or history to it.

As house in the Northern Hemisphere, in a temperate climate, you would be much better off looking at vernacular from regions that share some similarity with your own. South facing glazed frontages to make the most of the winter sun, high thermal mass construction in stone, earth or concrete to retain heat in winter and allow night cooling in summer, and good insulation would all be more practical, more efficient and more relevant than transporting something into an environment it was never designed for.

I certainly understand the Disney effect it might create, though I suppose my whole approach is that sort of polar opposite of the trend in modern architecture- I want to escape or build an oasis entirely cut off from the surrounding environment so I can forget that I live in this depressing place. I realize most architects these days like to build stuff that blends in with the environment, with extra kudos if it's environmentally friendly... but I find those modern places with their huge windows, exposed suspension cables, fanciful composite beams, etc. to be void of character and feel rather stale after 20 years. I think one of the reason my design might seem tacky is that we so rarely see authentic foreign architecture that the only reference we have is with theme parks.

Originally Posted by chrisjustinparr

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To OP: This may seem irrelevant but do you happen to be Asian? Otherwise that would make things weird when people come over and you'll have to explain to them why you have a Thai house.
Well it might be akward if an actual Thai came to the house, but otherwise the majority of asian-americans, hell even asians in asia, live in western or english style houses and no one feels akward when I enter

I think if you do a thorough job with it, it'll be nice.

I don't see the difference between having a Thai house and a modern one in Oregon. Both are going to be out of place.

funny how many guys are criticizing this and probably live in some Toll Brothers box.

Just use quality materials and it can't look that bad. I am very worried that a house like this might involve lots of stucco for most people though. Finding skilled workers will probably take years. Submitting floorplans and permits will probably take at least 2 years. The actual labor itself will probably take 2 years. Quality materials will probably be at least $500K. If there is lots of vegetation on a hillside, even better. Next to a McMansion, it will certainly seem out of place. There are Asian style buildings all up and down the West Coast.

Originally Posted by tiecollector

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Just use quality materials and it can't look that bad. I am very worried that a house like this might involve lots of stucco for most people though.

Finding skilled workers will probably take years. Submitting floorplans and permits will probably take at least 2 years. The actual labor itself will probably take 2 years. Quality materials will probably be at least $500K. If there is lots of vegetation on a hillside, even better. Next to a McMansion, it will certainly seem out of place.

There are Asian style buildings all up and down the West Coast.
I fear that cost estimate might be accurate... below is my alternative and cheaper plan for a much smaller all-wood over-water house by itself (not three put together like in my original), which actually shouldn't cost more than a normal nice house. I could also feasibly build it on land since I know a guy with a barge and we could hoist it up on top of the pilings maybe. Hopefully this design would blend in more.

Good point about the hillside- yeah this lot I have in mind is an old dock jutting out of a steep hillside. The hillside was logged a generation or so a go so I feel like I could get the permit to plant slope-stabilizing hardy palms all over the place fairly easily. With this house over the river framed by the backdrop of a hillside of palms, would be picture perfect. The piling permits aren't actually that hard if the land already possesses them.

I like the idea of houses on stilts or otherwise raised (loved that picture of the tokyo house over carport in the small spaces thread).

That being said...I think I have an aversion to design that attempts to capture the past rather than pushing forth with the new (especially using things like faux-columns that are not needed to support structures with modern building materials).

I think that much better than going for a traditional facsimile you should have a good architect reinterpret the idioms and ideas you present into something that is new and an idea in and of itself.

The photos you've come up with would look marsupialed in oregon. In fact they'd look marsupialed anywhere but Bangkok.

Originally Posted by SField

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The photos you've come up with would look marsupialed in oregon. In fact they'd look marsupialed anywhere but Bangkok.

We don't use that word on here. Oh wait I'm on styleforum.

Having also lived in SE Asia for a little while I think that this style looks okay - when done well and in context (SE Asia or at least a tropical location). I do not think it would be practical in many places, and might not 'age' well, visually outside of SE Asia.

If you want to try it out though - do it and enjoy it.

why not take something thai in concept but go modern? i think the grand thai houses have big courtyards and seperate areas for kitchen, sleeping, dining. living that are a few minutes walk from one another. perhaps you could do that if you have a huge property.

here's a nice singaporean colonial.

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/h...Navsingaporean house.

a little bit more modern but still decidedly asian.
http://ctoarchitects.com/

what do you guys think?

Originally Posted by krillin

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here's a nice singaporean colonial.

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/h...Navsingaporean house.

a little bit more modern but still decidedly asian.
http://ctoarchitects.com/

what do you guys think?

I like the Singaporean colonial, it kind of has the air of an officer's bungalow in the Raj in a Rudyard Kipling book (Jungle Book, Riki-tiki-tavi) or something.

bad link