I may be completely off base but I believe style is different than parti. Style definitely needs to be incorporated into parti, but I think style gets more into the details as opposed to the overall feel. Sort of like the forest for the trees type of thing?

From the dictionary:

noun, Architecture

1.

the basic scheme or concept of an architectural design.

Oh, it is. I'm just starting with style, to determine a story....to figure out the parti. Kind of a backwards approach, but we have to start somewhere. My concept would be rustic/romantic, with a bit of fairytale. Inside and out. I'm just not sure if that's my parti.....

On another thread, we were joking about the 'build a home around this faucet' commercial. But that's what I would want if I showed someone my first picture. Build a home around this garden gate/door. It would be interesting to see what would be the result!

Cpart- What would be your parti?

When we first started the house design/building process I stated my want as a Scandinavian Farmhouse. Our architects style has been called Japanese Ski Lodge.

Our resulting style we have dubbed Northwest Eclectic.

I wanted:

clean lines

painted trim finishes

covered porches and larger eves

screened porch

quartz finishes

some Asian elements

bamboo floors

wood cabinets with slab doors in kitchen and bath

clean modern horizontal gas fireplace with quartz surround

Orinda residence · More Info

Living Room · More Info

Modern Farmhouse · More Info

Modern Farmhouse · More Info

Hmmm.. Well, my house won't ever 100% be my style because I have to play fair with my husband. Apparently he plans on living with me! But every room has a feeling I want to evoke. Less a look, I guess. I love, love, love old Southern Plantations. The romanticized version, of course. With Spanish Moss in the trees, smell of jasmine on a humid summer night. Putting that feeling into words... I really can't. I want a feeling of history. Inset cabinetry gives me that feeling. Medium qs oak, tall windows, big front porches, a floral patterned guest bedroom comforter. That I keep imagining as yellow. Something very simple, and not necessarily timeless. Really I'd love for my house to remind me of a simpler time. We went to Wakulla Springs by Tallahassee this spring - exactly what I want to capture. The hotel was built in the late 30s or early 40s and never went through any major renovation, but had been well maintained. It gave me that indescribable feeling. Unfortunately we don't have the money (or time, energy, skills) to fix up and old farm house so instead we're going to build our own and hopefully all the decisions we made will help me feel like the house has a history!!!

I doubt I answered your question, LL..I Will just stick to posting inspiration pics!!

You know what.. I think it's texture. I love texture.

My parti is Christmas in Connecticut. I love the floral fabrics, the flow of the rooms, the open yet cozy feel (but not that odd angled window in the LR), the dog running into the yard, the library, the guest bedroom tucked between LR and kitchen (IS there a dining room in that house?), coming down the back stairs for cold chicken at night, Mekushla the cow at the Dutch door. And, just like Elizabeth Lane, it's all in my imagination based on a real place.

I'm reminded of a common question from many early painters, "How can I find my style...?" It's a sincere question, but a naïve one based on the early painter's sincere interest, coupled with their lack of painting experience. The answer I always give is "paint 100-200 paintings and your style will find you, you don't have to worry about finding it!" The point is "style" is really about a personal approach to making a painting, based on knowledge, experience, skill and intent. It's similar in architecture, but with some important differences.

In successful architecture like art, knowledge, experience, skill and intent count for lots! But there are many additional influential factors to understand and to address than in making a painting. For example, there is function (which always gets the most consumer attention), form (which doesn't get a lot of consumer attention, except as "style" frequently applied to interior design issues). Then there are factors such as site selection and development, climatic impacts and budget all of which are major influences for house design. Other significant influences include building codes and regulatory controls such as design review, energy conservation, yada, yada, yada. Point here is that an over-riding design concept, the parti, is that which successfully recognizes and responds to all of these critical influential factors and is the "rudder which guides the ship" through a successful design phase and manages it through construction to occupancy.

Thus, design concept or parti, is much, much more encompassing and should be much more of a factor in critical decision making than just "style", as important as that is.

To use bpathome's "parti" as "Christmas in Connecticut", as an architect I have absolutely no idea how that as an overall organizing concept would be of any help in site selection, site development, architectural design, construction drawings and specifications, and field observation during construction. I don't know what that means, other than some warm personal feelings, when it comes to decisions on budget, response to climatic conditions, energy conservation, building codes or the local design review board. It's just not an overall organizing concept or parti, at least in architectural terms.

Not at all trying to be personal or critical; simply trying to illustrate the difference between an organizing concept--a parti--and all of the other important feelings about the design of a house which have to be sorted out and reconciled.

After designing 100-200 houses it becomes a lot clearer!

Christmas in Connecticut is a 1940s movie starring Barbara Stanwyck and has a beautiful home, decor, surrounding, etc. I know EXACTLY what Bpath means, but that's because I've seen the movie.

Lots of beams, rock, big built-ins, large home, very inviting (especially at Christmas) with great kitchen off to one side. Also comes with cow and great areas for horse-drawn sleighs :)

So, what would be a parti? I'm seeing all of us wandering around in the woods (LOL) but no one coming in and saying...this would be parti.

Here's Wikipedia's definition....

A parti or parti pris [1] comes from the French prendre parti meaning "to make a decision".[2] Often referred to as the big idea,[3] it is the chief organizing thought or decision behind an architect's design presented in the form of a basic diagram and / or a simple statement.[4]

So, how would one use this is an example for a house? Maybe something like....this would be how you should describe a parti. Any ideas? :)

Mine was rustic/romantic with a bit of fairytale....would that be even close? Should it be longer? Shorter? More detailed?

Thanks, LL! I love the cow at the door. Too bad there aren't some sheep or goats (that's a Texas Hill Country thing!). The first photo gives some architectural clues, and a couple of other photos suggest large acreage and the very large multi-pane glazing with the Christmas tree suggests conflict with modern energy conservation regulations. The only over-riding concept that comes through to me as an architect is $$$--a very large and flexible budget. Probably not the concept envisioned by bpathome. Otherwise hard for me to see anything that is an overall organizing concept. What do you see?

In the movie, it's very similar to the homes in Bringing Up Baby or My Favorite Wife. Big downstairs, usually has bedrooms upstairs. Large living rooms, dining area...separate kitchens. Big stone fireplaces, stone on outside of home. Beams are often in rooms (sometimes painted)...I've always thought it was Long Island wealthy home of the late 30s and early 40s :)

In Chirstmas in Connecticut, in would be the perfect Christmas home...at least it's supposed to be because it's all a marketing scheme. The house is a friend's home and I think almost everyone, who saw the movie...wanted to visit this house at Christmas. And it's friends coming together to help each other (even if it starts out a bit on the commercial side) to make this Christmas special for their visiting war hero. You should see the movie!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CQeK10330E

How about these as examples of parti? Am I close?

"Family village"

"Courtyard garden house"

"View boxes growing out of the rock"

"H-shaped layout for extended families"

[Edited to add] Lavender_lass, in poking around I found This Thread where an architecture student is asking about parti, and I and thought the following comments were helpful:

"an idea for a parti does not present itself before you have started tackling the particulars of the program, the site and your own inclinations"

"Notice that your examples of succesful partis all have to do with how masses can be broken down and arranged in a way that will help establish the general organization of the whole of the project."

and

"Sounds like your parti is to create an environment that's blurring interior and exterior, maybe it revolves around the ability to be in constant contact with nature. I'm not sure, you'll have to determine what made you choose the glass box. The glass box is merely the method of expressing the concept. Look at why you chose it."

"John Sloan" in CiC was an architect, so I wonder what his "parti" was in designing the house? Of course, all the walls were "double-insyulated" (love the way he said that) as he waves his hand to point them out :)

We are building our vacation/retirement home in the mountains. I don't care for log cabins; they feel too closed-in to me. When I refer to my style as "Lodge without the antlers," people get it! Natural woods, stone fireplace, windows letting the outdoors in, woodsy, semi-rustic, yet with painted walls.

So I was just thinking about our house, and I suppose I would call our parti "gathering and movement." We have a multigenerational house so the "gathering" aspect would be obvious, but upon reflection I can see that "movement" also really drove the design -- the circulation loops within the house, the wraparound porch and connecting spaces, even outdoors. (Our architect did mention something about a grid, though . . . )

I would say the style is contemporary lowcountry/farmhouse.

This is what I posted in the thread asking about good design:

"When I started with the idea for my home, I wasn't thinking I needed walk in closets, or mudrooms, etc. My concept (parti) was I wanted the house framing the outdoor entertaining/pool area and that I wanted everything to open to that area. Additionally I wanted it to have the feel of an old Florida Craftsman house. (my new additional comment: I told the builder, I wanted people who stopped to look at the house to first think that it was an original house from the 20's and then on second glance realize that it was probably new.)

Once I had established that idea in my mind, only then did I think of which rooms I wanted to have open to the courtyard. I knew I wanted the living, kitchen and master to open to the courtyard and then DH mentioned he wanted to also be able to look out on the courtyard. My very first sketches were actually only a set of boxes with approximate ideas of where the rooms should go.

When I first sat down with the builder, he presented us with the "checklist". The funny thing is I hadn't even considered all those features like mudrooms, central vac, surround sound, and many of the other features he had on his list. I had the "feel" of what I wanted but not the specifics. In my mind, those came later. (The feel being the rooms around the courtyard.)

After reading what Virgil wrote, I believe he's got an excellent point. I know when I start a drawing, I don't start with specifics. I'll have a vague idea (concept) of what I want to draw or convey and only as I play with it in my mind, and later play with my still life, do I start to nail down the specifics.

Even when actually drawing or painting, we don't start with specifics. We start with a very rough sketch where we first block in general shapes, and then as we continue to draw, we start to refine shapes and shading and then only after we've managed to get the shapes and shadows correct, do we refine to the point of completing the details.

I'm agreeing that if we all tended to do more of concept thinking instead of specifics with homes, we'd have better looking homes that actually functioned better for the way we lived."

Style and details are not parti. However an overall feel is?

It is confusing. I think the 'concept' is just what you say over and over in your head, while you shop! LOL

But seriously, if you can keep the theme or concept (?) in your mind, it will be easier to know what will work and what will not. Again, we don't normally design our homes, maybe we just tweak what the builder already has....but we do have to choose a lot of the details.

And if we are fortunate enough to have a say in the design process....make sure you keep that concept front and center! If the architect is NOT doing that for you, ask why not??? :)

As we are working in the beginning stages of designing our future home, I've searched for a word or words that describe what I want for my home. The list of words I've come up with are really helping me as I make decisions. (I don't know if they'd help my architect at all!)

The top word is the most important, the next one is important unless it takes away from the one(s) above it.

Here's my list so far for our future home.

Comfortable

Practical

Historical (vintage farmhouse inspired)

Under each of these three words, I'm expanding a bit to add more clarity for myself.

Comfortable - welcoming, cozy, natural light,

Practical - not creating unnecessary effort, not pretentious,

Historical - handmade, natural materials,

These are listed in descending order of importance to me, although I can see that Practical and Historical will need to have some give and take. For example I want lots of painted beadboard and this is not entirely practical.

I feel like the combo of these three words are the theme for my home, and a set of words like this could encompass many different styles.

This is a great conversation, don't you think? So many wonderful thoughts and shared ideas.

There probably is no "right or wrong" in answer to what's a parti/story--the overriding concept for the design and construction of a house, but it's pretty clear from all of these comments (and from my own experience) that it is neither a selection list of features nor a checklist of room details/requirements.

Those things are important, but come later as early design explorations unfold. Oaktown summarized the reason this is true, "..."an idea for a parti does not present itself before you have started tackling the particulars of the program, the site and your own inclinations..."

It's also pretty clear (to me at least) that a successful parti/story is one which also can support many of the other major considerations which influence house design--site selection and development, form and function, budget, climate and energy conservation, codes and regulatory requirements and all of the rest. A parti which can't support the budget (or site development, or energy conservtion, for example), is simply not an appropriate parti for the situation, and has to be modified or replaced.

Starting off for design of a house by completing a checklist for features is putting the cart before the horse! A jumble of parts will surely follow!

So, what would be a parti for a house? Do you have an example that would include all these considerations?

I can see why climate and land/site would be important, but I would assume budget and conservation would be a no-brainer. I guess not :)

LL, I do not have a model concept or parti, since they are highly individual in every case. This thread has good examples, IMO. The challenge with budget and conservation, for example, is that often, at the outset of a project and perhaps for a long time thereafter, many of the aspirations of consumers are simply incompatible. They often don't (or in the case of strongly opinionated couples) won't acknowledge that many of their desires simply don't match their budget, or site, or building code or regulatory requirements, or whatever. So the mis-matches and incompatibilities (and break downs in communications) simply have to be sorted out through a patient, trial and error design search process until everyone is on the same page. If and when that can be achieved, then a mutually supportive overall concept/parti may be possible to achieve.

I remember a residential project my partner and I accepted with a middle-aged couple from the Silicon Valley area where we practiced in which the husband insisted on a vaulted ceilings with horizontal beams. It turned out that shortly after occupancy the couple divorced, the husband moved out and the wife was left with a house with all sorts of dust accumulating features--and she couldn't tolerate dust!

There are so many issues to sort out and reconcile in the design of a house!

Virgil - Are you saying that the original parti often changes due to reality?

D, no that's not exactly what I'm saying. It's not that the original parti changes due to reality, it's more that one has to first sort through reality, testing ideas and preliminary concepts until an overall organizing concept finally emerges which can stand the test of the most important group of challenges for designing a house, whatever they are in each individual case.

There's an old mantra that used to be taught to every freshman architecture student which was "your first idea or concept is usually not the best one"! Point being ideas (even preferences) have to be tested against reality until finally things align and an idea/concept/parti emerges which has stood and passed the critical tests.

It's very rare (and naïve) to think that anyone can just preconceive an enduring overall organizing concept or parti and successfully design a house or any other building using it. It takes exploration, time and effort to discover a concept/parti that is both creative, responsive and workable. It ain't that easy as simply having a good idea.

The French architect Le Corbusier was attributed as saying, "Design is a patient search!" And that it is.

That's why the discussion here of "style" may be very misleading and off-target as the way to begin the design process. One may have all sorts of style(s), but that's not an overall organizing concept. Style is just features--physical elements. Features have little impact on many of the key influences or impacts of designing a house or any other building as we have already said in this thread.

I'm not being critical of style, I'm simply trying to put things in the proper priority and sequence for how a successful design materializes and is built.

None of this matters, of course, if all you want to do is have someone hand you a checklist of features and materials for your "build".

Does this make any sense?

I guess what I'm confused about is that it seems style is a major part of parti. Unless I'm using 'style' incorrectly.

If you want a Bungalow home and you know your kitchen and other living areas are going to reflect that vintage 1920s style. And you plan to have put a pergola on the outside (maybe over the back deck/patio) and all your roses and other plants will have been around in the 1920s. You even plan to put a sun porch on one side and have a front porch...authentic, but with modern day plumbing, electrical, etc.

Is that your parti? 1920s Bungalow? Or is it something else? Maybe 1920s Bungalow with modern conveniences?

Virgil said: "if all you want to do is have someone hand you a checklist of features and materials for your "build".

That's why I was surprised when they did just that as if the most important thing was the checklist. In reality, getting my shapes to work within the framework of my lot was more important.

My builder I believe now did it all quite bass ackwards yet I think it came out well. But maybe that's because I did have sketches to show him?

Another perspective is that some of the basic, well-loved house forms (Cape Cod?) don't really have a parti -- or seen another way perhaps the parti is simply to be a functional box for its inhabitants. The inhabitants would then over time impose their own parti by modifying the box: adding dormers or a full second story, a back wing addition, a garage, etc. A natural accretion/evolution over time, adapting to the occupants and their changing needs.

Nowadays, though, seems that folks usually just pick up and move.

We always loved wooded lots , clean lines and some how were invariably drawn towards Frank Lloyd Wright inspired homes. Hence we used those ideas as our inspiration and came about using them as our parti. Sometimes parti can only be a guiding factor the rest all is the era you live in. You cant stick to a inspiration completely living in 21st century, atleast we could not. I am clearly not a good writer my DH is .. he waxes eloquently about such stuff, maybe I should record it and post the video. :-)

All I find are parti diagrams and I don't think that really provides the entire 'picture'. For me, it really helps to know what look or style (exterior and interior) that someone wants, because so many details go into it.

A Craftsman home without built-in shelves, dining cabinet, window seat? No way. A Victorian without a porch and a bay window? A cottage without some exposed beams and a 1 1/2 story layout? A rustic cabin without a big stone fireplace and wood everywhere? Or a more modern loft without open spaces, sleek cabinets and metal accents?

I can see why anyone would want 21st century technology...but maybe exposed or more discreet, considering the style of your space. And energy efficiency, staying on budget? Obviously. Going with all recycled materials (or as much as possible) and using bamboo floors would be a part of the parti, right?

But how many people stop at the porch? What about the landscaping? The types of shrubs and flowers. The choice of deck, patio, outbuildings, garage, etc. All this should really work too....don't you think?

My pet peeve is that all the details are on the front of the house (brick, divided glass windows, fancy landscape) and then the sides and back look like complete after thoughts. Okay, that and trusses! Yes, easier/cheaper to use, but no more attics :(

LL, that's style and not parti.

If I was creating a drawing, I wouldn't start by drawing the details inside of the vase. I'd first start by getting the basic feel of the vase by loosely drawing the outlines. Very loosely. Then once I had those outlines, I'd start to fill in basic shadow shapes. All is still very loose. Only once I've established the overall shape and shadows would I start to loosely put my details in. Yes at the beginning I knew I wanted the vase with the flowers on it, but like everything, first you need the structure of the drawing.

Now if I'm drawing when I start out, I have to take into consideration the lighting, the angle I'm drawing the vase at, and any background or secondary objects I want in the drawing. However, notice nothing I said talks about details when I start. :)

It's the same with parti. Yes you may have an idea of the things you love to fill your home and the details, but you need to start with the overall and for each of us it can be different. My parti with just DH, DD (dear dog) and wanting a flat lot in the downtown city we live in, will be a lot different than the parti of someone who lives in the country on 30 acres and with 5 kids, 2 dogs, horses, and a home business.

This is why it's confusing. I'm not at artist, but you know you want a vase. I'd think (unless you're copying a vase in front of you) you'd have some idea what the vase shape would be and what will be in the vase.

I can't imagine an Asian vase with cherry blossoms (one of my favorites) being drawn with a terra cotta vase. Or in dark brown with yellow cherry blossoms. I guess I would have a 'picture' in mind, before I started the drawing. Maybe I'm too left-brained? LOL

Hahaha. And maybe I'm too right brained.

Even if I was copying a vase, which I do, I would still start with the basics and I would still need to decide the overall look and feel before I started pulling out objects to use.

There are painters who paint what their eyes see, to the very best of their technical ability. These are often called realist or photo-realist painters (if the technical painting skill is good enough). Then there are painters who paint using their heart, not their eyes, painting ideas, emotions or feelings. These may be called expressionalists, because they are expressing their "story" in a highly personal and individualistic manner. So it is with architectural design, and probably what parti means to different folks. There are those who like the checklists and the features, and there are others who have very different ideas, emotions or feelings which they hope to see expressed in the house design. Different strokes for different folks!

I've always liked a more traditional, old-world look with a bit of whimsy....but after the last few years, I think part of my parti is creating a cozy, safe cottage out of a fairytale, to hide from the bad stuff outside.

One my husband doesn't think is too girlie...and Snow White is my favorite, so forest/fairytale. Mix in the climbing roses from the wishing well and the deer in the forest, and that's pretty much it :)

I just can't get those deer (or the birds) to come in and clean my house! LOL

LL, you don't want those deer in your house or anywhere close to it! Ticks from the deer carry Lyme Disease and it's awful, especially if you get it more than once! Keep the deer where they belong, and the humans where they belong! :-)

They won't help me with the gardening, either. Except for eating some of the plants :)

Lyme Disease is so scary. I think that's more common in other areas, but always good to be careful.

I have a hard time articulating what I see in a house (or art). I'm one of those 'I'll know it when I see it' kind of people.

They do a story frequently here where a local university displays the results of social media reactions to a news story. It is basically a cluster of words, with the more popular words being larger than ones used less often. Although I didn't actually do this when designing our house, it did go on in my head. The word 'budget' would have been one of the largest, but terms such as 'fits the land', and, 'looks like it's been here for 100 years' would also be dominant.

To be honest, we went with a basic box, but are trying to make it the best box we can. Since I need to see something before I can fully interpret it, I've made many design choices after the space was actually created. If I had to dissect our design process, it started with a word cluster, and the various buzz words were then shaped and interpreted by the constraints, such as the lay of the land and the budget. I guess there are two clusters of words, one I'll call 'dreams', and the other I'll call constraints. You might dream of an entire wall of windows facing west, but the constraint of energy efficiency (another big one for us) would require modifying, or even eliminating that dream.

After reading this fascinating thread, I still have no idea what parti is, or whether I employed it at all!

My ancestry is French and Scots. I like graceful overlay and sturdy stone.

I like what I have admired. About a year after we moved in I was amazed to 'place' the decor of a guest bathroom as the ladies' lounge at Marshall Field's flagship store! It's grey-veined white marble floor/polished brass fixtures/opaque glass. (A little girl's idea of 'special'!) My kitchen has St. Petersburg colors: Dark wood floor/pale green granite/cream painted inset cabinets/cream stucco exhaust hood/polished brass fixtures. I wasn't aware of those 'atmospheres' when I chose the elements.

(Yes, polished brass. Heresy! It's the traditional style of my childhood home and found in old homes around my mother's native Providence. Today it doesn't require polishing!)

Things are a little 'off' in my house -- perfect imperfection. I wanted it to feel a bit like some of the re-purposed coach houses, stables, etc. where we had stayed on a car trip around the English countryside. Nothing 'newly minted' -- neither entirely old nor entirely new.

I have casement windows, an archtop window over my kitchen sink, a dozen French doors, and some reed & ribbon in mouldings and on Baldwin's "Edinburgh" door levers. Floors are medium-dark wood with wool 'Oriental' rugs; no carpeting. The back hall tile mimics grey stone. Pedestal sinks. The rear of the house faces south, with a Brussels block terrace. The garage is set at a 120-degree angle to the house; bluestone chip driveway. Exterior is alternating cream oversized brick and cream stucco (lightly finished). White trim. Slate grey 10/12 roof on an attic made to be expanded with dormers -- for a future owner who wants a second story.

I think that's enough to provide the jist of my chosen environment.

Parti is an architect's term, not that it can't be adopted by interior designers and others, but it originated in the oldest school of architecture where it is still used. But when designing a house developing a Parti begins with the site and the space use program rather than pre-conceived ideas of fashion or style. Style is important but it is not a starting place and with experience you will discover that working backwards only adds constraints to an already highly constrained process. That is the major flaw with buying designs from the Internet. But that's another discussion.

Style isn't design. And versa visa. Style is the overlay trappings added to design. Design is about relationships. Relationships between the inside and outside. Between rooms. Between people and the inside or outside or rooms. Most importantly, between people. How people interact with each other directly influences good design. That is where the path to good design begins.

The home designed for a family of techies who spend a great deal of time alone in their rooms working with computers will be drastically different than one designed for an outdoorsy newlywed couple. A home can not be ''universal'' or ''forever'', as people change over their lifetime. Tht's chasing your tail into unnecessary expense. The best that you can hope for is to design something that can change with them over their journey.

Sophie- That is very helpful! Thank you :)

I would add to Sophie's comment that a Parti is the initial attempt to organize a building to meet certain goals and it will inevitably evolve as the design process proceeds. But it is important to hold on to it as it changes because it is easy to become lost without a guide as you begin to consider the many elements of style.

A "Cape Cod" house is a great example of the relationship of spacial organization, practicality, climate and decorative style. The original idea was to enclose space efficiently with little concern for decorative style. It placed the entrance, stairway and chimney in the center of a story and a half frame with a steep roof without dormers. There were variations in width (half, three quarters & full capes that involved different numbers of double-hung front windows) . They had no porches, porticos, or roof overhangs. This kind of house was so common in colonial times that it is now considered an architectural house style of the American Colonial period. It is a good example of how practical spacial organization and features and the absence of stylistic decoration can define a style.

For me, after creating a working spacial organization or parti, the challenge is to carry the design forward as far as possible while looking for stylistic opportunities. Architects have their favorite stylistic ideas but from working with many clients they become fairly agile in identifying various opportunities. Anyway the idea is to avoid commitment to specific styles until you have had a chance to explore what ideas are well suited to your parti.

Frankly, the only thing I will not consider is any massing that requires the use of long span roof trusses. I believe they lead designers into architectural traps often resulting in dwellings that look like the first phase of a condominium complex or shopping center.

I think it is possible to put a wood gate in an arched opening in a garden wall and surround it with planting on any house on any site. It is also possible to use exposed ceiling beams in any house. That's the easy part. What is more difficult to do is lower the scale of a two story house or raise the scale of a one story house and since the architectural style of the house will be greatly affected by those goals they should be included in the Parti before deciding on the architectural style of the house. IMO the most important aspect of any buildings program is the area ratio of the second floor to the first floor. Then comes site restrictions, the relationship of interior and exterior spaces, views, privacy, climate and orientation. Then styles (traditional and non-traditional) compatible with and complimentary to the massing of the house should be considered and then interesting and appropriate stylistic features like garden gates and ceiling beams should be considered. Hopefully that sequence will help avoid the forced marriage of architectural elements from different centuries and cultures that has been the hallmark of house design since the 80's.

The parti, then style approach is effective even if the owner tells you "I don't want any of that New England (expletive deleted), I'm from Florida, I want it to be French country with a gambrel roof." (I didn't make that up).

OMG! French country with a gambrel roof? What did you do?

He had recently become a widower and said he would not marry again and was worried about cost so I told him the gambrel would create a second floor space for which he had no use and the contractor gave him a high estimate. We ended up with a hipped roof and big hipped dormers. He was engaged before the drywall was up so the master suite had to be redesigned.

LOL. Funny story. I hope he's happy with both the house and his bride. :)

Divorced, sold the house and built one in Florida. The new owner seemed to think my services came with the house.

The story gets even funnier. Thanks for the laugh.

LOL :)