Engineering is worthless in the case of the recent malibu fire that destoyed 53 homes. The houses are built on terrain so steep that fire crews simply could not navigate fast enough to save these homes. Sad!

The low ceilings in many of the rooms really bother me, as does the wall to ceiling wood paneling, and it is in large part because I really dislike that yellow color wood, which is very pervasive. The wooden lounge chairs look like they belong in Pee Wee's Playhouse. The pool is not a practical shape. The house looks okay from the outside (except for the pool), but the interior is terrible, and that's were people live. He's done much better houses, although in generally I never like his color choices. I much prefer Michael Graves for color schemes.

There are a lot of good books about residential architecture available, with both useful ideas and good photo illustrations. The challenge, of course, is that we are all different and each of us has our own individual preferences, likes and dislikes when it comes to residential architecture. Which is the way it should be. I, too, am not a strong fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, but a number of his principles for designing residences deserve serious consideration, especially these days when it is so expensive and challenging to think about an architect custom designed home. For example, Mr. Wright tended to believe in maximizing the possible space in the areas of communal use by the entire family--living room, et al--and minimizing the spaces in rooms used only briefly by individuals--bedrooms, kitchens, et al. These days, if the master bedroom suite isn't as large (or larger) than the living/family room the plan will not attract many interested folks. Same goes for the kitchen: an aircraft carrier-sized island and banks of custom, floor to floor cabinets is the dream to die for. Mr. Wright also believed in spatial contrast and drama to make interiors dramatic and inspiring. For example, entries might be narrow, rather dark and have a low ceiling leading to the living area which would suddenly explode with a very high ceiling and a large expanse of windows. He often would further the dramatic sense by causing a change in direction to further emphasize the spatial contrast: upon entering a home, one might have to transit through the entry space and then turn 90-degrees or 180-degrees before entering the major space! Contrast that experience with the all-too-common plan in so many builder's houses where one enters the home in a bowling alley like procession with a study on the right, dining on the left and at the end one sees the living/family area! No spatial progression, no change in experience, no anything! There is plan after plan like this posted here on Houzz. I could go on, but the point hopefully is obvious: there are many different approaches possible for the design of a custom home, and the goal should be to find those approaches which not only keep out the rain and support one's way of living, but also provide inspiration and delight for a lifetime!

"Adjacency diagrams" are often called "bubble diagrams", but in either case they are simply ways to put onto paper all of the specific and finite spaces which are important to have included in the house. They can be large spaces, i.e., garage, living/family, etc., or small, i.e., pantry, guest closet, etc. They can be indoor, i.e., family room, etc., or outdoor, i.e., entertaining patio, BBQ, herb garden, etc. Whatever is important to the successful living for the house. Many architects use "bubbles" or circles of various size, sketched on tracing paper, large to small, and thereafter group them closely, where they are important to do so and place them independently if there are few or no important adjacencies. Adjacencies may be further defined with solid lines connecting bubbles (a "primary" adjacency); a dashed line (a "secondary" adjacency); or no connection meaning that the space or function is needed but has no strong or secondary connection to other spaces or functions. The purpose is to identify and establish agreement about a functional "wiring diagram" for the proposed house, which thereafter can act as a roadmap for the subsequent actual physical architectural design. As the architectural design progresses, it can be tested against the agreed upon adjacency diagram to evaluate how responsive and complete the design may be. In other words, are all the primary adjacencies in place; are the secondary adjacencies reasonable, and are the other uses accommodated somewhere? Every architect, being an individual, has her/his own preferred ways to design, of course, but this early approach to help guide, make design explorations more efficient and evaluate the design explorations is a common technique. Hope this helps.