Peter approaches house design with the simple idea that “every house tells a story”.  The question is, “what is your story?” and “how best can design be used to bring that story to life?” 

As new technology enables us to live ever-faster lives, the home needs to be a place for retreat and renewal. [PAMA would like to gift you a Book Flag-see below]. That might mean having a home spa - or having a creative studio. It could be a station for washing the dog or a pantry for preparing flower arrangements. It could inspire the color palette and/ or the material selections.

For many, home is also an important place to be together with family and friends - giving it the dual-function of being a place that offers privacy, while also, being a shared place where we enjoy time together.

The effort to design a compelling, home environment experience should involve the entire visual and spatial continuum because that is what we experience. Ideally, the Landscape design and Interior design would be conceived with the architecture so that everything is part of the same, integrated story. The goal is for the house and the garden to make a complete story, which is enhanced by the furnishings and lighting design. 

Though, while ‘good design’ often establishes a baseline or datum of consistency, that system is relaxed by surprising episodes of inconsistency. As with life itself, design is about balance. Can design be both “cutting edge” and timeless?  Maybe. So much depends on ‘your story’. Never too much detail and information.

These projects require lots of teamwork. It is said, “a building is as good as its owner”. The Owner is the key. As the Owner’s ‘Agent’, the Architect is the Owner’s strongest advocate. There are many ways the Architect and the Design team [consulting engineers, others] need support, enabling them to provide their best work.   

Peter is a Modern Architect, with training in the historical traditions of architecture, including Modernism in its many forms. His great appreciation for tradition and history plays an important role in bridging the chasm between them – and inspires his exploration of that (much-overlooked, but) “fertile ground” in-between.    

What do you experience (perceptions) from the moment you get out of the car? The entire ‘entry experience’ is what Architect Philip Johnson called “the architectural promenade” – which begins long before entering the house.  And when inside, how do you move outdoors to outdoor living areas? How do we connect to nature?

Architecture is experienced in dynamic sequences – we want to know “what sequences compose your story?” This is why so much effort is vested in “knowing the site” and its broader context – because, when integral to the design solution, it has enormous potential to energize how the design can “bring your story to life”.