I can still hear the gravel drive crunch under the tires of Grandpa’s Dodge Fury at my grandparents’ house in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. I remember how well the house seemed to fit them and my great-grandmother, who lived with them, and how everything had its place in her home. In those simpler days the houses were smaller and less complex, as were the lives of the people who housed those houses. They were very comfortable in their modest ranch. It wasn’t a custom-built house, but it didn’t look like any other in his neighborhood. It was small, but roomy, and had character. Knowing my grandfather, I’m sure he shopped for the best deal on the street, but he also knew about construction and got a solid building with quality materials.

When as an architect, I began to seriously think about home design, I wondered how it came to be that house that fit them so well. I like to think that their quiet little house was designed and built with care and labor by someone who had a pretty good idea of ​​the kind of family that would like to live there. Our lives are more varied and complex now, and the design of our homes must support and reflect that.

The opportunities for architectural invention in home design today are limitless: new materials, products, and construction techniques are constantly being introduced, and new technologies are having an impact. Unlike days gone by, when historic styles ruled home design, our options today are wide open. We are free to interpret the style or create our own to suit our aesthetic desires.

But all of these available design tools are rarely used to create homes that mold to the lives of their owners. Instead, homebuyers are forced to choose from a few floor plans designed to appeal to a broad market, then struggle to give it personality and character with just paint, carpet, and furnishings. We try to make a house “ours” with features and decoration and never consider that it is the architectural design itself that brings a house to life.

We lose sight of what is possible and end up with another house instead of a home.

Designing and building a new home is an opportunity to create something completely new, something unique, something as individual as you are. We are working on several houses that defy any stylistic categorization because their inspiration, their “style” comes from the life their owners lead. These houses are built with character as the main building material: architecture and “decoration” cannot be separated.

Homes like these are so much more than just the number of rooms and the size of the floor plan—they’re the ones you look at again and again and think, “Wow, there’s something about that house I really like.” “. What you like about those houses is the result of the owners having taken an active role in creating the design from the beginning. They realize that homes are made of life, of love, of memories, of desires and spaces, not living rooms, crown molding and window coverings.

Our conversations with these clients don’t start with “how many bedrooms do you need?” or “how big do you want a house?” begin with “what are your dreams and how do you want to live?”

Those discussions, and the designs that stem from them, are what a truly custom home is all about.

Good home design brings people together in enjoyable ways. It takes care of the family as a whole and the privacy of each individual. Good design does all of these things and starts by taking the time to ask clients about the details of their daily lives. What is the first thing you do when you get up in the morning, go straight to the shower or go down to the coffee pot? Do the children eat breakfast at the table or have a cake on the way out the door?

A recent client of mine described her family’s eating style as “hit and run.” That little play on words tells me a lot about her kitchen design requirements, much more than I would discover reading cabinet catalogs with her. We spend hours talking to our clients before a single line is drawn. To spend less effort on an examination of your family’s personality is to rob them of the benefits of custom home design.

Lifestyles change from generation to generation, and houses should change too. And yet, most houses built today are little more than updated versions of 300-year-old colonial designs. Unbelievably, we are still building formal living and dining rooms for families that never use them. A better home and a better living experience are the results when the client and the architect work closely to examine the uniqueness of the client’s lifestyle and how it informs and shapes the design of the home.

My grandparents moved south for retirement many years ago, leaving that old house behind for the next family.

I wonder if it fits the new owners as well as it did my grandparents, or if they’ve had to make changes to accommodate his unique lifestyle?

I hope they didn’t pave the driveway.