Tag Archive: modern architecture

  1. A Huge Architecture Win! Remembering The New American Home 2012 (Podcast)

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    In this conversation with Phil Kean, we learn how early admiration and recognition of the architecture of The 2012 New American Home led to local and national acclaim for Phil and his firm in the modern architecture space. A continued commitment to green practices, beautiful sight lines, and a sense of daring to take bold approaches to home design are a few themes you’ll hear covered in this podcast.

    Let’s face it, getting a start in the world of modern architecture is no small feat. As is the case for many decorated home designers, builders, architects, and visionaries, this was also true for the award-winning Phil Kean Design Group.

    You can listen to the recorded interview via this YouTube link or read the transcript below.

    Jon:

    Today we’re interviewing Phil Kean. Phil Kean Design Group is a nationally awarded design and build architecture firm named “Best of Orlando” #1 Home Builder by Orlando Magazine, voted Best Home Builder – “Best of Winter Park” three years in a row by Winter Park, Florida Chamber of Commerce, “Best of Houzz”- Design Award by Houzz.com, and winning the Platinum and Gold awards from the National Association of Home Builders’ Best in American Living Awards. Today we’re going to be talking with Phil to get a behind the scenes talk through of the award-winning New American Home 2012.

    Phil Kean with Phil Kean Designs is with us today, and he’s going to be sharing a bit about a project that I think is absolutely remarkable and you’ll be able to get a link here to see the project this interview is on. I would say, peruse it…I mean these are just amazing images of a beautiful project. But before we get into that, Phil, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

    Phil:

    Thanks for including me this morning.

    Jon:

    We’re excited, this particular project titled The New American Home in 2012, it is really beautiful. From an aesthetic standpoint, from a look and feel standpoint, from a design…the aesthetic is just gorgeous. It has also won the “Best of Show” award in 2012, which I believe is the Golden Aurora Award, congratulations on that. That is definitely bit of high praise. At this point, Phil, you tend to get awards for so many of your designs, I don’t know if it surprises you anymore! Anyway, that’s a gorgeous design. Before we get started in terms of the actual project itself, I’d love to hear a bit of the backstory on this project and maybe a bit about the layout in terms of the neighborhood potentially, and maybe even design challenges that may have been presented to the site itself. I mean, were there any details there that are worth going over?

    Phil:

    Sure. There are always these little odd lots, and this was a lot that had sort of been overlooked because there was a five-story condominium next door that really shared an alley with the lot, so all of the windows that faced the lot could see right into the house. So the challenge really was how do I create some privacy from the five-story building? And that was challenge number one. Another challenge was Winter Park, which is where the house is built, has a lot of very interesting code restrictions. You have to be certain distance from side setbacks. You’d have to step your house in if it gets over a certain height. And so there was a lot of design pieces to this house that made it more and more challenging. And then another challenge was there was pervious issues where you couldn’t cover the lot with more than a certain percentage of the lot. So those are just what we started with. It was second house from a corner. It was a nice size lot, and so I purchased it,  <laugh>…with all of that, I fell in love with it! <laugh>

    Jon:

    Well, you love a challenge, I can tell!  <laugh>

    Phil:

    Well, one of the nice things about the lot that I didn’t include was that it was really walking distance to shops and restaurants, and yet it was on a cul-de-sac so it had no through traffic. At the end of the cul-de-sac was the lake…it had a little park at the end. So, it was a really lovely street. That was the pluses of the lot. So you kind of took the good with the bad and how do we hide the bad and, you know, celebrate the good. So that was the lot, that’s why I bought it.

    Jon:

    It’s a gorgeous place. And I think what really stands out to me is that the feel of the home really does bring that hallmark, that signature design that you have with that very open design with the flow of the floor plan. One of the images that catches my eye is where your pool is effectively inches away from your living area, your living room area, right? So you really have that indoor/outdoor connection.

    Jeffrey A. Davis Photography

    Phil:

    One of the design elements that we decided to utilize was you walked into the Lanai, so you didn’t walk into the front door, you walk into an open Lanai that could be screened in or not screened in. You had the motorized screens. So your outside space really sort of was part of the entry sequence, which was a nice detail. There weren’t any views to look out to, so the courtyard which was where the pool was became sort of the focal point of the garden. Most of the rooms either looked out onto the street or into the courtyard. I think it really allowed a lot of light. Also a lot of the windows all opened, they were sliders, so they all opened out to that outside space. So the house essentially could go from small-size entertaining area to the entire garden entertaining area, which it did, I mean on many occasions, there might have been a hundred or 200 people in that house at a time.

    Jon:

    Wow, and that does seem to be one of the things that I think more and more we are starting to see that people want. There’s that traditional sort of home that you’ve got your four walls and limited natural light, you know, limited air flow. It is seeming more and more that people are wanting that connection with nature. Especially now post pandemic, where we have a lot of us working remotely now, and it’s sort of that home office where we’re working from the home. It makes such a difference to have that connection to nature. And as you said, even if you’re in a city environment, so you’re in the Winter Park area, but you’re not boxed in by that city feel. Like you said, it’s a balancing act, you’ve got a five-story building here, how do we design this to where you still have that nature, that natural environment around to really create that holistic feel? That’s something I think you do very, very well across your entire portfolio is blending that. What is your process like in terms of that balance? I can imagine that there’s gonna be a lot of thought that goes into how open do we actually make this, making sure that we are balancing for weather, etc., and all the different variables that can play into that.

    Phil:

    So I sort of took dimensions and I sort of looked at where the building behind me was, you know, that shared the alley with this house. And I took a normal height that would be for eyesight and then I puffed up the actual house just tall enough that it would hide the five-story building from anywhere in the garden. And I did that in sort of 3d modeling and sketching. And with overhangs, that element, you never really see that five-story building while you’re outside in your own garden. So that was really sort of nice. You could be sitting in the pool and you wouldn’t have people looking at you or any of that stuff.  I’m a little bit more modest in that it feels weird if someone’s watching you swim or something, I don’t know. But anyway, I intentionally used the architecture and the structure of the house to shield that view into the garden from the building next door.

     

    Phil Kean, Architect and Builder

    Jon:

    Yeah, that’s the challenge it seems, is that you’re really having to get the best of both worlds. You know, that’s something I’ve admired about your work that you’re so well at integrating that in. One of the details, while we’re talking about the outside space, that I really love is the deck and the cooking area… the outdoor kitchen that you have. It’s the placement of that, and the layout of that, I think again speaking to the balance from a visual perspective, where your outdoor kitchen is actually far enough back but still in close enough reach to help with entertainment, whether you’re firing up the barbecue or whatnot, you’ve got that proximity. From a visibility standpoint you’ve also been able to make that blend and almost camouflage it into the whole design.

     

    Jeffrey A. Davis Photography

    Phil:

    Yeah, it felt like you were entertaining while you were grilling or something the way it was positioned there. Many events that was used as a bar kind of, there was a bartender behind it and they were serving drinks or wine or whatever behind that. It was spacious enough so there could be several people and hidden way enough that they could have coolers and all kinds of things there. That was really versatile and served multiple purposes. If it was just me grilling or somebody just grilling, that was one thing, but if you were having a party you could use it for putting snacks, drinks, and things like that on it.

    Photo by James F. Wilson courtesy BUILDER magazine

    Jon:

    Exactly, and there’s that blending again, just as if it’s hand-in-glove, nothing feels out of place. I think that’s a huge point around your designs that I’ve always admired is that everything feels like it’s part of the larger whole, there’s that continuity across the design. I think there’s a lot of fragmentation that we see a lot of times, and I’m sure that you come across this a lot, when you’re looking at architecture where you see a sort of a fragmentation, either it’s between the indoor or outdoor or maybe some elements or accents that are in sort of a huge clash in terms of the look and feel and the fit.

    Phil:

    You have to think about how you’re gonna go for an indoor/outdoor feel or have it really feel like the outside is coming in or the inside coming out, I think it’s a combination of materials and scale. In this particular house we used the same material inside as we did on the covered lanai, and I think that was successful. We also finished and painted the inside ceiling tones the same colors and same finish. Another thing we did is we took our sliding glass windows and doors from the floor to the ceiling, so when they were open or slid away, that sort of blurred inside and outside. I think that by bringing the same materials out to the grill area, it all blended really well together. Almost like an extension, you know…an extension of the inside maybe out or the outside maybe coming in. It was one of my favorite details.

    Photo by James F. Wilson courtesy BUILDER magazine

    Jon:

    Well, I can see why. As I’m looking at this right now, I can really imagine what it would be like to be in a large group there…you have the space. That’s another piece here, you have the space and the ability to be intimate and also have room to breathe. Just so many delicate balances…. As I was looking at this in preparation for today, it’s really just one of those points that over and over again you’re watching that line there being attended to very, very well.

    Phil:

    I was gonna say, also the water table off the pool was really sort of a nice detail. I would find that during parties, four people would be sitting at that table having a drink or having some wine. What it did is it also allowed a little bit of background noise, I always liked to use that as a buffer. I was one house in from the corner street, so it kind of muffled any kind of noises you might hear as well. So it served two purposes: it was sort of a cool aesthetic detail, a lot of people thought kind of a “Wow” factor, and it was entertaining at the same time, moving water is always something cool to look at.

    Jeffrey A. Davis Photography

    Jon:

    It’s such a great feature. I think because like you said, that white noise really makes people feel comfortable, especially if you’re someone who’s new to the environment or it’s your first time being there. It creates that freedom to sort of take a little bit of pressure off. But it’s also a beautiful thing even if you’re out there on an evening alone to just sit there, to relax, and to think, and to have that sort of meditative space as well. I think that that’s what is really exciting to me when looking at how this all came together. These are ideas that don’t populate without actually thinking through what the inhabitants are gonna be using the space for, and what could it actually do in its fullest potential?

    Phil:

    Yeah. It was interesting because it was a progression of how to use that space. It wasn’t like “Oh!” – the first thing I thought of. It was sort of something that as the pieces and elements came together, this morphed into this lovely little garden of tables, and water table, and the grilling area. The outside space was certainly really thought through, but still became almost like a little journey like, “Oh, well we have this space, what would be fun here”? And that’s sort of how that happened.

    Jon:

    Can I ask you about the balconies? Because I am fascinated with the balcony structure that you have because the views are impeccable. As you said, you’re balancing privacy, but also maximizing visibility from within the residence. What does the process look like when you sit down and really identify where and how to implement the balconies ?

    Phil:

    In this particular house, I had these geometries that came off: there were three rooms on the second floor – one was a bedroom, one was an exercise room, or could have been another bedroom, and another was a TV lounge kind of space up there. So I had the ability to have doors and balconies off those three rooms, and each of them had sort of a different feel. There was the one that faced essentially the street in the corner that felt like more of a social balcony. It was off the TV lounge. And then the other one was off the bedroom, which overlooked the pool, and it was much more protected and much more private. The views off of that and into that were much more protected. And then the other balcony faced toward the lake, and it was off the gym, and we called it the yoga balcony. So you could go out there and take in fresh air and maybe stretch or whatever. It was a little more protected from the major road. It was certainly more visible than the bedroom balcony. They had sort of a sense of order and priority.

    Jeffrey A. Davis Photography

    Jon:

    And I think it also maximizes your experience in the home because you have the variety. Like you said, you’ve got an exercise room, and you’ve got your place to go outside to stretch, and yoga, and have some alone time if needed. So you’ve got that spectrum of opportunity to go where you want to go to do what you want to do. While we’re talking about the navigation within the home, it strikes me how open the home is while also having such a clean, beautiful structure as well. What is the inspiration for you when you look at flow within a home?

    Phil:

    Well, I usually start with a floor plan and then I go to the elevations. The idea with this flow was that first room you would go into would be your most formal room, but you would pass and look into some private rooms as you’re passing through the lanai. So the first room you came to was the gallery, and there were no windows on the one side because it faced the alley and the other side faced the courtyard. So that was the first one. In that room there was a bar, so it was really set up for entertaining. There was a powder room there, and the bar, and a very minimal hallway to take you to the powder room.

     

     

    Jeffrey A. Davis Photography

    Then as you go the other direction, the lower ceiling height is what created the dining room. The dining room was kind of an L-shape flow, so you went from the gallery and in this particular case you took a left into the dining space. And the dining space, by use of cabinetry and countertops, then took another L-shape off the dining room into the kitchen. The cabinetry became the buffet in the dining room, and then as it turned the corner it became the counter of the kitchen.

    Jeffrey A. Davis Photography

    It was really tailored so that cabinetry went down a hallway where it was paneled on both sides of the hallway. I called it the appliance corridor, so I put all of the big appliances, the ovens, the microwave, the coffee maker, things like that down one side of the corridor. The other side of the corridor had the refrigerator, pantry, and access to the garage and a small laundry room. And then I used that cabinetry again to wrap around and it brought you into sort of a, I call it the “coffee lounge”. You could watch TV there, it had four chairs and opened up to the garden. Off that room there were stairs to the second floor, and  there was an office and a bedroom off a small hallway, and a powder room on that side as well.

    Jeffrey A. Davis Photography

    You’re sort of going from more formal to less formal, and then you’re going up to the second floor which has the three rooms. So it was really layered for “how exposed are you gonna be during a party?”. So the master in this particular case, or the primary as the more politically correct term, the primary bedroom was on the second floor away from entertaining and noise, but the house had an elevator so that if somebody were, if it were necessary, they could use the elevator to access the primary bedroom and bath. So it had a layer, and it was ordered as formal to less formal.

    Jon:

    Yeah, and the thing that strikes me about that is there IS a seamless flow. When I take a look at every different angle, you never feel like “it fits”; even though, as you said, you’ve got formal and informal, and sort of private and public sort of facing rooms…you’re still feeling that integration.

    Phil:

    Yeah. The spaces visually blend into the next room, but by using compression and materials and things, it created a sense of place. It wasn’t like one big room, but it flowed like one big room, if you understand that concept. There was definitely a gallery that had taller ceilings, I had designed that gallery to be the room that blocked the view from the five story apartment building. During the process of building it, I felt like the scale was a little tall so I brought the ceiling down. It was a great space, one of my favorite spaces. I actually designed a space recently using that same proportion of that room. It was such a great room.

    Jon:

    I can see why.

    The point that I want to move into next is something that I have a personal passion for and a lot of interest in which is the materials that are used across the residence in the flooring. It is so different in many ways in different parts of the house. I think it really draws in the depth of the room in some areas, and in some areas it really creates that clean, crisp feel, for example in the bathrooms where you have that beautiful marble. Can you tell me a little bit about the process that you went through in terms of materials and maybe even in terms of sourcing if that’s relevant as well.

    Phil:

    That house was a show house for the National Association of Home Builders. So it was sponsors, you know, there were people that wanted to showcase their product. I had the final say over all of that, but some I had to use was  Daltile as Daltile was one of the material suppliers. It was a combination of “what can I get in time”. I built this house in eight months, that was a real tight timeframe, so my first choice oftentimes was not available. Actually the flooring that I put on there was a second choice, but it was pretty awesome that I laid that flooring. It was a linear cut limestone. I laid it in a way like you would lay a random pattern for wood flooring, so a lot of people think it’s wood because it kind of looks a little like wood, but it was warm. It had a real warm tone to it. Because it was limestone, I could take it outside. So I used it both inside and outside on the first floor. That was really important for me to have that connection to the two. Then on the second floor, we used product from another vendor, so we did a Walnut on that level. In selecting products, because of the not knowing, I went with a light and dark. So I would pick either one of the lightest products available or one of the darkest products available from the vendors that I needed to work with. I could always say “no”, but part of that was to showcase the best of some of the best vendors in the country. So that was kind of exciting, because like the stone on the walls, they didn’t have the product I wanted, so this manufacturer…I designed it and they developed a new product that they are still selling today out of that house. So that was a cool experience in that regard to have a vendor, and you get to design it. I got to design light fixtures and I got to design…, so all of that was really a one of a kind type of experience, but it was really very fun. Very, very fun.

    Jon:

    Well, now that you mentioned lighting, I have to ask about that because the lighting is remarkable… the fixtures and the different elements that you’ve brought in. I think you were able to highlight, in some cases, the height of the ceilings and other cases it really brings in the warmth of the room. So with the lighting, is that something that you took inspiration from maybe a different project or from maybe something that you wanted to try or experiment with on this? What was there a backstory on the lighting? Because it is fascinatingly beautiful.

    Phil:

    When I was in college I took some courses in lighting and lighting design. I knew that lighting was going to be really important, so we used lighting both as a direct light source and as a sort of a design ambience type light source. That was really fun. This was designed over 10 years ago and LEDs were not quite as accessible, so a lot of the products just weren’t available in LED. So the manufacturers and we worked together to create products that used a more energy efficient light source. That was really fun. We did some modifications in the field to get the right values. Part of the design process was “how does the light work in this house?”. I think it’s successful.

    Jon:

    Absolutely. I would say one of the areas that I love the most is in the kitchen area… it’s beautiful the way the light creates that warmth, it’s very inviting. When I look at these shots of these images, the thing that pulls me in is how easy this would be to just see yourself there. It’s one of those things where you see it, and it looks inviting, it pulls you in, it really does pull you in. And I believe that your choice of lighting and how you did that, especially ahead of the curve, in that sense, sort of ahead of the time so to speak in terms of LED usage, on that I take my hat off to you. I want to ask you as well about the sustainability on this. I think that sustainable design is something that you’ve been able to not only become proficient at, but there’s a degree of industry level respect that you have in this space when it comes to understanding and implementing sustainable design in these types of homes. Could you share a bit of maybe either the macro or maybe even down to the micro in terms of how your sustainable design impacted the end product on this residence?

    Phil:

    One of the cool things about this house in particular is that it was the greenest house built in 2012 in the country. It had the highest energy-efficiency and was recognized for its green factor. Some of the things that we put into the house that made it green was that we used all low-flow fixtures, toilet and showers, all low-flow. So water usage was really carefully managed in this house. We used LED on all of our lighting. We used all Energy Star appliances. We had solar on our roof. We also did insulated concrete forms. They’re called ICF and they are forms that are like an insulated block and it’s almost like a Lego kind of assembly. They are filled with steel and concrete and then you put your material on top of that to finish it off. So on the inside you would have your drywall and on the outside, in this particular case, we had stone and stucco. Those were some of the green elements. In addition to that, we did a Florida-friendly lawn design where all the plants in the entire yard are all Florida native. So the advantage to that was that it helps to feed the animals native to Florida and uses much less water because they don’t get sprinkled in nature, so they get just enough water. We used some artificial turf to get that sort of lawn look, but overall it was a very cool project. We used a product for the deck around the pool that was made from recycled salt and rice husk, you know, like the residue of when they make rice. That was kind of cool. So that was some of the things that made it energy-efficient and the greenest house in the state of Florida and the country in that year, which is an honor.

    Jon:

    That’s a very remarkable honor. I’ll tell you that is! If you think about the amount of homes and residences that are built, especially in the last 10 years, I mean, this is something that is actively being pursued by architects. And to be able to reach that, you know, that’s…

    Phil:

    Well what was interesting is the following year I went out to the west coast which has been known to be so much more green-forward. And I went out just to look at homes on the west coast during almost like a green build blitz, kind of, it was sort interesting because there were things I thought they could have done so much better. And, I was just a novice at it at the time. So I was really fortunate to have an amazing green certifier and consultant help me on this project. In the process I learned a lot too on the things that really work well and things that don’t work well. Another thing I did on this house was I put screens on the outside of all my windows so that the sun never hit the glass, so it kept the house much cooler. Then my roof was white, so in Florida that’s pretty cool because that’s what you need here is to reflect that light. As we’re talking more and more things come back, how it just ended up being this amazingly green house, <laugh> or energy-efficient house.

    Jon:

    Very much so. Thank you for going into that detail because I think one of the parts that I enjoy the most out of these conversations is the new lens with which we can see this project. I also believe if someone’s listening to this and they say, you know, I have this as a goal, I want a sustainable residence and I want the design to be beautiful. And to achieve all these goals as well, you know, to tick off all the right boxes. I think it’s exciting for them as well, to be able to listen in on this and say, look, it is possible to have your cake and eat it too. I think that’s where this type of conversation is very, very intriguing. I think both you and I, but also for the person listening in on this, who has the interest to move forward and spark a conversation with the firm. Just one last question for you, Phil, unless you had anything else to add onto that?

    Phil:

    No, I could talk about green all day long. Maybe that’s another topic. <laugh>

    Jon:

    Definitely, I would love to cover that on a subsequent conversation for sure. I’ve got a load of questions around that I think would be worth diving into an understanding. I think I’ll just touch on one quick point before I move onto the last question: you would expect with a home that is the greenest home to not have as much technology built into it as what you have here. It’s extraordinarily well lit, the amount of appliances, and screens that are visible everywhere. And I can see sound, audio, you know, installed as well. I mean, there’s so many pieces to this puzzle that it is a bit of a shocker to a lay person like myself to imagine this as the number one green home, because of the fact that I think as lay people, when we see, or when we think of green, we think, okay, great, but that comes at a cost. And I think what you’ve demonstrated so well here is that you’re able to achieve that without the sacrifice.

    Phil:

    Right, there’s no sacrifice to be sustainable. Today there’s virtually no cost difference. You don’t have to think twice about having low VOC or no VOC products in your home. I mean, 10 years ago, you had to sort of carefully look for everything, but today you don’t, it’s the standard. That’s really important for people to know that being green does not mean just energy-efficient. It means being healthy. The things you put in your house is also part of what makes a house really green. In this house I collected rainwater to use in the garden and for extra watering I would need. So all of those little things, you don’t really think about that, and those don’t really cost anything. Here in Florida, every once in a while, we’ll have a drought where we can’t water our lawns. So that made it really great to be thoughtful about water usage and collecting water and people do it. But it’s really easy. People can have bladders and collect as much water as they want, especially for secondary uses. It’s really great.

    Jon:

    I think that’s the point, right? It is. Not only is it an advantage to the ecology and to the environment, as you said very well. I think this is something that as we become more and more health conscious as a nation, I think that is one of the pieces of the puzzle that we begin to sort of understand. I think one of the obvious major issues obviously was the whole asbestos, you know, back then wasn’t being implemented in construction wasn’t really ever addressed until it was too late. And I think that is where we’re understanding our world today is that the sustainability and greenness, so to speak of your residence, we may not even know the full scope of benefits until 20 years, 30, more years down the line.

    Phil:

    Yeah. I do think it very easy today to thoughtfully place things in your home and use materials that are better for the environment and better for you in the long run. I think that’s what this house in 2012 really explored. And I think it was one of my favorite homes I’ve ever worked on.

    Jon:

    Phil, as always thank you so much for the time today, what an amazing conversation. I want to thank you for giving us this sort of a virtual behind the scenes on the process and the beauty that we have here. I mean, this is great, great, conversation. So thank you very much.

    Phil:

    Well, thank you. I hope it inspired somebody to do something a little different,  <laugh>.

    Jon:

    Absolutely. Thank you, Phil.

    We hope you’ve enjoyed this interview. To learn more about how you can work with Phil Kean Design Group, visit PhilKeanDesigns.com.

  2. PKDG Features a Fresh Take on Transitional Home Design during the 2022 Parade of Homes in Orlando

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    Phil Kean Design Group’s “Modern Hacienda” showcases PKDG’s exceptional ability to blend modern and traditional architectural styles to create timeless, transitional designs.

    The 4,072 sq ft one-story home features traditional European architecture and incorporates Phil’s favorite design elements including a surprise entrance, his signature clean lines, abundant windows, and extraordinary design details throughout.

    The 4 bed and 4 ½ bath floor plan is furnished as a two-bedroom home with the 2nd and 3rd bedrooms used as a home office and exercise room. The 4th bedroom is located in the detached casita that serves as a guest apartment.

     

    One of the things that make’s PKDG’s designs so unique is their ability to design dream homes on difficult lots, and this project highlights that talent well. Designed for an odd-shaped lot that curves to the right and backs up to a busy road, PKDG was able to create a private sanctuary shielded from the road’s activity, offering plenty of enjoyable outdoor space for gardens, lanais, pool, and dog runs.

    parade of homes custom home by phil kean design group

    This gem of a home honors the exciting design elements from PKDG’s previous homes, features a uniquely designed raised pool that follows the shape of the lot, celebrates nature, and offers PKDG’s fresh take Florida courtyard living.

    View a virtual tour of Modern Hacienda by its architect and builder, Phil Kean, filmed during the 2022 Orlando Parade of Homes in the video below. The video is hosted by and compliments of Harif Hazera of American Dream TV.

    To see more photos of this project, go to PKDG Residences Portfolio.

    Ready to start building your dream home? Contact us to learn more today!

  3. Transitional Home Design Trends in Architecture with Phil Kean (Podcast)

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    We are excited to share this interview with Phil Kean, where we discuss trends in Transitional Home Design.

    This trend represents a shift in modern architecture to blending elements of different styles of architecture. A well-designed transitional home is just as timeless as a traditional design, and in the case of Phil Kean Design Group’s homes, always offers unparalleled uniqueness and memorable design details throughout.

    Phil says, “Transitional home design to me is taking elements of a home and blending it so it’s not necessarily a particular style. It may have a traditional hint, or it may have a modern hint with some traditional elements. It’s a blended style that really doesn’t look like a Georgian, or necessarily a modern, or an Italian. It doesn’t fall into a ‘style’.” In addition, “I think it’s always fun to have a little “Wow” moment, or an “Aha” moment, or “Ooh” moment in architecture and design,” says Phil.

    You may have seen Phil Kean’s latest Transitional Home Design: “Custom Home – Modern Hacienda” that will be open to the public in Orlando during the 2022 Parade of Homes in Orlando, June 18 & 19 and 25 & 26, 10am – 6pm each day.

     

    Listen to Phil’s take on transitional home design and how it is used in his Modern Hacienda project in our latest podcast interview below. 

    Jon:

    I wanted to touch today on transitional home design. I wanted to just get from you, first of all, what does transitional home design mean to you?

    Phil:

    Transitional home design to me is taking elements of a home and blending it so it’s not necessarily a particular style. So it may have a traditional hint, or it may have a modern hint with some traditional elements. It’s sort of a blended style that really doesn’t look like a Georgian, or necessarily a modern, or an Italian. It doesn’t fall into a style. So that’s what that means to me.

    Jon:

    First of all, that is a huge clarifier because I think there’s so many different and sort of even sometimes confusing understandings of what transitional actually means. I think you’ve done a great job of simplifying that understanding for us. One of the things that comes up, I would imagine with this especially is the challenge of understanding where to set the boundaries on the design and how do you approach such a nuanced design that does have elements that might be blurred lines between designs, if that makes sense. So in terms of the process that you use to approach a home design, a residence design, that is in that transitional home design sphere, how do you approach that? What’s your process like?

    Phil:

    It’s usually based on a client’s collection of photographs of images and things that they like. I did a home not too long ago that had steel I beams, but it was a traditional home with the stone siding, but it had I beams instead of lentils over the windows. So there’s these little nuances of things that somebody driving by may not really think about it, but it all looks great together. Or doing an open floor plan, a lot of times inside can be very, very modern. A lot of people are liking the modern kitchen, and the modern detailing, and the modern elements, but on the outside they want it a little bit more traditional, or they live in a neighborhood that has a a design review board that forces them to put a tile roof on.

    So how do you do a house that’s more contemporary with a tile roof? You can do a transitional tile home and have it feel like maybe a Villa  in Spain, or a Villa in Italy, or a Villa in France along the Mediterranean or something like that, and get this sort of modern and yet traditional elements blended together. So that’s some of the things that I do <laugh>.

    Jon:

    I think a good question is around colors and the blending of colors. I think, like you’re saying, if you’re looking at more of a Spanish style design where you’ve got the reds and the oranges, and some of those colors that you wouldn’t typically see in an ultramodern type of design or maybe more of a stone design, how do you look at the color spectrum as you’re designing? And how do you choose inspiration and fuse these incredibly different eras and design styles together?

    Phil:

    I’m working on one right now that’s going to be our Parade Home in June. It’s a transitional home that I would call sort of a Modern Hacienda. It’s transitional because it has much more refined details in the sense that there are no arches in it. But it has peak ceilings and it has a tile roof, but it has flat roofs, so it has all of these little elements that you could say, “Oh, that’s a modern piece of the house. Oh, that’s sort of a traditional piece.”, and that’s so. The house is designed around the courtyards. There’s multiple courtyards in this house and gardens. So you lend from the history, but you reinterpret it to today. You’re not trying to make it look like a Hacienda, or a Villa, or a Santa Barbara style, or any of that stuff, you’re just trying to reinvent something fresh and new. Maybe it has a tile roof, you know? So I would call that a transitional home…that smooth stucco and things like that…all of that becomes elements of the design.

    Jon:

    It seems to me that this type of design is all about that rich balance of design styles and different elements that seem to be brought together by these classic lines you would see on one end of the broadband, one end of that spectrum, all the way to juxtaposing that against the hues and the furnishings that are more modern in spirit.

    Phil:

    Yeah, exactly. You can bring in color with fabrics, and textures, and artwork, and all of that can be very, very colorful, but the house can sort of be a subdued backdrop to all of those other things. Or you can bring into the garden, you could bring in very colorful pots, and yet the garden’s a very subdued backdrop. There’s all kinds of ways to play with color in a transitional home that has maybe a modern flare and yet a traditional element, even in ALL the different aspects. I think that’s sort of the fun nature of transitional architecture today.

    Jon:

    Some of the off kilter assortment that you have in an interior that may be, I don’t wanna say clashing, but may be different from what someone might expect. It seems to me that this actually really presents a very exciting maybe full surprises and talking points as you’re entertaining. It’s “Wow, I didn’t expect that! I wouldn’t have expected to see this here.”, but it really does bring out the full design potential of that space.

    Phil:

    Absolutely. I think it’s always fun to have a little “Wow” moment, or an “Aha” moment, or “Ooh” moment in architecture and design. So designing that into a transitional homes can be a little bit more playful and fun. Let’s say you have a traditional home, but you have a see-through fireplace that’s see-through on all four sides, it becomes an “Ooh” factor. Maybe it’s finished in a very traditional way, but the actual fireplace is super contemporary. You know, just all of those things. A lot of transitional homes have very interesting kitchens. There can be a lot of little hidden doors and spaces. Kitchens are really a big playful part of transitional homes for me.

    And then playing with ceiling heights. If you go with a traditional kind of home, you have a normal ceiling height for that style. Whereas if you’re doing a transitional home, you might be playful with the ceiling height or ceiling details. I mean, you might have beams or floating clouds with lights in them. All of those things can be introduced into a transitional home and all feel appropriate. So lighting’s a big part of a transitional home to me.

    Jon:

    Could you elaborate on when you say lighting is an essential part. I guess getting that right really does make or break the space.

    Phil:

    Think about a garden that’s lit at night versus not lit at night. It’s a different experience. It’s the same thing inside a home. If you have an art niche and you light it, or shelves and you light it, or coves and you light it, or beams and you light it, it’s different than if you don’t light those things. You could take a traditional looking beam and create a cove in it, and all of a sudden it feels more modern or more edgy, and it’s all about the lighting. With today’s technology, you can dim it down to almost nothing so it just kind of hums up there. And, a lot of people are using light as art. I did a house where the light went up a wall and over the ceiling in different kind of patterns down a hallway, which was really kind of cool. We did a house a couple years ago where we wrapped every step of the stair with a ring of light, so each of the treads kind of floated in between these rings of light and it was very cool and dramatic, but they were wood stairs. It was this blend between ultramodern and traditional elements. It turned out “Cool”.

    Jon:

    Wow. As you’re saying that I’m visualizing that staircase and that sounds absolutely beautiful. And, one of the words that you use is  playful. I love that because if I’m hearing you correctly on this, there’s a very playful mix of vintage, you know, antique, and contemporary,  paired against a very classic feel in some cases. And then you mix that into beautiful lighting as well. What an amazing experience.

    Phil:

    I do think that’s an important design element that sometimes gets overlooked. It’s just something that if you’re thoughtful and you’re careful. There are people that specialize, that’s all they do is lighting, that’s just their gift. I have a friend I went to architecture school with that all he does is light design for commercial and major installations. So art becomes light. I mean, light becomes art, you know, so it’s kind of that coolness. But it’s not an afterthought. It’s very intentional <laugh>.

    Jon:

    Yeah, that’s what I’m picking that up. There’s a lot of subtlety to this and it’s not going to happen by accident.

    Phil:

    <Laugh> No, no. And, the thing about transitional is that really good architecture, in a lot of regards, is about scale and balance and harmony. So you don’t want to just jolt people when you do a transitional house. You want to make sure you honor a sense of scale, harmony, rhythm. You know, things that make people feel good. And so whether it’s our traditional looking house with overscaled windows, or a grid system, or something like that, that all becomes very transitional and playful. I do think that you have to respect scale. I see some homes that I would say the scales off and you look at it and you say, “I don’t really like that.”, and you’re not really sure what you don’t like about it, but it’s usually the scale, either the scale of the details or the scale of the massing. I’m sure we’ve all seen those. Those two story garages, you know, that are on one side of a house and they just throw the scale, it’s like the house feels off balance. So you need to really think about how it feels and how the rhythm is. I think that becomes the glue that holds a transitional house to be as timeless as a traditional home.

    Jon:

    That’s a very important point. I think one of the problems of the “clear-cut” design styles is that you kind of get landlocked into a specific era.

    Phil:

    Yeah, you can be. Let’s say you’re in a historic area, so you might need to be respectful of a style, but there’s a way to still have some fun and be playful with that style. If it’s an old house, it can be respectful, it can be a similar scale, maybe some similar materials, but you could have some fun. There are whole periods of time where some of the scale was just exaggerated. I think we call that postmodernism. They did these big, oversized columns and big, overscaled details, but the good ones still had a nice scale overall…a nice mass, a nice balance, a nice rhythm. The good ones were successful and the ones that sort of missed that mark weren’t so successful. I think it’s like a painting. Everybody’s going to paint the same thing different, and some people will have more skill at painting it than others. But everybody can sort of visualize and paint, and whether they think it’s good or not, we can all do that. I mean, hopefully we can all do that, unless you’re physically unable to. When we were kids, we would have a blank piece of paper and draw something on it. We were uninhibited, so that’s sort of the same thing with transitional. If you use good resources, then you can understand what you’re doing, then the playfulness becomes really like second nature…like dancing, or like a piece of artwork, or something like that.

    Jon:

    We talked a few minutes ago about the Parade of Homes that’s being launched here this month in June. I would love to hear some examples that speak to this conversation about transitional home design…to just hear from you a few examples from the Parade Home that might be interesting for someone listening in on this.

    Phil:

    One of the things I did with the Parade of Home is I took some of my favorite elements of a lot of the homes I’ve designed in the past and tried to play with those elements. In 2012, I did a show house that had a gallery space in it, so I brought that gallery space back in. Then in 2017, I did a New American Home where it had a detached casita, so I put that in here. Then when I was a kid in college, one of my professors had this raised pool in the yard. Everyone would sit around on the edge of the pool, like a bench, and the pool was in the middle, so I brought an element of that into it.

    Then there’s the open space that’s divided by an art niche. It’s a two-sided art niche that you can put some of your collectibles in and it’s all lit and everything. You can see from the kitchen through into the dining room without having a wall there. It’s very open, yet it’s defined, and this became a wall of art to separate the kitchen from the dining room. There’s high ceilings with beams. I did that in a house a few years ago to help give it more ceiling volume. So it’s just got a lot of little elements. The house itself was on a very strange lot, so I created an internalized courtyard that opens up to one side.

    Those are just the elements, now with the details I have a red tile roof on it, I have brick patios, I have a warm, modern kitchen and the open floor plan, and a transitional fireplace which is surrounded with stone. It has a bar, it has beautiful distressed wood floors. Instead of the typical tile that you might think of in a Spanish style or Hacienda style home, there’s color in a lot of the tile that’s put in the house. So it’s these elements of traditional, but there are no arches in the entire house. Everything is squared and there are transoms. It’s sort of a cool surprise from the street, it looks fairly modest but it’s a sprawling house that creates some real interest to me.

    The color will be in the artwork, and in the fabrics, and in the rugs. It’s gonna have a lot of details that will be memorable. I think that’s what’s important. People will walk through it, whether you love modern or traditional, and be able to see “I could live here.” That kind of feeling, “I could definitely see myself here.” That’s what I’m trying to accomplish. So it’s a little bit old and a little bit new, yet together you wouldn’t call it any particular style, you’d call it transitional. The best thing I’ve been able to call it is a “Modern Hacienda” <laugh>.

    Jon:

    I think this is an amazing understanding. I think that’s probably a good thing that it’s difficult to pin down because it really does fuse together so many different elements from different common denominators that are working together seamlessly, all the while balancing not being too similar. I think that’s a very exciting design style.

    Phil:

    I think it’ll be fun. I think a lot of people will really enjoy it. It has a classic indoor/outdoor style that we like to do here. It has lemon trees and big terracotta pots which is kind of old world, yet done in a modern way. So it’s just not just the architecture, it’s not just the furniture, it’s not just the kitchen, it’s the gardens and the it’s the whole package that makes the house totally transitional.

    Jon:

    I cannot wait to see this. I just want to thank you again for investing the time on this and sharing with us. What an amazing, not only education, but I would also say inspiration to really open up the design possibilities and to open up the spectrum of opportunity that we all have…looking at this through a brand new lens, which is the Phil Kean take on the transitional home design. I’m sure we can direct everyone who’s listening to this to go to philkeandesigns.com and take a look at this for yourself and get inspired by the amazing work that Phil has done on this. What Phil really does well is create designs that when you look at it, you just fall in love with it. It’s an oasis for the eyes. It’s a real experience. So I want to thank you again, Phil, for spending the time here. Is there anything else that you’d want to add regarding the Parade of Homes before we wrap up?

    Phil:

    It’s two weekends in a row and it’s gonna be in June. So if you want more information, you can either stop by or call our office and they can get you more information. If you want to attend it, it’s open to the public. It’s on Saturday and Sunday, I believe the third and fourth weekends of June. I’ll be around the second weekend to meet anybody that would like to talk about architecture or follow up on anything that they might have listened to that intrigued them.

    Jon:

    Amazing. Thank you so much, Phil. Really appreciate it.

    Phil:

    Thank you. I appreciate it too.

     

    Want to get in contact with Phil Kean Design Group to design + build your next luxury home? Contact us today to get started!

  4. Modern Architecture Blends Simplicity and Nature

    Comments Off on Modern Architecture Blends Simplicity and Nature

    Modern architects at Phil Kean Design Group, specialize in highly stylized indoor-outdoor living spaces that complement the landscape surrounding them. Phil Kean Design Group was highlighted in Dwell, a architecture homes publication, for its modern residential architecture design of a single-family home in Winter Park, Florida. With designers well versed in refined aesthetics, the result was a cutting-edge structure that blended rustic, outdoor elements with the crisp lines of modern architecture.

    A Statement Façade

    One of the distinctive qualities of the Winter Park, Florida home is its entrance. An enclosed courtyard, clad by ipe, serves as a captivating entry feature. Wide windows, a staple of modern architecture, are at the front of the house and overlook the secluded courtyard, which hosts a water feature and drought tolerant plantings. A red door provides a contrast to the environment that otherwise uses its design to captivate onlookers.

    Accenting the Inside with Outside Elements

    Upon entering the home, the ipe trend continues inside with slabs of the wood acting as sleek wall accents. The kitchen and master bedroom also infuse outdoor features with polished concrete floors and wooden finishes. Form and function blend together to create a kitchen aesthetic of strong linear elements in an uncluttered space.

    Panoramic Views and Open Spaces

    The living room boasts an open floor plan designed to facilitate gatherings while also allowing a clear view to the lush landscape outside. Making use of the tropical Floridian environment, the large windows bring in natural light and capture stunning views of the pool and lanai. The lanai, or covered veranda, opens up to a pool deck that completes the transition from indoors to outdoors in this seamless, modern home design.

    To learn more about this Winter Park, Florida modern home, read the Dwell article or visit our portfolio for more examples of modern architecture and luxury custom homes.