We recently got invited to design the biggest water front property in Safety Harbor. The 10 acre, 10,000 square foot waterfront estate seems to play by its own rules, having a private lake and a solar system bigger than most condos. As in any residence of this caliber, the experience starts when the gates open to a winding private road that slowly reveals the actual size of the main structure. It is a dream property both for the owner and the designers. Most firms wait for years to have this happen, just to arrive to an overwhelming feeling of almost pure spacial freedom. Where to start? What to do? What is the best style? These are questions that quickly arise at the very beginning of projects of this nature. Not so long ago, a client asked us what the style of Levy Design Group was. For his surprise, the answer did not only fulfill his question but gave him a much better understanding of what style really is. It’s almost like a curve ball thrown at the designer, who will most likely name a very common (and liked by most) style just before stating that that’s his or her personal favorite, but that he or she can really work with any style.
The thing is, any given style comes from 2 places: the past, and the future. And you wonder why no one wants something that will go out of style in a few years… Well, what are they really saying? -Don’t make my style only for today, do it for tomorrow as well. The past is the road that led the style to be what today is, it is the combination of all the decisions, ambitions, problems and solutions that piled up in an aesthetic way. Let’s take a real life example to expand on this: Modern Farmhouse Style (we’ll get back to the big house in front of the water in a few seconds, which is not a big modern farmhouse).
This style allegedly started in Germany in the 1700’s and it served the original purpose to protect the farmers from the extreme conditions under a very easy to build wooden structure. The house held most of the farming equipment and functionality was without doubt above “style”. After arriving to the US in a much later period, this style was used for a similar purpose, but given the ease of construction and lack of exact design rules it started to spread and evolve around the country. Today is one of America’s favorites styles, or at least the most replayed on HGTV. Nothing wrong with this style, and it probably serves as the perfect antidote for a highly technological world (we do miss a little bit of the country vibes sometimes, don’t we?). As you’ve probably know, the style is also very related to its environment and it should respond to it. No matter what anyone says, we’ve never seen an igloo built in the dessert. Now back to the fun stuff, what is our style? we say “Ancient Futuristic”. We always aim to take both the past and the future into consideration, and not only in terms of the style, but in terms of you, the client: What brought you here? What do you like so far in your life? What way of living have you developed over the years? And also, what do you want to paint on the white canvas called future? By now, you’re probably realizing that you can create your own style and that this word applies more to you than to your designer. Here’s a sneak peak of that house. More to come in the future :).
