Finally I have time for a project that I’ve wanted to do for a while! The idea is a modern style (and slightly Asian) house with a beautiful Japanese garden in the back yard.
So far I have only done the basic modelling and added proxy materials. I won’t start adding the garden until I am confident with the house’s architecture. Please critique as I progress! I already know the roof looks pretty bad, but I’ll fix that soon!
Ok, a little bit of progress today. I fixed the roof and did some other tweaks. Right now I’m looking for critiques on the design especially. I don’t quite know what to do with some of those walls.
Well, right now it looks like the top is just the bottom, duplicated. I’d suggest removing the upper left-hand corner, and maybe add more of a porch, with pillars. And if you wanted to take an Asian-feel to it, make the glass windows rice paper windows. Interested to see where you go with this.
I really like that idea of mixing up the levels. That would be a super big porch though, what would I even have there? Perhaps that area could be a greenhouse or something!
I’m thinking glass for the windows to keep the feeling modern, but the decorations and details will be Japanese. It’s kinda weird mixing the two styles, but I think it could work fine.
I’m also going on vacation for a week, but I will pick this up when I get back!
Hmm, looking back at your pictures, the porch does seem to be normal sized. I’m interested to see how this mix works out! Hope you have good vacation, btw.
I really like the teahouse, and the greenhouse is looking good as well. Did I mention that the pathway is a nice design, cause if not, its pretty cool.
I haven’t had much time to work on this, but here’s an update:
I blocked out the parts of the garden, some of which you can’t see in this render. Anyone have experience with botanical garden design? That would be really helpful.
I also did some interior work on the left side of the house, but not enough to show. Anything else I should do to the exterior? I feel like it is really unfinished, but I’m not sure why.
To me, it doesn’t look “lived in” at all. Adding some outdoor furniture would help, or even a doormat. Also, the white walls are a bit plain. you could add something to them (a horizontal black stripe midway up, maybe? Just a random suggestion.)
There are a few things I’m not happy about, but for the most part it is blocked out. I really need to start adding real materials for everything. I started adding a basic interior but haven’t gotten far at all.
I finished blocking out the tea house. It needs a ton more detail, but I think it is off to a good start. There will be Japanese tea seats and a table on the floor.
Here is the design for the sand garden, the actual sand and rocks are not added yet:
I never heard of a sand garden, but it’s a cool idea. I’m enjoying your progress… are you using any reference images, or just dreaming it up as you go?
Thanks harlynut, I am using lots of different reference images and piecing them together. Some are from traditional Asian homes and some are from modern homes. For example, here is the reference I am using for the sand zen garden:
It’s a little tough getting those specific clean lines into the geometry, so I simplified mine a little.
It’s been a while, but I’m back to working on this between jobs. Still so much to do, but I’ll get there eventually. I’m not quite to the detail stage yet; I still have to block out a lot more of the house and garden plus fix some proportion issues.
Pretty small update, but I’m still working on the main materials and color schemes. I feel like the modeling just isn’t that good; it’s definitely my weak spot in this case. Any suggestions? I think my scaling is off, but I can’t put my finger on it.
I started blocking out the inside a bit. I wish I could skip to the lighting, details, and materials, but oh well. One thing at a time. Here’s the basic layout of the living room:
Good to hear this project is still going! I kinda liked your grayscale color scheme you had going, a pleasant change from the classic, “red roof with green details” But then again, you wouldn’t want it blending with the background too much Good luck
I guess it’s a little late to weigh in with some basic design considerations, but here goes.
The distinction between Japanese and Western style housing seems to be the location of the hallways. Japanese tend to place hallsways on the outside, surrounding rooms that have common (and usually movable) partition walls. In the case of your building, the exposed patio could pass for one of those exterior hallways, but a Japanese architect would probably give it a roof, at least, and would usually enclose it completely.
Same thing on the tea house: there would be walls (sliding walls, but walls nonetheless) surrounding the hallway outside the tea room itself. Also, tea houses would have tatami mat floors rather than wood. Modern Japanese homes use wood or composition flooring in kitchens, living rooms and bathrooms, but bedrooms may still have floors of tatami matting. Depends on the furnishings. Western furniture can play hell with tatami mats.
Good to hear this project is still going! I kinda liked your grayscale color scheme you had going, a pleasant change from the classic, “red roof with green details” But then again, you wouldn’t want it blending with the background too much Good luck
Thanks! I liked the more subtle colors as well, but it is exactly as you say. Once I start adding in all the fun stuff like flowers, bushes, grass, etc…, I will need the house to stand out as the focal point.
Those stairs down to the lower deck just scream tripping hazard to me…
Yeah, those would be pretty dangerous to walk on… This should be much better. I also changed the size of the planks to give a better sense of scale.
I guess it’s a little late to weigh in with some basic design considerations
Not to late at all! I’m still in the beginning stages; I would rather have this kind of stuff now than at the end I never realized that about the hallways, even after reading up on traditional Japanese architecture. I don’t think it would work in this case to put a roof obver the deck, but I could enclose the tea house and for sure change the flooring. Thanks for the info, it was really helpful!
Ok, I changed to a 3 color scheme for the house and I think it looks a bit better. At some point I will have to re-do the roof and trim, any ideas on that? I don’t quite like how it is now.
And here is the tatami flooring instead of the wood:
) :
Good luck 
Good luck 
