Dermot Bannon is remodeling your house, what would/wouldn't you allow him to do?

freshpopcorn

I'd be open enough to large windows and sliding doors because you can always get blinds. I'd like a small living room tough.
I wouldn't like wooden floors in the kitchen and uncomfortable boxy/square couches.

Dermot Bannon is remodeling your house, what would/wouldn't you allow him to do?

I wouldn't let him in the house.

debok

Do whatever he wants, what's the point in paying to get him in if your not going to listen to him

ToddyDoody

I'd try not to let him make a spa out of me.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Deleted User wrote: »

I wouldn't let him in the house.

I was just going to say the same. He wouldn't get within a ass's roar of the house.

ednwireland

Anything

MrMusician18

Come up with something other than a two cube design in white and grey?

razorblunt

I’d let the door hit him in the arsé on the way out.

StolenKrone

bailey shwing in the kitchen

iamwhoiam

Milana Strong Significant wrote: »

I was just going to say the same. He wouldn't get within a ass's roar of the house.

Or mine !

freshpopcorn

razorblunt wrote: »

I’d let the door hit him in the arsé on the way out.

It would be a sliding door. So, you could squish him!

Leg End Reject

I'd end up with an inner courtyard, a flat roofed extension, a folding glass wall to let light in and make the outside space part of the living area, concrete floors, a plywood kitchen and a €150k overspend.

Of course, I wouldn't want any of them.

Deebles McBeebles

Well, gloryholes would be essential and I have a great love for a stainless steel jacks. Other than that I probably wouldn't allow him to make a TV show on it.

KevRossi

Steps in the bloody open space living/kitchen area. Fcuking steps everywhere in his bloody designs.

jk23

The wife!

SirChenjin

Deleted User wrote: »

I wouldn't let him in the house.

Amen. Can't abide him.

JohnnyFlash

The walls of the jacks made of glass.

freshpopcorn

KevRossi wrote: »

Steps in the bloody open space living/kitchen area. Fcuking steps everywhere in his bloody designs.

I remember there was one house with an old lady and he put a steep step at the entrance to the living room.

Leg End Reject

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I remember there was one house with an old lady and he put a steep step at the entrance to the living room.

Was that not the one where the blonde wan shoved the mother in law into the opposite end of her own house to the one she wanted? Then insisted on a door to keep her there? Think the husband was a GAA player and his medals were hidden in the study.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

KevRossi wrote: »

Steps in the bloody open space living/kitchen area. Fcuking steps everywhere in his bloody designs.

What gets me about shows like this and Grand Designs is the amount of people who don’t put bannisters on the stairs. Literally anyone can miss a step or slip on stairs. I can’t fathom sacrificing safety in the name of aesthetics. Work the bannister into the design, people! Challenge yourselves to make it fit the look.

honeybear

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

What gets me about shows like this and Grand Designs is the amount of people who don’t put bannisters on stairs. Literally anyone can miss a step or slip on stairs. I can’t fathom sacrificing safety in the name of aesthetics. Work the bannister into the design, people! Challenge yourselves to make the it fit the look.

I will NOT hear a word said against Grand Designs!

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

honeybear wrote: »

I will NOT hear a word said against Grand Designs!

I love Grand Designs. It’s great. But I have plenty to say about many of the houses.

freshpopcorn

Leg End Reject wrote: »

Was that not the one where the blonde wan shoved the mother in law into the opposite end of her own house to the one she wanted? Then insisted on a door to keep her there? Think the husband was a GAA player and his medals were hidden in the study.

No, it wasn't that episode.
That woman asked to be left at one end of the house and Dermot put her at the other.

freshpopcorn

My favorite episode was the one with Sarah-Jane!

honeybear

freshpopcorn wrote: »

My favorite episode was the one with Sarah-Jane!

Was that the bath one?

Atlantic Dawn

I'd let him practice on the neighbours house and if I liked it I'd let him do mine.

freshpopcorn

honeybear wrote: »

Was that the bath one?

Yes!

whisky_galore

Nothing.
Design wankery for people with more money than sense.

Gregor Samsa

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

The walls of the jacks made of glass.

I’m currently in a hotel room in Bulgaria that has a clear glass wall on the bathroom:



You press a button and it goes opaque. But they don’t tell you about the button (it’s hidden behind towels), I spent the first day wondering what kind of freak designed a room that let you see the toilet from the bed. Even though I’m here on my own, it freaked me out.

Yamanoto

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

Well, gloryholes would be essential and I have a great love for a stainless steel jacks. Other than that I probably wouldn't allow him to make a TV show on it.

Perhaps compliment that with a couple of coin operated erotic video cabins, with a utility close by for storage of the jizz mop.

Deebles McBeebles

Yamanoto wrote: »

Perhaps compliment that with a couple of coin operated erotic video cabins, with a utility close by for storage of the jizz mop.

Now, now. Lets not make it distasteful. The other side of the gloryhole would obviously take care of any jizz cleaning issues.

wakka12

debok wrote: »

Do whatever he wants, what's the point in paying to get him in if your not going to listen to him

But why become an architect if you dont listen to your clients? They are there to serve you and help you make the best building that suits your needs, not just force their vision on you. Push and pull from both parties is best

nkl12xtw5goz70

I have no idea who Dermot Bannon is.

Leg End Reject

Kye Fancy Molecule wrote: »

I have no idea who Dermot Bannon is.

Edgy.

nkl12xtw5goz70

Leg End Reject wrote: »

Edgy.

Or just clueless.

IAMAMORON

He is annoying enough inside my television set, why would I let him anywhere near my house?

I assume Vodafone sales have plummeted, whoever thought it would be good idea to use him as a role model?

Greentopia

wakka12 wrote: »

But why become an architect if you dont listen to your clients? They are there to serve you and help you make the best building that suits your needs, not just force their vision on you. Push and pull from both parties is best

But you know what to expect if you get someone like Dermot Bannon-white cubes, double height spaces etc etc. so why would anyone want him designing their house if that's not what you want too? architecture is a visual art form as well as having a practical purpose, and design is a creative process. Hence why we have famous architects like for example Hundertwasser who's work is so highly regarded and distinctive.

You wouldn't ask him (if he were still alive...) to design a modernist pared down Scandinavian style home because that's not what his signature style was.

Designing a beautiful building is how they leave a legacy behind like any artist.
Just as you wouldn't try and dictate to a visual artist what colours to use on their painting or what materials to use, so you wouldn't try and make an architect do something that was completely against their design ethos and aesthetic.

All architects have their signature style and when you choose an architect you buy into that aesthetic. It's not like choosing a block layer for example where a brick wall is a brick wall no matter who does it.

That's why you have to do your research and choose an architect whose style is similar to what you want for your own house.
Of course there should be some give and take and listening to what the client wants, but ultimately if you're not prepared to buy into their trademark designs then you might as well find someone else, or design it yourself

Greentopia

Sad really but I'm addicted to Room to Improve. Sunday night wouldn't be the same without watching people go €20 grand over budget in the first 5 minutes of the programme and the ones with notions and 15 page wish lists-that weapon from a few series ago!... but seeing their ideas come back down to reality with a bang after a visit from the QS :pac:

I would:

allow him to redesign the house. Where the rooms should go to maximise light, orientation, maximising space, designing rooms in a way I may never have though of, ceiling heights...all the things a good architect would help with when coming up with the basic design that I don't have the skillset or training to do most effectively myself. I'd like a set of drawings from him, but the rest I'd want to have control over.

I'm not a huge fan of a lot of formal architecture and his clean contemporary minimalist style is a bit much for me -had to live with that for years in another country, but there's some elements I would like. I love high ceilings and his ideas of bringing the outside in. I love also that he brings so much light into his houses-lots of beautiful big windows and full height sliding patio doors, and he always wants to maximise a beautiful view.

I wouldn't have him design my kitchen...I like colour and more traditional country style wooden cupboards! and there may be one or two white rooms but not the whole house like he does.

Actually same for all the house. I mean most of his houses looks nice but I prefer more classic and quirky pieces that won't look dated in 5 years time, and lots of colour. For me a home is a reflection of my own style and taste, not a show house for the latest in interior fashion and design.

There'd be no inside courtyards. And no pergolas!

Greentopia

Greentopia wrote: »

.

Greentopia, I'm not sure why, but I find myself strangely attracted to you. Coherent posts, detailed; with more than a two line response. An avatar of a woman, to boot. I hope we never meet, as you could never live up to being the woman I picture you to be.



But anyway...

I did a house extension and partial renovation of the existing house about 3 years ago. I didn't know Room To Improve existed at the time, but I started watching it after I finished my own little project.

I can honestly say, my extension looks very much like a Dermot Bannon project (albeit, it was on budget and possibly not finished to the same high end standard of his work).


It's a flat roof extension, white walls, white gloss handle-less kitchen, large sliding door, lots of greys, glass internal doors, track lighting, etc.

So I reckon if I was hiring Dermot Bannon we'd get on great together. However, as per the TV show, there'd have to be a single thing on the agenda that I wouldn't like, that he'd try to force through. But sure; I'd end up loving it in the end anyway (and claiming that I didn't understand his vision for it, until it was done) so it's all good. :pac:

JupiterKid

A really good architect takes the existing building, or site, and works with what he or she has to get the best out of the existing setting into which their creation is slotted. The key thing is imagination.

Dermot Bannon seems to always go for a generic neo-modernist reductive style - basically a glass box type extension, very open plan with recesses and steps, an inner courtyard if possible and if he can get away with it - a whopping big brutalist bare exposed concrete wall somewhere. It’s as if he hit on what he felt was a winning formula, and has stuck with it, with tweaking here and there depending on the aspects of his brief.

Don’t get me wrong, his designs are ok and usually inoffensive. I’m sure he’s a rather good architect, but his lack of imagination says to me he is not a really great architect. A really great architect would be much more imaginative in reordering and expanding the living space.

bassy

No thanks dont need a green house as my home.

md23040

Only one thing to his credit, at the first client meeting he finds out the house’s southern aspect and builds around this. The amount of lazy architects that ignore this in a country with such very poor light is incredible.

But like every architect on the planet with better insulation and windows available, he designs large open plan and high ceilings spaces. Why not create a cozy and economical house, when by comparison in winter his constructions must be impossible to heat. The cost of energy is going through the roof.

AndrewJRenko

I wouldn't let project manage the hanging of a painting. He's a crap project manager, who specialises in finding things too late in the day to properly plan around them.

Effects

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

What gets me about shows like this is the amount of people who don’t put bannisters on the stairs. I can’t fathom sacrificing safety in the name of aesthetics.

It’d be great if someone came up with a system of building regulations, and bannisters would be required where they were needed.

kneemos

Tell him he can use any colour except white.

Ush1

Tell him I insist on an American fridge. The biggest money can buy.

ednwireland

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

I’m currently in a hotel room in Bulgaria that has a clear glass wall on the bathroom:

You press a button and it goes opaque. But they don’t tell you about the button (it’s hidden behind towels), I spent the first day wondering what kind of freak designed a room that let you see the toilet from the bed. Even though I’m here on my own, it freaked me out.

i was in a hotel in warsaw that had something similiar never found a button to make it go opaque though !

Mint Sauce

Is he doing it for free?

Yes. Let him carry on.

No. Ask him if he has Kevin McClouds (Grand Designs) number, as I show him the way out.

looksee

I am doing work on a house at the moment, quite a lot but it doesn't involve any actual building so I am working with tradesmen. So far I have had two architect/engineer type people suggest that I should open the wall between the kitchen and the living room. Fair enough in theory. The problem is finding a builder to replace the door lintel in a supporting wall. I wouldn't be happy having my handyman/carpenter make holes in a structural wall and what do you think the chances are of finding a builder - any builder, probably one I don't know anything about - to just do that one small job? So the doorway stays.

freshpopcorn

Mint Sauce wrote: »

Is he doing it for free?

Yes. Let him carry on.

No. Ask him if he has Kevin McClouds (Grand Designs) number, as I show him the way out.

I think if your on the show you get Dermot's service for free but you have to pay for the quantity surveyor!

Mint Sauce

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I think if your on the show you get Dermot's service for free but you have to pay for the quantity surveyor!

And for the 20k over spend if you agree to his 'this will make your house so much more attractive' ideas.