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See Colin Davies's correspondence with Ian Abley on the Audacity web site

Architectural pattern books

Architects normally provide services to clients on a professional, person-to-person basis. Clients are charged for preliminary sketch schemes whether or not the project comes to fruition. This works well for one-off public or commercial buildings but is not appropriate for popular housing. Customers for new houses want to see the product before they decide to buy. In the USA and other developed countries, sketch designs for houses are provided practically free of charge in pattern books. The pattern book, or its on-line equivalent, is the normal vehicle for the marketing of domestic design. Designers and publishers make their money by selling working drawings and specifications once the customer has chosen a design. In Britain pattern books are less common but there is a growing demand for them in the expanding 'self-build' housing market.

Although pattern books have a long and architecturally respectable history (see Chapter 5 of The Prefabricated Home by Colin Davies), they tend to be frowned upon by architects, who see them as a threat to the profession. In practice this means that architects are not usually involved in the design of popular housing and the quality of the built environment suffers as a result.

Crowstep Architecture has begun to develop a new kind of pattern book in which designs are presented in the form of multilayered, 3D computer models, dowloadable free of charge from this website. A house design can be viewed in all its versions from every angle. Far more than just a set of plans, a 3D model is a vehicle for customization and means of illustrating the long term potential of a house design. The only software required to view the models is SketchUp, which can be downloaded free from Google. Crowstep’s is aim to make good domestic architecture accessible to ordinary people and offer architects an exciting new field in which to practise their craft.

Our first design, The Growing House, is available for downloading now.

Doric doorcase pattern from 'The Builder's Jewel' by William Halfpenny

Cover of an American nineteenth century pattern book