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THINKING OF THE
CUSTOM HOME DESIGN:
INTERIOR DESIGN:
LANDSCAPE DESIGN;
A CASE STUDY;
The Role of a Multidisciplinary Approach in the Creation of a Cohesive Environment
THE ROLE OF A
COHESIVE
THINKING OF THE
DESIGN PROCESS
FROM ALL ANGLES.
Jesse’s multi-disciplinary approach creates a seamless connection between elements of the home that make them timelessly memorable and notable in their own unique ways. He looks at each home as a total work of art, examining at both the big picture and the minor details that define it. The design disciplines that Jesse specializes in includes custom home design, interior design, and landscape design, used in conjunction with sketching and sun studies to envision a luxurious and cohesive environment no matter where you stand on the grounds. Today, we will be examining how these three design disciplines are used by Jesse to masterplan every private residence he commits to designing.
Jesse Sahlani has made a career exploring a range of unique and diverse design styles that transcend geographical areas and historical eras, driven by his deep interest in the historical origins and nuanced changes of these styles throughout the centuries. Given his varied and diverse range of designs that he has become know for, it’s clear that Jesse’s style is not attached to any particular architectural design style. Instead Jesse’s process is guided by specific design principles that are applied to every project he works on in order to create a cohesively luxurious environment.
This seamless connection of decision-making and master planning allows Jesse to understand the impact that every decision has on the other elements. By taking this approach, he is able to master plan the dynamics between interior and exterior spaces creating a connection that transcends spaces and commonality of design. This approach stretches far beyond just how we move between spaces, it is an approach that focuses on the connection between spaces through the use of large windows, and what we see through those windows whether it be gardens, another wing of the home, or other outdoor amenities. We believe that, more importantly, it is about the feeling you get when you enter a room, or the effect that ambient lighting vs direct lighting has on the mood of the interior spaces.
By getting to know each client along the way, Jesse can intuitively design this environment around their functional needs and stylistic desires. Using these tools, he is able to strike a balance between the whimsical and the technical, all while looking at each design as a rubix cube that requires solving through the use of master planning. We feel this is the right comparison to use as we explain how Jesse utilizes sun studies, sketching, and a multi-disciplinary approach to create timeless and well-planned family compounds.
With all of that said, we thought it would be helpful for our followers to understand Jesse’s process in more depth by breaking down each of these categories of his design process, along with the principles that underscore each of them, and their joint impact when one designer is responsible for developing a cohesive body of work.
CUSTOM HOME DESIGN:
THE FOUNDATION OF
EVERY ENVIRONMENT
The phase of the initial custom home design is truly one that interior design and landscape design are integrated into from a very early phase. This sets the stage for the detailed development of the connection between these three design disciplines. At first, Jesse completes a sun study that helps him understand the sun's rough position at different times of the day. Based on this study, he is able to lay out the footprint of the home, designing it in a unique “L”, “C”. or “H” shape when possible. Jesse is also able to use this initial sun study to determine the locations of exterior amenities such as pools, guest houses, pool houses, cabanas, saunas, and tanning lounges to create a home that feels so connected and sprawling that it reaches every corner of the lot. At this phase, these designs would be based on the zoning by-laws for the property as well as conservation authority requirements, all while respecting the natural features and grading of the lot at hand.
In the next phase, Jesse sketches his floor plans, placing each room in line with the sun’s position based on the average highest time of use. Approximate window placement within these rooms is also laid out during this phase to ensure that natural light and symmetrical alignment with exterior features is achieved where possible. Because he understands the approximate locations of exterior amenities, he is also able to centre the room placement around the creation of an indoor/outdoor connection. Curating the flow for each space independently, and together is what we firmly believe creates the effect of your backyard feeling like an extension of your living room.
During the initial sketching phase, every exterior design decision has an impact on the home’s interior, whether it be on the proportions, symmetry, natural light, or the flow of the space mentioned above. For this reason, we believe it is always best to design the interior spaces first, while helping our clients understand how the size and capacity of each space. Understanding the weight of the impact that every interior and exterior design decision can have on one another is a perspective that only a multidisciplinary designer can understand.
Once this phase is complete, Jesse then sketches the exterior of every custom home he is responsible for designing in order to ensure that the proportions of each home are timelessly perfected. Timeless design can't be achieved through the use of computer-generated design, as you can't replicate the exploration and boundless creativity sketching produces. It cultivates a creative environment for Jesse like no other, allowing him to explore and ground even the most abstract design ideas in a clearly explained form of artistic expression. This expression is one that is a signature of the artist, un-replicable and unapologetically authentic.
INTERIOR DESIGN:
ENVIRONMENTS
THAT MATTER
The significance of the role of interior design is best described as the monitor of a computer. All of the intricacies and capabilities of the computer itself would be useless without the ability to view and enjoy them in an interactive way. Jesse uses this pillar of his design process to both sketch and create detailed interiors that capture the feeling that you will want to experience over and over again. To achieve this Jesse gets to know each client well, exploring their hobbies, family structure, lifestyle, day to day functional needs, and stylistic direction desires.
Once this is complete, he is able to start designing the environment that you will want to experience over and over again. This process captures elements and aesthetic features that are intrinsic to the origins of the design style at hand, offering a cohesive sense of style no matter what room you enter. Jesse curates everything from material selections, lighting plans, fixture selections, ceiling details, flooring layouts, wall treatments, millwork design, and custom furniture design. Our team is then able to develop photo realistic renderings to aid our clients in visualizing what each room will look and feel like during different times of day. The concept of layered lighting, including direct and ambient features throughout the home is a signature of Jesse’s, as concepts such as this aid in the creation of the cohesively luxurious environment we seek to create in every home we are responsible for designing.
More importantly, we believe this cohesively luxurious approach has nothing to do with marble on the walls. It is an approach that focuses on the development of sprawling room flow, proportions, symmetrical alignment of interior spaces with exterior amenities, and the development of a functional storage plan where everything has a spot in the home. Interior design also focuses on the creation of an indoor/outdoor connection by allowing Jesse to design each room’s orientation and flow around the connection between the indoor and outdoor spaces. Minor details such as recessing a large accordion door into the foundation wall to create a seamless entry and exit is a great example of this. To achieve this Jesse has to be in control of all elements of the home including the initial custom home design, to ensure the doors are positioned in the path of the sun during the average highest time of use for the room, the interior design process to ensure that the orientation of the room is optimized, and the engineering process to ensure the door’s threshold can be built into the top of the foundation wall. This also requires him to see through the landscape design to ensure that the exterior amenities and their position within the plot accentuates this sense of connection.
LANDSCAPE DESIGN;
THE FINAL PIECE OF THE PUZZLE OF A
COHESIVE ENVIRONMENT
Landscape design is one of three services that Jesse utilizes to create a cohesively luxurious environment no matter where you stand on the grounds. This concept is centred around the seamless connection between indoor and outdoor spaces. However, as we mentioned earlier, this phase of the design process is not approached at the end. Instead, thoughts about the layouts and placements of exterior amenities are integrated into the early phases of site plan sketches for every home that Jesse designs, benefiting from the sun studies and, when possible, the unique footprints Jesse creates when working with a large enough lot.
Jesse is well known for utilizing the rear facade of every custom home he designs to characterize the exterior entertainment spaces. Whether it be through the use of a cohesively designed facade that utilizes the same stone as the front facade, a unique pool liner, or a covered loggia that can be enclosed and heated, each amenity is thought of as a structural component of the design instead of an afterthought.
The luxurious environment that we use landscape design to create doesn’t come from the expense of materials or features. Instead, it is derived from the use of master-planning capabilities that offer the opportunity to perfect the cohesive designs we are known for. It is about what you see through the floor-to-ceiling windows Jesse tastefully incorporates into his custom home designs, whether that be a pool, an outdoor lounge, or a luxuriously lush garden that makes your backyard feel like an extension of your living room, for example. Garden lighting is a great example of this as it serves to highlight specific plant selections, as well as create a unique ambiance when placed beside windows of interior entertainment spaces. This same garden lighting can also be used to highlight different exterior architectural features, ensuring that the details don’t go unnoticed. By integrating this design discipline from the beginning, Jesse is able to include this lighting within the 3D models for the home, offering a clear depiction of the aesthetic impact of these features. We are then able to integrate these features into the technical lighting plans and trenching plans, all while avoiding conflicts with garden beds, pools, and other below-grade infrastructure.
Our landscape design services focus on a range of stylistic disciplines, as well as a range of unique amenities that we have gained specific experience in implementing. Some of these amenities include pool design, outdoor kitchens, outdoor fireplace and lounge spaces, pizza ovens, guest houses and garden suites, and boat houses. In addition to this, Jesse’s love for horticulture is the impetus behind our detailed plant selections and planting plans, garden lighting plans, and unique hardscape plans. By overseeing the structural and construction drawings for each home, we are able to offer a clear execution plan for each of these features.
No matter what the scope, our landscape design services focus on the “missing piece of the puzzle” that most custom home designers fail to recognize as being an integral part of a refined living experience.
A CASE STUDY;
THE CONTEMPORARY
ENGLISH COUNTRY
BUNGALOW
To offer a real-life use case for the above-noted approach, we believe the Contemporary English Country home by Jesse Sahlani is a great example of perfect harmony between custom home design, interior design, and landscape design. Jesse had the pleasure of working with an "H" shaped footprint, creating different wings of the home that wrap around the exterior entertainment spaces. With that opportunity in mind Jesse, in his usual fashion, designed the rear facade to luxuriously characterize the backyard entertaining areas while creating a uniquely forward indoor/outdoor connection.
The concept of “bringing the outside in” is one that Jesse requires all three disciplines to achieve. In the above image, you might notice that the same field stone that the structure is clad in has also been applied to the living room fireplace. By being in control of the interior design process, Jesse was able to specifically curate features like this to increase the sense of connection between spaces. This is even more pronounced in this case because other wings of the home are visible when sitting in the living room, creating the effect that the fireplace is part of the home's infrastructure. This approach offers a nod to the timeless stone manors of the English Countryside.
Similarly, you might notice that behind the fireplace, there is an accordion door that has no curb, as well as another accordion door folded away in the corner. These two doors retract to create a 30 linear foot “L” shaped opening that creates the impression that the covered loggia space is an extension of the living room and dining room areas. These doors have had their tracks recessed into the foundation walls and heated concrete slab. To achieve this and ensure that the doors were watertight, we sourced doors that were designed for this specific application, designed the grading plan to ensure these areas didn’t require steps up or down, and designed the swale plan for the landscape design in a way that guides water away from these areas.
The backyard pool and tanning lounges are surrounded by the family room, the kitchen, the bedrooms, and the pool house, gracing each of these spaces with a view of these outdoor amenities that naturally increases the indoor/outdoor connection. The floor-to-ceiling windows featured throughout the home can be thanked for this effect, as they are a noteworthy feature on their own that serves to flood almost every space of the home with natural light. These same windows have also had gardens positioned in front of them, framing the unique plant selections and placements, as well as garden lighting used to create a unique ambiance during the evening hours for all of these spaces.
The placement of the exterior amenities have been chosen very intentionally, with each serving to create flow, symmetry, or maximize natural light. This includes the pool that serves to reflect natural light onto the three faces of the courtyard as well as into the home through the large floor-to-ceiling windows. This specific method of harnessing natural light can be learned about more in our blog article about our visit to the Palace of Versailles. Jesse is only able to plan both the interior and exterior entertainment areas in a way that is optimized like this based on the initial sun studies he completed for the home. The photos included here depict different exterior lighting conditions in both technical, 3D, and video formats at different times of the day. This shows us how these lighting conditions impact the use of the amenities based on their locations. Everything from the daytime to mid-afternoon, to evening lighting conditions creates very different ambiances that Jesse leverages to further shape the design. Consideration towards all angles of a design plan, weighing the impact of each decision on both exterior and interior spaces requires a high degree of master planning, as we are sure our readers are starting to catch onto by now. It is through this approach that Jesse is able to design experiential spaces of this caliber.
The end result is that no matter what window you look through, you have a direct view of another architecturally significant wing of the home, garden, or an outdoor entertainment amenity. This authentic commitment to developing a cohesive body of work is best exemplified at the rear of the home. The twin peaks of the English countryside characterize the bedroom wing wonderfully, offering an indoor/outdoor fireplace feature at poolside, and lots of natural light to the living spaces. The proportions of these peaked facades, the height of the chimney, and the size of the windows were all achieved through the initial hand sketches. Viewers will see these peaks from the pool house, when relaxing under the covered loggia, when lying by the pool, and when walking or working on the elaborate exterior English gardens in the rear. A similar logic of the indoor/outdoor connection seen in other areas was taken here as well by positioning uniquely designed garden beds and landscape lighting in front of the bedroom windows. This approach was also taken when designing the front entryway courtyard that features windows positioned to harness north facing light during the morning hours. These windows also look out onto wings that face each other, gardens inclusive of a similar outdoor lighting plan, as well as outdoor sculptures.
When one person possesses the skill set to execute their design vision in each of these design categories, they are able to consider the weight of their decisions in the grand scheme of the environment being created both inside and out. Through this process, Jesse considers everything from the proportions to natural light to the flow of the spaces in conjunction with one another. But as you can see, much more goes into exploring the nuances and minor refining details that create a truly luxurious environment. By this logic, it becomes quite clear as to why a project of this nature requires thoughtful master planning and creative immersion when there are so many wings, amenities, gardens, and architectural features both inside and out. We believe Jesse successfully achieved just that.
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Location & Hours
Office:
1315 Lawrence Avenue East, Unit #510,
Toronto, M3A 3R3, Canada
Hours:
Mon-Fri: 8:00am - 6:00pm
Sat: 8:00am - 3:00pm
Sun: Closed
Sat: 8:00am - 3:00pm
Sun: Closed
Contact
Office Directory
+1 (416) 720 6151
[email protected]
Sales
+1 416-720-6151
[email protected]
John-Luke Sahlani
