About
Regh Architects is a residential and commercial design studio recognized for creating architecture that is personal, inviting, inventive, and carefully detailed. Highly collaborative, the firm approaches design as a dialogue between the client, design team and site. Each project is an opportunity to create a solution that that is unique and relevant to the project environs, the client’s specific needs and the budgetary requirements.
Eric Regh has been established as an independent architect in Princeton, New Jersey since 1990. Eric began his architectural career at the office of Arthur Cotton Moore in Washington, DC, who is known for many landmark buildings in DC. Later, at the office of John Carl Warnecke in New York City, who is known for large building projects world-wide and the design of the JFK Eternal Flame memorial gravesite. Subsequently, he worked at Michael Graves in Princeton, NJ, an architect who brought about historic change in several design disciplines but most importantly in architecture.
Eric has lived and worked in Colombia, Venezuela, Spain and Germany, which established his appreciation of multi-cultural design, and specifically for the exploration of architecture design disciplines. Returning to the US for college, he studied architecture at Auburn University and in Frankfurt, Germany.
During the Pandemic 2020-2022, the office has been working remotely from Princeton homes and North Carolina.
Not surprisingly, the pandemic’s resulting quarantine has changed the way families view their homes. Suddenly and more so than ever, the home needs to be thought of so as to offer greater enjoyment, versatility and flexibility. Not only are the traditional spaces of a home needed but the requirements for the home to be also be an office, an entertainment center, a place for schooling, an added space for quietude, a place to exercise, and more often than not an expanded kitchen.
For all the hardship, uncertainty and anxiety that has come with the pandemic, the home has became respite of safe haven.
Some of the optional design choices for a house brought about by the pandemic are conceivably:
Indoors/Outdoors: The choice of private outdoor spaces for a house no matter how small or large. The incorporation of the outdoors and natural ventilation into the house design by developing courtyards, roof gardens, dedicated backyards, dog runs, porches and balconies. A closer symbiotic connection between living spaces and the natural world has become more desirable.
Versatility: The relationship between the owner of a house, both physical and spiritual, is perhaps greater with this pandemic, resulting in more time at home. Thus a house design needs to accommodate a greater amount of services and functions. Commensurately, divisible walls, screens, sliding glass and wood doors, room arrangement, multi-use furniture, all provide for an array of activity spaces with greater flexibility and adaptability.
Home Office(s): The pandemic has proven that home offices are a necessity and maybe in the future the preferred option as a workplace. Obviously, a functional private offices needs to be an integral part of the home, away from noise and distractions. A new home office can be an addition to the house proper, a space in new construction with a separate entry and parking area, or a backyard stand-alone structure with a reception area and WC.
Mud Rooms: An expanded Mud Room either adjacent to the Garage or a side door leading to a Kitchen to include a washer/dryer and perhaps another small room containing a shower and sink. Obviously, this transitional space would at entryways, to remove shoes, hang up coats and to wash hands, and if need be, remove clothing for washing and drying.
Clean Air: Indoor air quality has been a major concern point throughout the COVID-19 pandemic prompting investment in stand-alone air purification systems, which take in outside air, recondition it and supply it as fresh air to a house. The CDC says these units can help “reduce the airborne concentration of the virus that causes Covid-19 …” but they are not an absolute solution. The best air purifiers use a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter that better captures unwanted particles from the air. True HEPA air purifiers capture up to 99.97 percent of particles as small as 0.3 microns, which include a range of allergens and odors. Perhaps the most viable option for whole-space indoor air filtration is to design an external HEPA filtration unit in conjunction with a the house HVAC system. Even existing HVAC systems can be retrofitted to work with a HEPA filter.
Expanded Kitchens: With more people spending more time at home, the importance of significance of kitchens has risen significantly. Pantries are expanded or even enlarged to accommodate more kitchen staples and supplies made necessary by fewer trips to stores. Kitchens are designed to incorporate “homework” areas. Smart kitchen design will also be more prominent consistent with a hands-free and voice-activated devices environment.