NEW TRENDS IN ARCHITECTURE

Reading architect Sarah Susanka's "Creating the Not So Big House" has opened my eyes to what's happening in home architecture now. According to the author the new trend is to customize everything.

 A client that likes to cook might have the kitchen as the central living space (above) and not the living room. In fact, the kitchen might be at the front of the house, with the front door opening directly into it. In the same way any other previously neglected feature can be emphasized and expanded: the homes office or the rec room or even the consevatory.

Here's (above) a home that subordinates everything to...are you ready for this?...the bedrooms! When you enter the house through the front door, this (above) is what you see...the second floor bedroom corridor leading to the over-sized master bedroom in the back. 

Here's the same house, with the same corridor, showing the view of the front door. Everything inside is subordinated to the bedrooms. 

I like this customizing notion, though if the idea is too esoteric the owner might have trouble selling the house. 

This (above) isn't one of Susanka's pictures. I digress to say that I can't help wondering how far this idea of customized houses will go. To living room swimming pools (above)? To indoor stables for horses? 

Anyway, back to Susanka: as I mentioned in a previous post she mixes good ideas with bad ideas. Here (above) she endorses the notion of the arid reading alcove. Geez, that's an ugly space! I hope she doesn't buy into the belief of some architects that the living room is dead. Living rooms are great when they're designed to be used. I use mine constantly.

BTW, catch those ugly white cabinets! Brutalist living room cabinets are all the rage now, and so are freestanding bedroom wardrobes. Whatever happened to closets? Who starts these silly trends?  

Susanka doesn't mention vertical interior gardens which are more and more in evidence these days. I haven't been able to find good examples on the internet, but they exist, if only in magazines. 

 I wonder if indoor ceiling gardens (above) will ever become practical?  They seem to work in restaurants, but those are probably plastic. 

I'm glad that conservatories (above) are making a comeback. They don't cost much to make and they don't have to be enormous like the kind you see in films about English manor houses. They can be tiny alcoves off the kitchen like the one above.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

I'm also glad that architects like Susanka still believe that the demarcation between inside and outside should be gradual and blurred, and not abrupt like it is in most houses. In the picture above (not Susanka's) the front door is somewhere to the right. You have to pass under a tunnel of trellised plants on the side of the house to get to it. I like that.

I'll end by reiterating that Susanka's books are worth taking a look at even if you find fault with some of her examples. She writes to be understood, which is a rarity in her field, and her enthusiasm is infectious.