They may be making something of a comeback, but I've never cared for them, and they may be a drawback when trying to sell your home. Older people or those unsteady on their feet may also not care for them. It also limits your seating to one height and one kind of seating surface, which again may not accommodate everyone comfortably.

Many houses that have these are either large enough to also have conventional seating areas or the pit is small and restricted to a spot like around a fireplace, not front and center. At least the ones I've seen in listings.

i never seen these until I arrived to live in my dorms in Jerusalem. every floor had one(very basic of course). i was very very puzzled..I thought "they probably fill it with water on most hot days so one can put their feet in it?" LOL.

then I enjoyed them of course. a lot. but yes I was then young and steady on my feet

I still see these in some listings around here

I think they are fun in theory and I like the social aspect of them, but in reality, probably not all that practical for inside a home (and definitely dangerous for older people and young kids). But I love the idea of arranging furniture to facilitate face to face conversation, instead of toward the TV. Working on how we can do this in our home.

There isn't a lot of difference in home use when compared to these huge sectionals IMHO. I don't see them catching on if, like the pics above, they require structural changes to a home. Like the home bar phenom they infer a large amount of entertaining is done. Is that how most people live?

Outdoor + pit - roof = leaves + bugs + water. Is that just me?

We had a seating area that was a big pit in our office building reception area (built in the 70s). It was like 3 steps down all the way around. Then they covered the whole thing with dark granite. Well people would come in from the bright sunlight outside, look straight across the room to the receptionist on the other side and miss the fact that to get there from here you stepped down and then up, or had to walk all the way around the pit.

So we on the safety committee had custom designed planters put all around the edges except by the handrails so people could have a better heads up that there were steps there. Wouldn't you know it though? The receptionist told us that younger folks would simply step over the planters!

It was also an issue for accessibility as we then had to make a separate seating area not in the pit which looked awkward at best.

My take, while I find the look very cozy, as I age, it's not so hot from an accessibility point of view. Also, if I want to rearrange a room, that pit would make it far more difficult to do.

I don't think indoor conversation pits are making a comeback so much because people are building new ones but rather because a wave of relatively untouched houses are coming onto the market where the conversation pits have not been altered or filled in.

Housing styles and furniture styles make a comeback in part because the time capsule houses of a certain generation become estates and the houses and contents enter the marketplace.

In houses that have been sold and resold many of these have probably been remodeled away.

Had one, HATED IT. It was a catchall for kids backpacks, camping gear and dirty laundry

And hideously uncomfortable. Too wide to sit on, too narrow to lounge on, and it obstructed any rational use of the rest of the room.

Added to the elevated entry pad seen at the rear it really dictated ALL placement of anything in the room.

Every year I go to a large gathering of MINI Cooper owners in the mountains in North Carolina. It is centered at Fontana Village. The main lodge has a big conversation pit with a big fireplace. Every time I went into the lodge there would be a group hanging in the pit, it was a great place to meet new people.

I don't think it would be a wise use of space in a house, but in this setting it was perfect.

here,

Lazygardens I think yours is a good example of someone jumping on a design bandwagon. Yours is probably just barely big enough, it's really more like modern version of an inglenook, but overall it seems like it is awkwardly placed in too small of a space and the back of it is too upright.

That said, it is an organizational element for that space because it is structural. Almost no one would put freestanding seating with it's back to the entry because they would not think that it's big enough. It might not be for freestanding furniture.

This is similar to people in the very small houses here who take out their tiny vestibules thinking that it will give them more room. It doesn't because with the vestibule, you can place furniture against that wall which is in turn right next to the front door. With the wall gone, no one will put furniture inches away from the front door and sit at in comfortably. Particularly if the back is to the door.

This is the sort of house that can carry a conversation pit successfully, with real sofas in the pit. And I think they would also be able to fill this in and have the same seating on a level surface.

The rest of the house is here:

https://www.facebook.com/endangeredinteriors/?view_public_for=250578702021904

I think Pal is onto something -- these pit-equipped houses are of a certain age and are hitting the market. This one is for sale in Albuquerque, and this is the basement level (lots more mod madness upstairs). I'm fascinated by the elevated door, and love that there is an option here to grill in the pit:

Then there is this one, where the pit has been filled in (the filled in area is around the fireplace, where the brick is laid differently). The end result is a very long room with the fireplace at one end and the TV seating area at the other end. It's an odd setup, to say the least:

I like the ones that pal and Annette posted, but most of the indoor ones seem like an awkward use of space unless you have a very large room to accommodate it. Our landscape designer told me she has designed several recently for outdoor use. But it would have to be in the right outdoor setting (not a rainy, humid climate with bugs).

My daughter and son-in-law have one. They mostly use it as a catch-all. The house has a living room and family room.

Many years ago, my elementary school had a round pit where we'd gather for story time. It was fun, and I remember how we tended to sprawl all over the thing, but I wouldn't want such a thing in my home and can't imagine them making a comeback (particularly for an aging demographic), but understand how they could be coming back into view with older homes coming to market.

I can see it in coastal outdoor setting for wind protection ... where it has a function and also helps create the sense of a "room". Otherwise, I think it has a very high goof factor.

I like this quote from the 1963 Time Magazine article describing the numerous faults and awkward perils of them:

At cocktail parties, late-staying guests
tended to fall in. Those in the pit found themselves bombarded with bits
of hors d'oeuvres from up above, looked out on a field of trouser
cuffs, ankles and shoes. Ladies shied away from the edges, fearing
up-skirt exposure. Bars or fencing of sorts had to be constructed to
keep dogs and children from daily concussions.

Pipdog's original comments about the cool mom serving drinks in her high heels reminds me of Mad Men. Without a conversation pit, where would Jessica Pare get to sing Zou BIsou Bisou?

If there is a lot of upholstery I don't know that falling in it drunk would be a big deal.

One of my design instructors who got his start in the mid sixties had a client who insisted on a roman tub in the middle of her not huge bathroom. She fell into it backwards, drunk, one night and then had a railing put around it, which sort of defeated the "look". She did at least credit the designer with telling her it was a bad idea.

Oh Nuts, I so miss Don Draper and his antics and angst.

I don't like the idea of a pit indoors or out. You can't always have just adults in your home and children are going to use it as play area. Jumping all over and possibly getting hurt. I do love the idea of a conversation area with seating around a fire feature or table. Another thing about the pits is their cushioned benches are not very comfortable for longer conversations. I think most people like having a variety of seating options so they can choose which one they prefer to sink into.

I guess I don't understand why you would need one these days, when there is no conversation because everyone is on their phone texting one another. I guess if you have a mixed group of conversers and phone obsessors it would make a nice corral for the phone people.

I've just seen way too many curly wrought iron railings in unlikely places as a result of these in the past.

writersblock

I read your post and immediately had a vision of a pit with charging stations.

I could see a three sided one outdoors, that wouldn't give me the heebie jeebies.

This one looks nice as well, at least it has drainage. But the leaf issue remains. Maybe you could use a shopvac.