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Hope for the Future: Lessons From Midcentury Modern Design
11 ways we can learn from the built-in optimism of midcentury modern homes
We all know that the last few years have been tough. The recession, though not as devastating as the Great Depression, has certainly taken its toll. We found ourselves mired in debt as our retirement savings evaporated and the value of our homes shrank. The term “toxic asset” (an oxymoron if there ever was one) entered the mainstream. In brief, some of us have found ourselves feeling like those poor inhabitants in Gericault’s painting The Raft of the Medusa — adrift in terrifying seas with no safe harbor in sight.
Yet, as we start out 2012 I find myself curiously optimistic. It now seems to me that if the past few decades have been about McMansions, faux castles and “irrational exuberance,” our next act should be about starting afresh from the last time we exhibited true optimism.
Maybe it’s because I’m more aware of these wonderful homes now, or maybe it’s that we’re all reacting to the recent past, but for whatever the reason I’m looking with fresh eyes at mid-century modernism. With true lightness and joy, these houses express a genuine optimism that tomorrow will be better than today; that our children’s world will be better than our own.
It seems therefore that we can take that mid-century modern spirit and combine it with today’s more sustainable and efficient processes and materials to achieve something all together new and exciting. The first step is to learn from these homes. So here are some of the lessons that I’ve learned. What about you?
Browse midcentury-style homes | Find an architect
Yet, as we start out 2012 I find myself curiously optimistic. It now seems to me that if the past few decades have been about McMansions, faux castles and “irrational exuberance,” our next act should be about starting afresh from the last time we exhibited true optimism.
Maybe it’s because I’m more aware of these wonderful homes now, or maybe it’s that we’re all reacting to the recent past, but for whatever the reason I’m looking with fresh eyes at mid-century modernism. With true lightness and joy, these houses express a genuine optimism that tomorrow will be better than today; that our children’s world will be better than our own.
It seems therefore that we can take that mid-century modern spirit and combine it with today’s more sustainable and efficient processes and materials to achieve something all together new and exciting. The first step is to learn from these homes. So here are some of the lessons that I’ve learned. What about you?
Browse midcentury-style homes | Find an architect
1. Float Along. Modestly sized, mid-century modern homes were often light, thin and screen-like and would only gently touch the earth. More often than not these homes had an impermanent quality that belies their intrinsic ability to do more with less.
2. Take Flight. Go ahead, reach for the stars, aim for the moon, don't settle for what's easy but tackle what's hard. The mid-20th century was the dawn of the Jet Age and the Space Race, and we had a faith in ourselves that we could do anything. And our homes certainly looked every bit as if they were ready to take us there.
3. Reach Out. A roof shouldn't just shelter the enclosed space, it should reach out and extend out to the landscape to define and shelter an outdoor area as well. And in so doing control how the sunlight enters and warms the interior space.
4. Be Not So Common. A small and modest ranch, as common as can be in the 1950s, is expanded in a way that respects the original structure while having the lightness and brightness of mid-century modern. This time around with better glass and other materials for a more efficient structure.
5. Make No Small Doors. Well-built, efficient and easy to use, big doors are readily available. Whether sliding, telescoping, folding, overhead or other, big doors can connect the inside and outside and blur the distinction between the two like never before. And while we're at it, no grilles, grids, muntins, etc. Just glass. Big, beautiful, clear, energy-efficient glass.
6. Enjoy Going Barefoot. Connecting interiors with exteriors and employing low maintenance and sustainable materials for our floors will enable us to live the casual and informal life we want. And even our bedrooms want to have that outdoor connection. So design the home to enable that.
7. Create Not So Open Plans. No longer do we find Dad in the den reading the newspaper and smoking his pipe while Mom is in the kitchen preparing the dinner while the children are in the living room watching Howdy Doody. Now we want spaces that promote togetherness and interaction. Yet, too open can be as stifling as too closed. So create separate zones and areas. Change levels and ceiling heights. Make it so you can pop your head up, see what's going on, and go from there.
8. Keep It Family Friendly. Let the kids write on the walls (they will anyway) in a place that's open and on view. No hiding here, just art work and messages everyone will be proud of.
9. Keep It Simple. No fussy acanthus leaves. No corbels or ogees. Just clean, spare and simple shapes, lines and forms. With color, bright and bold and beautiful color that adds a smile to your face and joy in your heart.
More photos of mid-century modern style
More photos of mid-century modern style
10. Add a Pop-Up. Avoid that overly horizontal, 8-foot-tall and boring ceiling plane. Like the top of a 1960s micro-bus camper, pop it up and install some clerestory windows to increase spaciousness and let the sunshine in.
Classic Century Sauce Boat
11. Don't Stop at the Architecture. Our world is filled with beautiful, simple, clean and functional objects like this sauce boat from Eva Zeisel. It is long-lasting, easy to use, pleasant to look at, inexpensive and ubiquitous — everything good and true of mid-century modern.
More: 5 Stunning Mid-Century Modern Homes
Lessons of the Eameses
Browse mid-century accessories
More: 5 Stunning Mid-Century Modern Homes
Lessons of the Eameses
Browse mid-century accessories
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