Contemporary home architecture

Originally Posted by JoelF

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I think this is pretty nice for infill development in a place like West Hollywood, which is full of all forms of kitsch in any case.

Looks like they put some lights on a Cargo ship.

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

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Is there a name for this type of style? Is it over-taking faux-Tuscan, or are they co-existing peacefully?

I'd second the "post modern" label - just because they rip off elements of modernism doesn't make them any better than the McMansions which rip off combinations of Tuscan, greek, colonial, etc. etc.

The Glass House is rather special, but not sure if I could live in it full time - I think even the architect built it as a vacation home/retreat.

Originally Posted by v0rtex

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I'd second the "post modern" label - just because they rip off elements of modernism doesn't make them any better than the McMansions which rip off combinations of Tuscan, greek, colonial, etc. etc.

I don't know what I'm talking about, but, at least I think, a post-modern take on Tuscan, Greek, colonial, etc would be cool. I know one of my favorite buildings is a post-modern gothic.

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

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The combination of the black and wood paneling is just bizarre
I'm a big fan of black metal and wood. I think some of my favorite combinations of materials would be white concrete/walls, wooden floors, some bricks and black metal structures and window frames.

The development you linked to in the OP is positively vomit-inducing

I feel contemporary architecture is stuck in a kind of PostModernist Loosian/Bauhaus aesthetic that simply cannot be taken any further. However, since most people have no talent or imagination, they think that by deriving more and more insipidness from the grandfathers of modernist architecture, they are being very cutting-edge.

Architecture is also very trend-driven, and this kind of wanton minimalism is very en vogue. Not only do these houses showcase this, but look at high-end retail shops--all blonde wood and stainless fixtures. The old Lobb shop in Paris was even redone in this abortive, suburban library style.

Originally Posted by v0rtex

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I'd second the "post modern" label - just because they rip off elements of modernism doesn't make them any better than the McMansions which rip off combinations of Tuscan, greek, colonial, etc. etc.
Yes, post modern is certainly accurate but that term could apply to all kinds of styles. Frank Gehry is very much post modern, but his style is completely different from these houses. Incidentally, I think most his work is also too bizarre and overwrought, like the laughable Stata Center:

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

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I have noticed this trend, starting from about 5-10 years ago, of modern-looking homes that utilize heterogeneous materials and unusual shapes that I find very unattractive and overwrought. A good example is this entire development in Austin that is built in this style.

Is there a name for this type of style? Is it over-taking faux-Tuscan, or are they co-existing peacefully?
It is very driven by magazines like Wallpaper* -- and the whole 'lifestyle' thing.
Mid-century Modern has become the new taste of the bourgeoisie -- boxes filled with Florence knoll, Arne Jacobsen, George Nelson, and Charles and Ray Eames.

Originally Posted by poppies

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For an architecture student I have shamefully bad vocabulary when it comes to aesthetics but it looks a bit postmodern to me since it retains much of the modernist box-like geometries, but uses some variations of color and more extreme angled details to subvert conventions.

Still looks more interesting than any McMansion though.

And would you really want to live in that glass house? Even Johnson himself never really used it since he felt he couldn't get any privacy (uses it as a guest house instead haha).
You are right, this so called 'Modern' architecture is very much seen though the pluralist context of post-modernism. Essentially, post-modernism is a critique of Modernism -- a re-contextualizing of it ....not necessarily a rejection of it. The post-modern context is unrestrained and often unconcerned with ideology, originality, or rules, the way 'pure' Modernism was

Originally Posted by suited

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That "house" is absolutely hideous, not to mention the entire concept is marsupialed. When did creating an idiotic idea become a necessity to classify something as "contemporary art/architecture"?
You have to be kidding me. That is Philip Johnson's masterpiece from 1949 -- one of the 'holy of holies' of 20th century American architecture!

There is also the Farnsworth House designed in 1951 by Mies van der Rohe.

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

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Yes, post modern is certainly accurate but that term could apply to all kinds of styles.
You are absolutely correct Kent, post-modernism is not a style ...it is a context -- in this regard, even architecture that seeks the utilitarian purity of Bauhaus aesthetics, and guided by Bauhaus tenets, is still post-modern -- simply because it is informed by the whole context of the post-modern world.


This is a recent house in London which is a good example of this contemporary 'bourgeois Modernism'.








Here is an interesting example of post-modern 'fun and games' in Canada.

I proclaim a return to Brutalism.

Originally Posted by LabelKing

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I proclaim a return to Brutalism.

Well it never really entirely disappeared -- it was invented by Le Corbusier afterall -- and he is still widely admired and imitated.



The Swiss architect Peter Zumthor is definately influeneced by it.

Brutalism though, is quite unfashionable now. I think the brief love affair of the '70s has left people with a kind of hatred.

Someone like Paul Rudolph is rather neglected today.

Yeah, you are right Label King ....it is not particularly fashionable right now.

Originally Posted by LabelKing

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I proclaim a return to Brutalism.

Please don't. The Bay Area doesn't need any more bad college campuses and filthy train stations.

Howard Roark's gone wild

Some Canadian Brutalism:

Originally Posted by nathan

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That reminds me of Weyerhaeuser's corporate HQ.