Contemporary

Contemporary house with pent roof

As Contemporary ( engl. For "Contemporary") is in the residential architecture of the United States indicates a style, among other things, by gable roofs with small slope and far supernatant is characterized, exposed beams, using natural materials and asymmetrical layout. Ornamental elements are largely avoided. This architectural style was most widespread between 1945 and 1965.

The contemporary style is often equated with mid-century modern , but the latter term is more comprehensive and also includes other forms of construction than the contemporary style, such as the international style .

Architectural principles and characteristic elements

While the traditional (historicizing) residential architecture saw the house primarily from the outside and subordinated the interior to the facade, the contemporary style is exactly the opposite: the house is seen from the interior. The starting point of the architecture is the functionality of the rooms and their integration into the outside space. The connection to the outside takes place partly through terraces that bring the residents outside, into the garden, and partly through courtyards that connect the outside to the inside. As a result, the gardens are primarily visual gardens that are designed entirely from the perspective of the inside of the house, as is traditionally the case with Chinese and Japanese houses.

Since the house is no longer primarily seen from the outside, it can - especially on smaller plots - take up more space and, in extreme cases, almost the entire property. Therefore, unlike the cramped houses of the 1940s and 1950s, contemporary-style houses tend to be quite spacious. Unlike some comparable house types - especially ranch houses - contemporary houses are also suitable for hillside locations or leave more green space on smaller plots because they can be built on several floors if required.

Facade and house entrance

The facade side facing the street usually reveals very little of what is hidden behind it. Often this includes a large piece of windowless wall that is bricked up in an unusual pattern. Other typical elements are privacy fences facing the street or decorative openwork walls ( brises-soleil ). In many cases, the house entrance is inconspicuous, set back or even hidden in the carport or in a small courtyard.

top, roof

Late example (1980) with clearly accentuated rafters and purlins

While the roof overhangs on conventional houses are regularly closed to form boxes, they usually have open eaves on contemporary houses . The rafters are either open or hidden under smooth plywood . The purlins are also often open. In the case of stylistically outstanding contemporary houses, the roof overhang can contain discrete decorations. In order to supply a carport with light or an otherwise covered garden section with rainwater, parts of the roof can remain uncovered.

window

The windows can have a wide variety of shapes, but mostly consist of large glass surfaces, of which only a few sections can be opened, often as a door to the outside. The roof overhangs, ceiling and floor materials promote the impression of a continuum between inside and outside.

A typical element are high-lying windows that are inserted in a row between the roof beams.
In some houses the windows in the gable front announce a room with a high ceiling ( vaulted ceiling ).
Split-level version with asymmetrical roof

Subtypes

Front-Gabled Roof (Joseph Eichler, 1967)

Depending on the shape of the roof, five subtypes can be distinguished in the contemporary style:

Many houses in the contemporary style have their gable side facing the street ( Front-Gabled Roof ). Many designs by Joseph Eichler belong to this subtype , who popularized a type of single-storey residential buildings in California in which the gable indicates that there is a (living) room behind it with a very high ( vaulted ) ceiling . In split-level construction (with a mezzanine in one of the house halves), asymmetrical gables are widespread, which are also known as wounded dove ("injured pigeon") because of their shape - a full roof wing and a significantly shortened one .

Relatively rarely, and mainly in houses built later, are the gables to the side ( side-gabled roof ).

The Gabled Roof Variations form a third subtype . Most common in this group are houses with a front gable to which an extension with a side gable is added. Various other combinations are also possible.

In addition Contemporary houses with gable roofs there will be parallel those with flat roof ( Flat Roof ). Unlike flat roof houses in the international style , the roof overhangs here are wide and the roof beams are visible. Flat windows can be located directly under the roof line, the spacing of which is sometimes specified by the roof beams.

Contemporary houses with a pent roof ( slant roof ), butterfly roof or an exaggerated gable roof that can reach down to the floor are relatively rare . Combinations of all roof shapes mentioned here are also possible.

Influences

The contemporary style is influenced by Japan, among others, where wooden constructions with exposed beams and panel appearances were traditionally widespread. Other influences that also affect timber construction came from California (“Second Bay Tradition”). Flat gable roofs with exposed roof beams made the representatives of the Craftsman style popular from 1905 to 1925 (Charles and Henry Greene, Bernard Maybeck ).

The greatest influence, however, came from Frank Lloyd Wright . The origins of contemporary architecture are the Usonians , who Wright designed from 1937: relatively small and affordable houses that were single-storey and made of natural materials with wide, protective roof overhangs. Open floor plans with flowing transitions between the rooms were typical of the Usonians; only bedrooms and bathrooms were screened off by walls. By using large glass surfaces, a smooth transition from inside and outside was achieved.

history

In addition to purely stylistic developments, technical developments in the 1930s also favored the emergence of the contemporary style, including advances in the manufacture of thick flat glass (required for large window areas), weatherproof plywood (for exterior walls and clad roof overhangs) and new adhesives (for wood chipboard materials in walls and beams). It also played a role that American building contractors had learned in the late 1950s to insert windows into houses with brick cladding without walling them in; instead, vertical wood paneling was used, which further adds to the characteristic appearance of the contemporary houses.

The style had its heyday, during which it was particularly present in architecture magazines, from about 1945 to 1965. The most important representatives were Joseph Eichler (California), Charles M. Goodman ( Washington, DC ) and Edward Hawkins ( Denver ). The architectural mainstream against which they had to prevail above all was the ranch-style construction. Both - contemporary and ranch style - had in common the affordability of high-quality living for broad sections of the population. The most successful was Eichler, who built nearly 10,000 residential buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area . At the end of the 1960s, interest in the contemporary style waned; However, examples can still be found up to around 1990.

Joseph Eichler had rented a Usonian in 1942 and had been an ardent supporter of modern architecture ever since. In the early 1950s, Wright's ideas entered the architectural mainstream and the contemporary style became widespread regionally. For cost reasons, the post-and-beam construction was used in many contemporary houses, in which wood-chip materials replaced solid wood. Wright had refused.

The spread of the contemporary style, as well as other modern styles, remained limited to a few regions in the United States. After World War II , the Washington government pursued the goal of making it possible for every veteran to own a home. As a result, large numbers of new single-family houses were built in the suburbs of large and medium-sized cities. The Federal Housing Administration , the federal agency responsible for implementing the new housing policy, believed that ultra-modern homes were not a good investment for the American population, especially veterans. As a result, the banks mostly refused to support the construction of avant-garde residential buildings through personal loans. Loans were almost always withheld, especially for designs with unusual roof shapes.

literature

Jerry Ditto, Lanning Stern: Eichler Homes: Design for Living . Chronicle, San Francisco 1995, ISBN 978-0-8118-0846-0 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).

Web links

Commons : Contemporary houses in the United States - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Virginia Savage McAlester: A Field Guide to American Houses. The Definite Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture . 2nd Edition. Knopf, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-4359-0 , pp. 629 .
^ ^A ^b ^c ^d ^e Virginia Savage McAlester: A Field Guide to American Houses. The Definite Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture . 2nd Edition. Knopf, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-4359-0 , pp. 630 .
^ ^A ^b ^c ^d Virginia Savage McAlester: A Field Guide to American Houses. The Definite Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture . 2nd Edition. Knopf, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-4359-0 , pp. 646 .
^ Virginia Savage McAlester: A Field Guide to American Houses. The Definite Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture . 2nd Edition. Knopf, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-4359-0 , pp. 630 ff .
^ Virginia Savage McAlester: A Field Guide to American Houses. The Definite Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture . 2nd Edition. Knopf, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-4359-0 , pp. 634 .
^ ^A ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Virginia Savage McAlester: A Field Guide to American Houses. The Definite Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture . 2nd Edition. Knopf, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-4359-0 , pp. 632 .
^ Virginia Savage McAlester: A Field Guide to American Houses. The Definite Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture . 2nd Edition. Knopf, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-4359-0 , pp. 548 f .

[VSM629-1] A ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Virginia Savage McAlester: A Field Guide to American Houses. The Definite Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture . 2nd Edition. Knopf, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-4359-0 , pp. 629 .

[VSM630-2] A ^b ^c ^d ^e Virginia Savage McAlester: A Field Guide to American Houses. The Definite Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture . 2nd Edition. Knopf, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-4359-0 , pp. 630 .

[VSM646-3] A ^b ^c ^d Virginia Savage McAlester: A Field Guide to American Houses. The Definite Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture . 2nd Edition. Knopf, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-4359-0 , pp. 646 .

[VSM630ff-4] Virginia Savage McAlester: A Field Guide to American Houses. The Definite Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture . 2nd Edition. Knopf, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-4359-0 , pp. 630 ff .

[VSM634-5] Virginia Savage McAlester: A Field Guide to American Houses. The Definite Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture . 2nd Edition. Knopf, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-4359-0 , pp. 634 .

[VSM632-6] A ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Virginia Savage McAlester: A Field Guide to American Houses. The Definite Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture . 2nd Edition. Knopf, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-4359-0 , pp. 632 .

[VSM548f-7] Virginia Savage McAlester: A Field Guide to American Houses. The Definite Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture . 2nd Edition. Knopf, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4000-4359-0 , pp. 548 f .