Thank you for the response to my question from the last video by creating this one. Function, usability, and practicality were drilled into us in architecture school, but I couldn’t see the point once you look long term. I remember watching a professor lecture about how he purchased a perfectly fine pre-war house, sent it to the landfill, and build a design that met the needs of him, his wife, and two small children. He was rightfully proud after such an accomplishment, but my question to him was how his design overcame the need for a future generation to simply discard his design and send it to the landfill as well. He looked as if the blood drained from his body, because he obviously didn’t give it a single thought. Hopefully the new generation of designers will integrate ideas about sustainability beyond one generation, whether that means allowing for less waste, allowing for greater ability to transform to meet future needs, or at least making it easier in the future to make it more usable. To me, that is the ultimate test of sustainability, not what the word has been hijacked to mean. Thank you again. The video and the style and personality are all appreciated.
Actually I thought the interior was interesting and created many sub-spaces and views that you wouldn't get with a conventional box-room design of the same square footage. But all those curved surfaces would be hard to construct or remodel, which is maybe one reason why it didn't take off.
I've been interested in the work of the Smithsons for decades, although I wasn't aware of this particular project. Some of their ideas didn't work very well in practice, but building in post-war England was not easy, with shortages of materials and labor, and the need for housing was extreme. I can understand why they decided on the most inexpensive use of materials possible. RIP Robin Hood Gardens. One of my favorite Smithson projects is their competition design for the new cathedral in Coventry in 1952. They designed it as an immense, diamond-shape concrete canopy over a raised platform. The interior would have contained box-like structures containing the varied functions needed, like chapels, the liturgical choir and high altar, the organ, etc. These looked like cabinet-work magnified to a huge scale in an otherwise unobstructed space. They lost the competition, and given the problems that these huge, pre-stressed concrete shells posed for maintenance and upkeep it probably wouldn't have worked out very well -- the Kresge Auditorium at MIT comes to mind.-- but wow! What a design! I visited the "House of the Future" exhibit at the 1964 Worlds Fair in NYC. I was only five-years-old so I don't remember much about it, but it took the "bunker" idea to the extreme. It was completely underground, and the blank walls were filled with changeable images of beautiful landscapes, so that the inhabitants would "feel like they were outside." It wasn't very convincing, but many people apparently liked the idea of living in a bomb shelter. Considering that we were still doing "duck and cover" drills in school, I can understand why.
Those building projects like Robin Hood Gardens continued to be built in the USA as public housing projects. I think multifamily dwellings work up to a certain height. Above about six stories, they become fugly, ghetto-ish, and dysfunctional substitutes for any kind of neighborhood except a bad one. And if they're built in the brutalist style of architecture, that makes them even worse.
Great one Stewart, I had never heard of them or the house. After seeing it I can’t help thinking a little bit about Buckminister Fuller’s Dymaxion House which is certainly futuristic, though the only example can be walked through at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit. It also likely has many of the limitations of this house (try buying a new refrigerator for you foldable round house).
Saw this house exhibited in London Barbican many years ago. Fascinating really, amazing design! Thanks for the gorgeous realistic 3D model, absolutely wonderful to revisit this Smithsons' design.
Really appreciate this style of story telling! You do such an amazing job of distilling so much history theory into a concise video. Looking forward to the next video!
I love these past visions of the future. They were right about the minimal colors and materials thing being a thing in the future. Just the curves aren’t a thing sadly
Prior to the actual model walkthrough, I thought this house felt brilliant and really stood the test of time WRT our current house-as-bunker times thanks to the pandemic. I love how the public outdoor space of a front or back yard becomes an indoor, private space tucked inside your home and I really appreciated how this minimizes sprawl and allows for a lot of homes to be build right up against one another which is also timely today. I thought that center space would offset the lack of exterior windows because all of your light would come from inside and feel super open. BUT after the walkthrough I was surprised by how claustrophobic it felt to me, which was interesting. I imagine this could just be a factor of when it was designed (some of the cabinets feeling oppresive and the sculpted plastic everything serving as more of a suffocating preservative form vs opening the space) but either way, it was not what I had expected. Excellent work as always, really appreciated this one.
It's good to see mentions of the Smithsons by architects other than in Britain! I have also studied them some; and I visited Robin Hood Gardens back in 2011, and again in 2019 when one of the buildings was still standing. It was in bad shape. Maybe I'll make a video on it to show the pictures... you show RHG in construction in some of the parts talking about the Huntstanton School. The use of color is one of the thing that jumps out in British Modernism- one has to go over there to believe!
This house looks like it was designed to be 3D printed, I find that insanely fascinating. The fact that that it only has a bath and not a shower really puts me off, the full body dryer sounds like heaven! Although it also sounds like the most dangerous home appliance ever built, burns, power draw, and the occasional house fire, sounds like they'd be more an more common place the older it got. To be fair though clothing dryers had some of the same issues, but they where way to useful in daily life to consider the risks, it must have been truly magic from the future, clothes dry in an hour even on a rainy day. Obcorse the first commercial dryers where natural gas powered, so it was kinda already used in daily life before going electric. Wait, did this house even incorporate a washing machine and dryer?
We had a primitive full body dryer in a House we had in the Late seventies early eighties. It recirculated the air putting it through a heater. After finishing a shower you mashed a knob on the wall and the hot air blew down. Was a cool idea bit not super effective.
in our neighborhood, the original houses were designed by Sternberg, very boat like with lots of built-ins and designated spaces in quaint modernist cottages, the rest of the neighborhood is the developer 'borrowing' from other modernist designers, Neutra, Wright, Hegner, Eichler, to finish the project and sell houses. Arapahoe Acres is full of little cute houses, most are less than 2000 sqft unless remodeled.
I'm no architect or interior designer but I think some of these ideas could be readapted today, like the small courtyard and the way the kitchen is. I don't know the right terms so this is the best I can say. It truly is unique and something I would never have thought a house would be.
Oh Jetsons it is !! This was fascinating. I have always been a student of architecture, but now am very interested in sustainable housing and city planning for the future. Thank you for your channel !
Outstanding ... great job on production of the video and your information most well researched..I love architecture and just retired from a wonderful company that designed homes..prefab walls floors roof etc..great video !!!
Can we say "Claustrophobia"? The fact that there is no roof is a saving grace! "Cave like" is exactly right and not designed with Humans in mind, is also. A large box with a single room and a few partitions would have used the space better.
Architecture and retro futurism is just what I need to down regulate my nervous system this weekend. Amazing work on the model. I'd be pretty happy living there the submerged bathtub peeking out into the court yard would have given a slightly hot spring like feel to bathing.
I'm also very interested in the various predictions that were made by people in the past, in fact your videos on the weird "cars of the future" was the video that introduced me to your channel. I'm curious if you'd consider doing a video on the various "dome homes" that were designed around the turn of the century? I've always found them very interesting, and I know that geodesic and other types of dome house construction become popular again every once in a while, especially in circles that worry a lot about environmental impact and low cost housing.
There’s also the Westinghouse: Total Electric Home house, the Whirlpool Miracle Kitchen, Xanadu: Home of the Future house and the Futuro house and the Hexacube house.
An interesting 'starter' residence (e.g. - no children) that (IMO) was _not_ designed for long-term occupation (unless you were a senior going to "empty nest" mode). Functional, intimate (via the compressed nature of the layout), but a tad too sterile (probably an esthetic for the time period) for my tastes. My only question: where was the proposed entry point for the interior courtyard, and was there more than one?
@@toomanymarys7355 yep. Looked like so many US hotels and convention centers from 1987. All that was missing was an escalator and clear glass exterior elevators.
I'm sure my impression is biased but the feeling I get from the visit prospective in each single space is that of a quirky/fancy kind of camper van 😅 While from above looks all in all like a modular living quarter, repeatable in any environment. It could be Earth's surfaces, a spaceship as well as under a dome on Mars !!
Past futures fascinates me as well. There is a video featuring the House of 1999, where Wink Martindale, plays the dad. Some things, especially the kitchen was off. The prediction of work from home, school from home and other tech was surprisingly very close.
There is so much I like about this house (I'm a big fan of built-in furniture, mainly because I really hate having to move furniture lol), but the overall effect -- going through it on the virtual tour, all those twisting, rounded shapes popping up around me -- gave me such a sense of claustrophobia, especially in the kitchen.
I heard someone call the future predictions of long ago "the dreams of futures past." There's such fascination to me in what we made and what we abandoned in those dreams, especially when we got the technology and then just didn't.
This looks like the brige, and other sets on the star trek series. It might be a good interior design for a trek, or star wars shuttel of a comuter trasport. Just show several versions. I love the central court yard. Possibly a personal hydroponics garden. The set is made of fake plastic garden. Which could have glowing fiber optical lighting and alien fruits plants etc.. so a crew member could have a tast of home on a star trek long range mission. Rember saposedly their on 20 to 50 year missions. If crew marial is important than a garden/ meditation spaces would have to exzist. Thus fanes get unique set desines for the actors, and actress to utilize as props. During their preformes.
The color pallet used in the recreation really makes it feel like The Next Generation. Most of the photos are B&W but the one color one shows off that really intense orange base color. I can't imagine living in that lmao. Also not so much the organic shapes but the all-in-one unit design reminds me of Bruce Willis's tiny apartment in The Fifth Element, including retractable furniture
Thanks for this video! This house is giving me some serious "Space: 1999" moon base vibes. Everything moulded and built-in. If you've never seen the show, you've GOT to check it out.
Very interesting analysis of that place. It's notable that seeing it in 3-D software, and being able to "walk" through it, gives you such a different perspective. This is an example of how the tools of architecture can encourage better design. And back in '57, people had much less "stuff". Although the built-in storage was probably revolutionary at that time, that house now would be so cluttered that it would be a mess. The interior reminds me of a recreational vehicle. And it's totally an internal house---like a bunker, as you say. Good for nudists I suppose. These sorts of things were in "home shows" in the 50s and 60s and their influence lasted quite a while---to the present day in some ways. I once lived in a house that had a central atrium open to the elements. It let in sunlight into an otherwise dark-ish interior.
Of course, I look at this "house of the future" and gag because it was built before I was born and doesn't even come close to reflecting the real future as it came to pass. I think that the 'futurists' of the past would be disheartened by how little things have changed with regards to architecture, but at the same time enthused by what has come to pass. Most of them couldn't imagine our home computers, digital streaming, and smart phones. I know I couldn't, but I spent very little time thinking about the future. I am not an architect, but I often spend time putting together ideas for the "ideal house." What's interesting is that I keep coming back to the concept of the open center courtyard. I have never lived in a house that was designed that way, but I have lived in an apartment that had sort of something like that and it was awesome! A lot of these ideas (I don't call them designs. That would be giving myself too much credit.) are actually based on Bent's Old Fort. It's an adobe construction from 1833 on, what was then, the border between the US and Mexico on the Arkansas River in, what is now, southeastern Colorado. I was there about ten years ago and was very impressed with the efficiency of the design. www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F184506915954048444%2F&psig=AOvVaw22H5QrdNNICsyKgCwiurBF&ust=1635041221465000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAgQjRxqFwoTCMCdiNO53_MCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD
I am a real big fan of you. your videos really inspire me as an architecture student. I just had a question . Do you think the cold war influenced our opinions on brutalist architecture. from my ignorant observation it seems as if modernist architecture (specifically brutalist) was almost villainized during and after the cold work.
I think its the disconnection between the architects and users and not being well tested before mass adoption after the second world war. Avant-Garde architects had been talking in an echo chamber for decades in the first half of the 20th century not getting much made but instructing the next generation. Modernists convinced themselves that society needed to change, that their art could change it, that they knew what was best and failing to see any hubris in that. The modernists took Loo's injunction against decoration as gospel while not actually consulting with the general masses who would use the buildings. The buildings were supposed to be inspirational but most people thought they were usually boring or down right oppressive. This meant that they were unloved so people didn't care if they were abused. Not that it is impossible to make a beautiful modernist, even brutalist building but it does need a lot of talent that most didn't have. Then there is the segregation inherit to their plans. They imagined their tower blocks to be little towns but then often enough only filled them with the poor, which made them more prone to crime and the governments that ran them less likely to fix the complaints about them. Again making them unloved. They probably could have found this out if they say made a few and let them run for a few decades. instead they built hundreds at the same time. Speaking of maintenance, there are fundamental design flaws that haunt a lot modernist buildings. Rewatch Stewart's video about leaks and that those buildings how many of them were modernist vs older styles when new? That's because they often have a flat roof, 1 of Corbusier's 5 principles. They can work but there's also a reason that they are usually found in very dry climates, they leak. So if the contractor does it wrong it will leak, when the customer doesn't do all the maintenance on time it leaks. This leads to a terrible reputation. Then there is the problem of reusability. The steel reinforced concrete and strict zoning you get to use the building the way they thought it would be used or you don't. So can't turn an apartment into an office because they layout is usually odd. You can't turn an office into apartments because you can't mess with the floor to add plumbing since those are load bearing instead of the exterior walls. Then there is that the modernists love of the car and how they designed everything around it. They wouldn't have known but this adoration of the car would spread lead fumes and there is strong correlation that this increased crime.
@@fasdaVT first. Thank you so much for your answer. Really insightful. It's just that. OK you are right modernist architecture wasn't successful. But that isn't the problem I have. While it didn't work the appreciation of the attempt isn't present. Like instead of trying to fix and add to the buildings. Renovations were largely unattempted. The dystopian view of modernist architecture didn't give us a chance to try and salvage the failed attempts. Maybe if we viewed modernist architecture differently. We would have renovated or even add on to it like anne lacaton and jean-philippe vassals work. My problem is why didn't we appreciate the beautiful attempts at creating a utopia and help continue the vision. I think it was unfair to dismiss and attempt something new est that modernism really only lasted a generation or 2.
@@youssefmohammed5991 what other kinds of building are made to be unloved? Prisons and fortifications. What kind of government would build nothing but prisons and fortifications? A dystopia. Curtis in modern architecture since 1900, tries carefully not to complement the nazis for their Atlantic wall. Think of the fortification from the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. How different is it really from later brutalist architecture? But this wasn't discovered by architects until afterwards because they 'knew better'. People didn't appreciate the utopian ideas because it's not like they were part of that dialogue. And while artists may see good in a failed noble project, close only counts with horse shoes and hand grenades. And a failed home idea is a constant drain on everyone who has to deal with it. Architecture is one of those fields were almost might be worse then total failure
Another great video! I'd love a House of the Future series that includes Monsanto, Case Study, Dymaxion, Habitat '67, Futuro, etc amongst others to see how each decade projected what life in the now times would be like... This one was... interesting but also claustrophobic despite having a very cool courtyard... Glad it was never a mass-produced house although I can definitely see its anti-public groucho charm... especially in the era of Russian warfare and COVID!
At first it looks cool. Taking the 3D tour it looks like a nightmare. I agree with the glove box analogy. The pathway looks to small for the average American to walk through comfortably. The Puyallup Fair had a "home of the future" built on recycled materials with a minimalistic layout on display for many years. I tried looking a little but I cant find it. It was roughly the same size as this but managed to have a slightly more opened layout.
Please talk about the Parque Central Urban Complex in Caracas. The greatest architectural icon of Venezuela and an almost unique example of a building/city.
"I'm delirious about our new cooking fitment with the eye level grill. That means that without my having to bend down, the hot fat can squirt straight into my eye!" "Our boudoir on the open plan has been a huge success, though everywhere's so open, there's nowhere safe to dress." --- Michael Flanders (1922-1973), Flanders and Swann, "Design for Living" I can only imagine that Flanders and Swann visited this installation. Was it wheelchair accessible? Flanders was a polio survivor.
That's very nice. I love seeing what the past. The future was going to be. I'm absolutely fascinated with science fiction movies from the past because the little details in the background give you an idea of what the director thought the future would be like.
The molded plastic reminds me of Space 1999 furniture and prefab walls, etc. It must have been a challenge to model rounded shapes and corners everywhere.
the era where they thought the future was going to be curves, curves *EVERYWHERE* pretty much everything had curves, and *EVERYTHING* was to be made out of plastic and wood.
The drawing at 4':12" looks like the guy in the background has just shot the guy on the floor while the guy in the foreground is trying to get his mother to safety. An accurate prediction of that kind of future housing environment.
About that Fridge… when are we going to make ‘cooling units’ that don’t require a ‘fridge’ … imagine a Pantry that is cooled and humidity controlled by a unit that fits into the space like a wine room or air conditioner. With a setup like this we could make any kind of storage space a fridge… with the right seals and insulation. Futurism is really fascinating … especially when it comes from the Sci-Fi writers. The Body Paint of the 60’s, for example… one could say that it was correct if you consider the ‘Tights’ we wear today.
Yes, some sort of reverse fireplace. The chimney forced to draft out by solar powered fan. The storage would be a sealed block space with walls like a walk in freezer. I’m surprised this isn’t a thing. Like a brick oven in the kitchen. Still, I keep going back to the wine cellar, or room. We build bath rooms as custom spaces, even with steam rooms.
@@StephenRansom47 Biosphere 2 had a cooling tower that worked by precipitating water down a concrete shaft and sucking the air cooled by the mist into the enclosure. You could have a cold air generator operating the same way on the interior of a home. Piping chilled air where it’s needed.
..gives a new meaning to honey I'' be Outside🌴....I 💙 it....the Jetsons was my thought to....thanks for the well done Vid Liked and Subscribed...58yrKid in California🌎
A Canadian with OCD spent a year making videos for YT of his brand new Sprinter conversion. I’m doing one with exactly the opposite premise of him. Mine is designed to be easily changeable from an RV to a cargo or passenger van with original seats reinstalled. He built his so even if his refrigerator broke it would be very difficult to remove it to replace it, saying he bought the best fridge that money could buy so no worries. He was quickly approaching the magic 10k subscribers mark when he discovered he had made a measuring mistake. Normally he ripped any mistakes out As he was a perfectionist but this time it was more than he could handle and he fudged a correction. Shortly after, perhaps in frustration, he stopped making his religiously dependable Sunday YT uploads and disappeared. I was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to drive his van before the warranty expired because it had literally sat in his driveway for well over a year after he bought it.
This is so dam cool, even just as an exercise you can see where the intent of self containment exist, this would have feared well with the current times, particularly for the mid courtyard, it reminds me to 1700&1800 spaniard houses that centered around a well and a small courtyard.
@@jerrymiller2367 yes, i suppose it comes from there as the romans conquered most of the known world and brought their architecture with them (among other things 🥲)
A throw away house sounds like one of thoes emergency surivial shelter. Or, A modular form fiting home is like a tear drop camper. Perhaps this could be a camper model but it would have to be smaller, or be made biger in a different format and have two wet tolit/shower/washer/dryer / then firge/ frezer/ice maker with battery power/ and 890 wate solar cell for eltricity, air conditioning/ air purification , and heating, and water purification if desired for none camp grounds or wilderness settings. Then however many bed self heating/ cooling eltric out let, and cell phone charger Jake equiped 1 to 2 person sleeping pods needed ,and as manydinning/ work table/ writing desks that come out of the floor as needed with lot's of below floor storage area. Then the central court yard could be a hydroponics garden in the back with chairs around a walding pool fountain, with dog/ cat runs mayde of plastic with air holes so the famliy pet can inter act with family while they play with kids,and harvest fresh fruit/ and vegetables. Mabey have a dog/ cat run continually run around the walls stooing before the kitchen/ bathrooms. As the camper is a vaction destination in itself. "The camp site just a after thought." Also if you followed this as a interior set for house on alien plant. Which would certainly need to be prefabricated, or space ship interior desine for trek, star wars, or any lowbuget scifi movie.
A wonderful video ... AGAIN! I do however need to ask, is this the end result of way too much acid? The human ego and it's need to assert it's domination over others.
I think that one prediction is yet to be found about the future-no one predicted that their predictions would be reviewed and even less being reconstructed with such ease. Also Alison and Peter seemed to think that round shapes would be even less expensive to construct in the future. (Maybe they are?) Ideas so painfully stuck in the era of non-environmental awareness. Nice to see these reconstructions.
how many square feet was this place, it feels so claustrophobic to me walking around it in the browser and even in your views, I felt hard to breath just looking at it. It feels sub 1000 sqft maybe even 600sqft. I like old Frank Lloyd Right's style better, connecting hallways can be a bit narrow for me but they lead to giant open room spaces. I am thinking mainly of Falling Waters as I used to live near there and loved to visit it. I really wonder what my life would have been like had I pursued my dream of being an architect instead of going into stupid electronics and computers that I now hate and have hated for the past 2+ decades. It always fascinates me to see how people of the past thought life today would be like. when they come out with flying cars, will we need to all wear helmets for the soon to be falling cars?
From today's perspective, 40 years on from their predicted time of the early 1980's, it seems claustrophobic and impractical. There's no room to do anything spontaneous, even given that it might be designed for people with no kids. As an artist, I would not like to try and incorporate art into that environment and it really needs it.
Their from London, they live life as claustrophobic. Don't think this represent the America ideals of the future, which were far finer and delicately tuned to the home, colors rich and vibrant, materials both lustrous, other enchanting, and a plethora of effort to sculpt the perfect home in each variation. The best part was half of them were already being put out as average homes. You'd be surprised what you all can find if you ever actually looked at the time period instead of finding a video on it and waltzing away back to your "tesla - my life story" videos.
I agree. It looks like they were trying to reimagine lifestyles but were totally constrained by the then common idea of different rooms for different functions. The use of concrete and moulded plastic with narrow passages being a nightmare for me. Modern Tiny Living with its adaptable single room/multiple space goes to the other extreme but is easier to consider. The balance of open plan living room/kitchen/dining and clearly defined private space for sleeping and bathing that has become mainstream is the most flexible solution. The central courtyard is an ancient idea that sits uncomfortably with this design. Curved walls can work but need some straight planes to balance them. Personally, I think the Irish concept of drawing on the old round hill forts with a glass wall causing a small section of the circle to remain outside as a low walled courtyard works ideally. Bedrooms on an upper floor to the rear of the enclosed space, bathrooms behind those with skylights in a living roof. Not the space age modernism this model foretold but a natural development of tried and tested ideas.
I really see the futurism in the design. Hear me out. Interiors are becoming highly homogenized. Furniture is shifting towards square modular cabinets (IKEA BESTA/PAX/METOD) with custom countertops. These days wealthy people who want unique interiors are shifting towards vintage furniture for a unique look. But this trend will swing in the other direction. I bet that the wealthy will want really unique custom furniture/walls/cabinets with sculptural curves. New manufacturing techniques will enable that.
One of the problems with this 'future' house is that all those curved surfaces would be hard to build. I love the dining room table that you can adjust the height of, however.
A house having a central court yard is of Spanish ancestry. I have only seen one in my life in a old abandoned Pueblo apartment soon to be torn down. It had a none functioning water fountain. Looked linke when the fountain was working it would be a fun wading pool for kids. This was in the early 1970's in Illinois. A near by high way brig was falling apart, or being torn down. My family helped freinds in their moving.
Very interesting video. I was born in the mid-50s so I got to see lots of articles, videos, and exhibitions of "houses of the future", even those rides and displays at "early" Disneyland, and the Canadian National Exhibition. Every other summer we would take road trips from Ontario, Canada to California, USA and got to see loads of different architecture in person, but I love the Internet where I can explore living, working, and leisure environments easily. I am curious what is the wood on the wall to your right from?
Thank you for the response to my question from the last video by creating this one. Function, usability, and practicality were drilled into us in architecture school, but I couldn’t see the point once you look long term. I remember watching a professor lecture about how he purchased a perfectly fine pre-war house, sent it to the landfill, and build a design that met the needs of him, his wife, and two small children. He was rightfully proud after such an accomplishment, but my question to him was how his design overcame the need for a future generation to simply discard his design and send it to the landfill as well. He looked as if the blood drained from his body, because he obviously didn’t give it a single thought. Hopefully the new generation of designers will integrate ideas about sustainability beyond one generation, whether that means allowing for less waste, allowing for greater ability to transform to meet future needs, or at least making it easier in the future to make it more usable. To me, that is the ultimate test of sustainability, not what the word has been hijacked to mean. Thank you again. The video and the style and personality are all appreciated.
I just can’t get past how the bathtub is shaped like a pad, no matter how great the house or the video :’)
I appreciate the fact that you don't try to pass this house off as some sort of genius that we should all strive for, good job.
Actually I thought the interior was interesting and created many sub-spaces and views that you wouldn't get with a conventional box-room design of the same square footage. But all those curved surfaces would be hard to construct or remodel, which is maybe one reason why it didn't take off.
I've been interested in the work of the Smithsons for decades, although I wasn't aware of this particular project. Some of their ideas didn't work very well in practice, but building in post-war England was not easy, with shortages of materials and labor, and the need for housing was extreme. I can understand why they decided on the most inexpensive use of materials possible. RIP Robin Hood Gardens.
One of my favorite Smithson projects is their competition design for the new cathedral in Coventry in 1952. They designed it as an immense, diamond-shape concrete canopy over a raised platform. The interior would have contained box-like structures containing the varied functions needed, like chapels, the liturgical choir and high altar, the organ, etc. These looked like cabinet-work magnified to a huge scale in an otherwise unobstructed space. They lost the competition, and given the problems that these huge, pre-stressed concrete shells posed for maintenance and upkeep it probably wouldn't have worked out very well -- the Kresge Auditorium at MIT comes to mind.-- but wow! What a design!
I visited the "House of the Future" exhibit at the 1964 Worlds Fair in NYC. I was only five-years-old so I don't remember much about it, but it took the "bunker" idea to the extreme. It was completely underground, and the blank walls were filled with changeable images of beautiful landscapes, so that the inhabitants would "feel like they were outside." It wasn't very convincing, but many people apparently liked the idea of living in a bomb shelter. Considering that we were still doing "duck and cover" drills in school, I can understand why.
I live about 30 minutes walk from where Robin Hood Gardens used to be, and frankly, it looked horrible - grey and characterless.
Those building projects like Robin Hood Gardens continued to be built in the USA as public housing projects. I think multifamily dwellings work up to a certain height. Above about six stories, they become fugly, ghetto-ish, and dysfunctional substitutes for any kind of neighborhood except a bad one. And if they're built in the brutalist style of architecture, that makes them even worse.
Great one Stewart, I had never heard of them or the house. After seeing it I can’t help thinking a little bit about Buckminister Fuller’s Dymaxion House which is certainly futuristic, though the only example can be walked through at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit. It also likely has many of the limitations of this house (try buying a new refrigerator for you foldable round house).
As somebody who rearranges, and buys new things specifically to rearrange more, this is my nightmare.
Agree. Frank Lloyd Wright's homes were like that too. Permanent furniture.
Saw this house exhibited in London Barbican many years ago. Fascinating really, amazing design! Thanks for the gorgeous realistic 3D model, absolutely wonderful to revisit this Smithsons' design.
Great work on that 3D model !
Sometimes RUclips suggests something that you had no idea you would find it interesting. This was one of those times. Very awesome!
Glad you enjoyed it!!
Really appreciate this style of story telling! You do such an amazing job of distilling so much history theory into a concise video. Looking forward to the next video!
Funny how the futuristic vision of all encompassing furniture in space turns out pretty cavelike #futureprimitive
Im not an architect and ive never had any interest in architecture but your videos are so interesting that i had to research more 👍
I love these past visions of the future. They were right about the minimal colors and materials thing being a thing in the future. Just the curves aren’t a thing sadly
Prior to the actual model walkthrough, I thought this house felt brilliant and really stood the test of time WRT our current house-as-bunker times thanks to the pandemic. I love how the public outdoor space of a front or back yard becomes an indoor, private space tucked inside your home and I really appreciated how this minimizes sprawl and allows for a lot of homes to be build right up against one another which is also timely today.
I thought that center space would offset the lack of exterior windows because all of your light would come from inside and feel super open. BUT after the walkthrough I was surprised by how claustrophobic it felt to me, which was interesting. I imagine this could just be a factor of when it was designed (some of the cabinets feeling oppresive and the sculpted plastic everything serving as more of a suffocating preservative form vs opening the space) but either way, it was not what I had expected.
Excellent work as always, really appreciated this one.
It's good to see mentions of the Smithsons by architects other than in Britain! I have also studied them some; and I visited Robin Hood Gardens back in 2011, and again in 2019 when one of the buildings was still standing. It was in bad shape. Maybe I'll make a video on it to show the pictures... you show RHG in construction in some of the parts talking about the Huntstanton School. The use of color is one of the thing that jumps out in British Modernism- one has to go over there to believe!
Love your channel, never thought I could admit me being fascinated with architecture you've made it so enjoyable than just penning plans in my head
Wow, thank you!
Fascinating. Thank you for this presentation.
This house looks like it was designed to be 3D printed, I find that insanely fascinating. The fact that that it only has a bath and not a shower really puts me off, the full body dryer sounds like heaven! Although it also sounds like the most dangerous home appliance ever built, burns, power draw, and the occasional house fire, sounds like they'd be more an more common place the older it got. To be fair though clothing dryers had some of the same issues, but they where way to useful in daily life to consider the risks, it must have been truly magic from the future, clothes dry in an hour even on a rainy day. Obcorse the first commercial dryers where natural gas powered, so it was kinda already used in daily life before going electric. Wait, did this house even incorporate a washing machine and dryer?
that was also a thougth that i had, normal daily life stuf, where do you wash yout clothes?
We had a primitive full body dryer in a House we had in the Late seventies early eighties. It recirculated the air putting it through a heater. After finishing a shower you mashed a knob on the wall and the hot air blew down. Was a cool idea bit not super effective.
in our neighborhood, the original houses were designed by Sternberg, very boat like with lots of built-ins and designated spaces in quaint modernist cottages, the rest of the neighborhood is the developer 'borrowing' from other modernist designers, Neutra, Wright, Hegner, Eichler, to finish the project and sell houses. Arapahoe Acres is full of little cute houses, most are less than 2000 sqft unless remodeled.
Love the skateboard decks on the wall behind you.
I'm no architect or interior designer but I think some of these ideas could be readapted today, like the small courtyard and the way the kitchen is. I don't know the right terms so this is the best I can say. It truly is unique and something I would never have thought a house would be.
Oh Jetsons it is !! This was fascinating. I have always been a student of architecture, but now am very interested in sustainable housing and city planning for the future. Thank you for your channel !
Outstanding ... great job on production of the video and your information most well researched..I love architecture and just retired from a wonderful company that designed homes..prefab walls floors roof etc..great video !!!
Not gonna lie , I really like it ! I really wish this came to fruition
That video was done beautifully. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Looks like an interior of a megasized yatch!
That "decorative" LVL cutout leftovers on the wall behind Stewart looks like it could have been from the house kitchen cabinets.
Great video, what an interesting concept. And thank you for captions!
It reminds me of the Lars homestead design that was used in Star Wars a New Hope
Can we say "Claustrophobia"? The fact that there is no roof is a saving grace! "Cave like" is exactly right and not designed with Humans in mind, is also. A large box with a single room and a few partitions would have used the space better.
Architecture and retro futurism is just what I need to down regulate my nervous system this weekend. Amazing work on the model. I'd be pretty happy living there the submerged bathtub peeking out into the court yard would have given a slightly hot spring like feel to bathing.
I'm also very interested in the various predictions that were made by people in the past, in fact your videos on the weird "cars of the future" was the video that introduced me to your channel. I'm curious if you'd consider doing a video on the various "dome homes" that were designed around the turn of the century? I've always found them very interesting, and I know that geodesic and other types of dome house construction become popular again every once in a while, especially in circles that worry a lot about environmental impact and low cost housing.
It had the feel of a 1050's Popular mechanics, home made caravan to me.
Thank you so much … I genuinely appreciate you , and what you do here….
There’s also the Westinghouse: Total Electric Home house, the Whirlpool Miracle Kitchen, Xanadu: Home of the Future house and the Futuro house and the Hexacube house.
An interesting 'starter' residence (e.g. - no children) that (IMO) was _not_ designed for long-term occupation (unless you were a senior going to "empty nest" mode).
Functional, intimate (via the compressed nature of the layout), but a tad too sterile (probably an esthetic for the time period) for my tastes. My only question: where was the proposed entry point for the interior courtyard, and was there more than one?
Honestly getting a Star Trek TNG vibe. I wonder if this house influenced the production design at all.
TNG was straight 80s modernism without the brass and with a nod to the 60s because of the original show.
@@toomanymarys7355 yep. Looked like so many US hotels and convention centers from 1987. All that was missing was an escalator and clear glass exterior elevators.
The USS Trump Tower
Registry MAGA 1701-D
They just brought back the Monsanto home look. It’s now called the House of the Retro Future Suite.
I'm sure my impression is biased but the feeling I get from the visit prospective in each single space
is that of a quirky/fancy kind of camper van 😅
While from above looks all in all like a modular living quarter, repeatable in any environment.
It could be Earth's surfaces, a spaceship as well as under a dome on Mars !!
Past futures fascinates me as well. There is a video featuring the House of 1999, where Wink Martindale, plays the dad. Some things, especially the kitchen was off. The prediction of work from home, school from home and other tech was surprisingly very close.
There is so much I like about this house (I'm a big fan of built-in furniture, mainly because I really hate having to move furniture lol), but the overall effect -- going through it on the virtual tour, all those twisting, rounded shapes popping up around me -- gave me such a sense of claustrophobia, especially in the kitchen.
I heard someone call the future predictions of long ago "the dreams of futures past."
There's such fascination to me in what we made and what we abandoned in those dreams, especially when we got the technology and then just didn't.
You doing well... Thanks for your hard working
This looks like the brige, and other sets on the star trek series.
It might be a good interior design for a trek, or star wars shuttel of a comuter trasport. Just show several versions.
I love the central court yard. Possibly a personal hydroponics garden. The set is made of fake plastic garden. Which could have glowing fiber optical lighting and alien fruits plants etc.. so a crew member could have a tast of home on a star trek long range mission. Rember saposedly their on 20 to 50 year missions. If crew marial is important than a garden/ meditation spaces would have to exzist. Thus fanes get unique set desines for the actors, and actress to utilize as props. During their preformes.
The color pallet used in the recreation really makes it feel like The Next Generation. Most of the photos are B&W but the one color one shows off that really intense orange base color. I can't imagine living in that lmao.
Also not so much the organic shapes but the all-in-one unit design reminds me of Bruce Willis's tiny apartment in The Fifth Element, including retractable furniture
As I recall the original Enterprise actually had an indoor park.
Nice. Great job, Stewart!
Someone needs to try to build this. It would be fascinating.
Great video! Very well made.
Thanks for this video! This house is giving me some serious "Space: 1999" moon base vibes. Everything moulded and built-in. If you've never seen the show, you've GOT to check it out.
I'm reminded of caravan interiors.
I would have loved to visit your lectures and explore this interest in future ideas. I would probably do it wearing Sone futuristic stuff.
Great work! Thank you
Ok but I’d live in a home inspired by that. The curves just are so comfortable! 💚
Very interesting analysis of that place. It's notable that seeing it in 3-D software, and being able to "walk" through it, gives you such a different perspective. This is an example of how the tools of architecture can encourage better design. And back in '57, people had much less "stuff". Although the built-in storage was probably revolutionary at that time, that house now would be so cluttered that it would be a mess. The interior reminds me of a recreational vehicle. And it's totally an internal house---like a bunker, as you say. Good for nudists I suppose.
These sorts of things were in "home shows" in the 50s and 60s and their influence lasted quite a while---to the present day in some ways. I once lived in a house that had a central atrium open to the elements. It let in sunlight into an otherwise dark-ish interior.
Of course, I look at this "house of the future" and gag because it was built before I was born and doesn't even come close to reflecting the real future as it came to pass. I think that the 'futurists' of the past would be disheartened by how little things have changed with regards to architecture, but at the same time enthused by what has come to pass. Most of them couldn't imagine our home computers, digital streaming, and smart phones. I know I couldn't, but I spent very little time thinking about the future.
I am not an architect, but I often spend time putting together ideas for the "ideal house." What's interesting is that I keep coming back to the concept of the open center courtyard. I have never lived in a house that was designed that way, but I have lived in an apartment that had sort of something like that and it was awesome! A lot of these ideas (I don't call them designs. That would be giving myself too much credit.) are actually based on Bent's Old Fort. It's an adobe construction from 1833 on, what was then, the border between the US and Mexico on the Arkansas River in, what is now, southeastern Colorado. I was there about ten years ago and was very impressed with the efficiency of the design.
www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F184506915954048444%2F&psig=AOvVaw22H5QrdNNICsyKgCwiurBF&ust=1635041221465000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAgQjRxqFwoTCMCdiNO53_MCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD
I am a real big fan of you. your videos really inspire me as an architecture student. I just had a question . Do you think the cold war influenced our opinions on brutalist architecture. from my ignorant observation it seems as if modernist architecture (specifically brutalist) was almost villainized during and after the cold work.
I think its the disconnection between the architects and users and not being well tested before mass adoption after the second world war. Avant-Garde architects had been talking in an echo chamber for decades in the first half of the 20th century not getting much made but instructing the next generation. Modernists convinced themselves that society needed to change, that their art could change it, that they knew what was best and failing to see any hubris in that.
The modernists took Loo's injunction against decoration as gospel while not actually consulting with the general masses who would use the buildings. The buildings were supposed to be inspirational but most people thought they were usually boring or down right oppressive. This meant that they were unloved so people didn't care if they were abused. Not that it is impossible to make a beautiful modernist, even brutalist building but it does need a lot of talent that most didn't have.
Then there is the segregation inherit to their plans. They imagined their tower blocks to be little towns but then often enough only filled them with the poor, which made them more prone to crime and the governments that ran them less likely to fix the complaints about them. Again making them unloved. They probably could have found this out if they say made a few and let them run for a few decades. instead they built hundreds at the same time.
Speaking of maintenance, there are fundamental design flaws that haunt a lot modernist buildings. Rewatch Stewart's video about leaks and that those buildings how many of them were modernist vs older styles when new? That's because they often have a flat roof, 1 of Corbusier's 5 principles. They can work but there's also a reason that they are usually found in very dry climates, they leak. So if the contractor does it wrong it will leak, when the customer doesn't do all the maintenance on time it leaks. This leads to a terrible reputation.
Then there is the problem of reusability. The steel reinforced concrete and strict zoning you get to use the building the way they thought it would be used or you don't. So can't turn an apartment into an office because they layout is usually odd. You can't turn an office into apartments because you can't mess with the floor to add plumbing since those are load bearing instead of the exterior walls.
Then there is that the modernists love of the car and how they designed everything around it. They wouldn't have known but this adoration of the car would spread lead fumes and there is strong correlation that this increased crime.
@@fasdaVT first. Thank you so much for your answer. Really insightful. It's just that. OK you are right modernist architecture wasn't successful. But that isn't the problem I have. While it didn't work the appreciation of the attempt isn't present. Like instead of trying to fix and add to the buildings. Renovations were largely unattempted.
The dystopian view of modernist architecture didn't give us a chance to try and salvage the failed attempts. Maybe if we viewed modernist architecture differently. We would have renovated or even add on to it like anne lacaton and jean-philippe vassals work. My problem is why didn't we appreciate the beautiful attempts at creating a utopia and help continue the vision. I think it was unfair to dismiss and attempt something new est that modernism really only lasted a generation or 2.
@@youssefmohammed5991 what other kinds of building are made to be unloved? Prisons and fortifications. What kind of government would build nothing but prisons and fortifications? A dystopia. Curtis in modern architecture since 1900, tries carefully not to complement the nazis for their Atlantic wall. Think of the fortification from the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. How different is it really from later brutalist architecture? But this wasn't discovered by architects until afterwards because they 'knew better'. People didn't appreciate the utopian ideas because it's not like they were part of that dialogue. And while artists may see good in a failed noble project, close only counts with horse shoes and hand grenades. And a failed home idea is a constant drain on everyone who has to deal with it. Architecture is one of those fields were almost might be worse then total failure
@@fasdaVT that's fair. but imprisonment and brutalist are completely different in my opinion
Brutalism was loved by the Western elites through the 80s. Regular people hated it, because they still had eyeballs.
Impressive!
Another great video! I'd love a House of the Future series that includes Monsanto, Case Study, Dymaxion, Habitat '67, Futuro, etc amongst others to see how each decade projected what life in the now times would be like... This one was... interesting but also claustrophobic despite having a very cool courtyard... Glad it was never a mass-produced house although I can definitely see its anti-public groucho charm... especially in the era of Russian warfare and COVID!
Perfect prediction:
"Separated and independent from the outside world". 2022 must have a big demand for that from the online and gaming community!
With a tub like that, it makes me wonder about the commode
At first it looks cool. Taking the 3D tour it looks like a nightmare. I agree with the glove box analogy. The pathway looks to small for the average American to walk through comfortably.
The Puyallup Fair had a "home of the future" built on recycled materials with a minimalistic layout on display for many years. I tried looking a little but I cant find it. It was roughly the same size as this but managed to have a slightly more opened layout.
i would love this house👍👍👍
Please talk about the Parque Central Urban Complex in Caracas. The greatest architectural icon of Venezuela and an almost unique example of a building/city.
"I'm delirious about our new cooking fitment with the eye level grill. That means that without my having to bend down, the hot fat can squirt straight into my eye!"
"Our boudoir on the open plan has been a huge success, though everywhere's so open, there's nowhere safe to dress."
--- Michael Flanders (1922-1973), Flanders and Swann, "Design for Living"
I can only imagine that Flanders and Swann visited this installation. Was it wheelchair accessible? Flanders was a polio survivor.
That's very nice. I love seeing what the past. The future was going to be. I'm absolutely fascinated with science fiction movies from the past because the little details in the background give you an idea of what the director thought the future would be like.
The molded plastic reminds me of Space 1999 furniture and prefab walls, etc. It must have been a challenge to model rounded shapes and corners everywhere.
You are so entartaining i enjoy so much your videos thank you very much and a big hug from Italy
I would love to see you do an architectural review of the work of Bruce Goff!
Definitely will need to soon. There are some great houses of his around me.
the era where they thought the future was going to be curves, curves *EVERYWHERE* pretty much everything had curves, and *EVERYTHING* was to be made out of plastic and wood.
The drawing at 4':12" looks like the guy in the background has just shot the guy on the floor while the guy in the foreground is trying to get his mother to safety. An accurate prediction of that kind of future housing environment.
Now that's unusual and I thought my dreamhouse concept is different?
Though, I'm glad it didn't make it to 1991 or 2021. ;-)
About that Fridge… when are we going to make ‘cooling units’ that don’t require a ‘fridge’ … imagine a Pantry that is cooled and humidity controlled by a unit that fits into the space like a wine room or air conditioner. With a setup like this we could make any kind of storage space a fridge… with the right seals and insulation.
Futurism is really fascinating … especially when it comes from the Sci-Fi writers. The Body Paint of the 60’s, for example… one could say that it was correct if you consider the ‘Tights’ we wear today.
I’ve heard of earth ships having interior cellars or cooled air closets. I can’t imagine it would be too difficult to engineer either.
Yes, some sort of reverse fireplace. The chimney forced to draft out by solar powered fan. The storage would be a sealed block space with walls like a walk in freezer.
I’m surprised this isn’t a thing. Like a brick oven in the kitchen. Still, I keep going back to the wine cellar, or room. We build bath rooms as custom spaces, even with steam rooms.
@@StephenRansom47 Biosphere 2 had a cooling tower that worked by precipitating water down a concrete shaft and sucking the air cooled by the mist into the enclosure. You could have a cold air generator operating the same way on the interior of a home. Piping chilled air where it’s needed.
Postalgia at its best. The fond remembering of the Future we were promised but never received.
Nice to see that the Smithsons could do something nice as well, not just evil and ugly buildings like the Huntstanton school and Robin Hood Gardens.
The Henry Ford Museum outside of Detroit has a walk through house of the future on display.,
I’m sorry but she did an incredible job on the model. It’s so spot on and meticulously done. She deserves all the credit
..gives a new meaning to honey I'' be Outside🌴....I 💙 it....the Jetsons was my thought to....thanks for the well done Vid Liked and Subscribed...58yrKid in California🌎
Looks a lot like inside an RV. I wonder how it would feel with a roof. Seems very tiny. I love the inside courtyard.
Reminds me of Rotorhaus by Luigi Colani and Matti Suuronen's Futuro, Casa Finlandia and Venturo.
A Canadian with OCD spent a year making videos for YT of his brand new Sprinter conversion. I’m doing one with exactly the opposite premise of him. Mine is designed to be easily changeable from an RV to a cargo or passenger van with original seats reinstalled. He built his so even if his refrigerator broke it would be very difficult to remove it to replace it, saying he bought the best fridge that money could buy so no worries. He was quickly approaching the magic 10k subscribers mark when he discovered he had made a measuring mistake. Normally he ripped any mistakes out As he was a perfectionist but this time it was more than he could handle and he fudged a correction. Shortly after, perhaps in frustration, he stopped making his religiously dependable Sunday YT uploads and disappeared. I was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to drive his van before the warranty expired because it had literally sat in his driveway for well over a year after he bought it.
This I must see. Peter Smithson was a professor at Bath University when I studied there :-)
He shouldn't have been paid to design a shoebox. :(
This is so dam cool, even just as an exercise you can see where the intent of self containment exist, this would have feared well with the current times, particularly for the mid courtyard, it reminds me to 1700&1800 spaniard houses that centered around a well and a small courtyard.
And Roman villas.
@@jerrymiller2367 yes, i suppose it comes from there as the romans conquered most of the known world and brought their architecture with them (among other things 🥲)
A throw away house sounds like one of thoes emergency surivial shelter.
Or, A modular form fiting home is like a tear drop camper. Perhaps this could be a camper model but it would have to be smaller, or be made biger in a different format and have two wet tolit/shower/washer/dryer / then firge/ frezer/ice maker with battery power/ and 890 wate solar cell for eltricity, air conditioning/ air purification
, and heating, and water purification if desired for none camp grounds or wilderness settings. Then however many bed self heating/ cooling eltric out let, and cell phone charger Jake equiped 1 to 2 person sleeping pods needed ,and as manydinning/ work table/ writing desks that come out of the floor as needed with lot's of below floor storage area. Then the central court yard could be a hydroponics garden in the back with chairs around a walding pool fountain, with dog/ cat runs mayde of plastic with air holes so the famliy pet can inter act with family while they play with kids,and harvest fresh fruit/ and vegetables. Mabey have a dog/ cat run continually run around the walls stooing before the kitchen/ bathrooms. As the camper is a vaction destination in itself. "The camp site just a after thought."
Also if you followed this as a interior set for house on alien plant. Which would certainly need to be prefabricated, or space ship interior desine for trek, star wars, or any lowbuget scifi movie.
That moment the 3D tour won’t load and now you have to watch
this is how places look like in my dreams
I would love to live in The House of the Future!!!
Wow, that 3D walkthrough gave me feelings of claustrophobia...
A wonderful video ... AGAIN!
I do however need to ask, is this the end result of way too much acid?
The human ego and it's need to assert it's domination over others.
As a person who has lived in a 1 room apartment, doors are underrated.
I think that one prediction is yet to be found about the future-no one predicted that their predictions would be reviewed and even less being reconstructed with such ease.
Also Alison and Peter seemed to think that round shapes would be even less expensive to construct in the future. (Maybe they are?) Ideas so painfully stuck in the era of non-environmental awareness.
Nice to see these reconstructions.
You should really explore using a VR headset for your walkthroughs if you haven’t already, it’s an extremely powerful tool.
how many square feet was this place, it feels so claustrophobic to me walking around it in the browser and even in your views, I felt hard to breath just looking at it. It feels sub 1000 sqft maybe even 600sqft. I like old Frank Lloyd Right's style better, connecting hallways can be a bit narrow for me but they lead to giant open room spaces. I am thinking mainly of Falling Waters as I used to live near there and loved to visit it. I really wonder what my life would have been like had I pursued my dream of being an architect instead of going into stupid electronics and computers that I now hate and have hated for the past 2+ decades. It always fascinates me to see how people of the past thought life today would be like. when they come out with flying cars, will we need to all wear helmets for the soon to be falling cars?
From today's perspective, 40 years on from their predicted time of the early 1980's, it seems claustrophobic and impractical. There's no room to do anything spontaneous, even given that it might be designed for people with no kids. As an artist, I would not like to try and incorporate art into that environment and it really needs it.
Their from London, they live life as claustrophobic. Don't think this represent the America ideals of the future, which were far finer and delicately tuned to the home, colors rich and vibrant, materials both lustrous, other enchanting, and a plethora of effort to sculpt the perfect home in each variation. The best part was half of them were already being put out as average homes. You'd be surprised what you all can find if you ever actually looked at the time period instead of finding a video on it and waltzing away back to your "tesla - my life story" videos.
@@WitchKing-Of-Angmar 1. I'm not American. 2. This is a confusing mess of a response, I'm sorry.
@@thelorax9622 why do you have to do that, call my response a confusing mess?
I agree. It looks like they were trying to reimagine lifestyles but were totally constrained by the then common idea of different rooms for different functions. The use of concrete and moulded plastic with narrow passages being a nightmare for me. Modern Tiny Living with its adaptable single room/multiple space goes to the other extreme but is easier to consider.
The balance of open plan living room/kitchen/dining and clearly defined private space for sleeping and bathing that has become mainstream is the most flexible solution.
The central courtyard is an ancient idea that sits uncomfortably with this design. Curved walls can work but need some straight planes to balance them.
Personally, I think the Irish concept of drawing on the old round hill forts with a glass wall causing a small section of the circle to remain outside as a low walled courtyard works ideally. Bedrooms on an upper floor to the rear of the enclosed space, bathrooms behind those with skylights in a living roof. Not the space age modernism this model foretold but a natural development of tried and tested ideas.
Fun video!
'You will own nothing and you will be happy."
I really see the futurism in the design. Hear me out. Interiors are becoming highly homogenized. Furniture is shifting towards square modular cabinets (IKEA BESTA/PAX/METOD) with custom countertops. These days wealthy people who want unique interiors are shifting towards vintage furniture for a unique look. But this trend will swing in the other direction. I bet that the wealthy will want really unique custom furniture/walls/cabinets with sculptural curves. New manufacturing techniques will enable that.
One of the problems with this 'future' house is that all those curved surfaces would be hard to build. I love the dining room table that you can adjust the height of, however.
@@jerrymiller2367 I mean that's the point. Hard to build = expensive. That's a flex.
A house having a central court yard is of Spanish ancestry. I have only seen one in my life in a old abandoned Pueblo apartment soon to be torn down. It had a none functioning water fountain. Looked linke when the fountain was working it would be a fun wading pool for kids. This was in the early 1970's in Illinois. A near by high way brig was falling apart, or being torn down. My family helped freinds in their moving.
It's very bunkerlike.the whole thing could be underground with just a hole for the courtyard
At this rate Stewart, you should sell homes as your presentations are quite good 😆 :)) !!!
Very interesting video. I was born in the mid-50s so I got to see lots of articles, videos, and exhibitions of "houses of the future", even those rides and displays at "early" Disneyland, and the Canadian National Exhibition. Every other summer we would take road trips from Ontario, Canada to California, USA and got to see loads of different architecture in person, but I love the Internet where I can explore living, working, and leisure environments easily. I am curious what is the wood on the wall to your right from?
Interesting. I wouldn't wanna live in it but I would rent it for a weekend.