The Vanity of Sub-Urban ArchitectureIn the past week my group went on an excursion to a sub-urban neighborhood. I grew up in one of these so-called “rich” sub-urban areas and so I had never looked as closely as I did on this occasion at the appearance of homes and their appearance of this “richness” that people sometimes apply to said houses.
Take the house on the right; I’ll use this one as I have no other examples. The house is impressive is it not? The large amount of windows suggest wealth as do the three car garage doors the 4 stories, etc. etc. This house is a personal favorite of mine because I like the moderninity of it, the use of right angles and square shapes make it appealing to me, but now let’s try something. Take the trees out, take out the color, make it just grey, and take out some of the overlapping ridges that occur where the color changes. If you took out these details this house would look bland and repetitive. The use of simple color change, trees, and little ridges improve the look of this building tremendously. It makes them look rich.
If we take the house as it is without these details it looks like a gross imprint of the modern era. Cement looking walls. Square shapes. It’s something we wouldn’t want to look at for too long at on a dusty industrial street. But take the setting into account and this house is immediately new and exciting. Next to all the old fashioned bungalows, roman pillars, and other old-styled house, this house is an outcast. It’s new. It’s exciting. Now this is a nice house. If you take a plainer, less-lavished house and start looking for things that really don’t have any effect on the live-ability of the place you will start to notice how architects add tiny details to make boring buildings look more interesting and exciting.
Well that was my experience on this walkabout. Ask yourself: Is a house rich, does it look rich, or is it both? It is fun to look for these things and I suggest trying to pay more attention yourself next time you’re in the “neighborhood” or so to speak.
Michael: The color, landscaping and so forth is also the way an individual or a family makes the building their home and express their personality or identity. It seems like it is an irresistible, overwhelmingly human impulse to do so. There are so many houses all over town that have all kinds of do-dads in their yards--wood cutouts that look like an overweight farm woman bending over in her garden, flamingo's or meta butterfly sculptures or whatever, it think these subtle (sometimes not so) changes or adaptations are sometimes about wealth, sophistication or intrigue but also just the attempt to have some fun in life. You wonder where the line is--when it becomes too much or too silly or even too stupid instead of just being interesting. This house in your image is also about the view, which suggests a relationship to the natural environment or surrounding environment that is very subtle but important to its design. In a suburban neighborhood, you don't usually build up 4 floors unless there is something very special about the view. I like this building despite the fact that it has three garages (which just seems excessive). It has a formal elegance that works. Good choice!
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