The Evolution of Walls Going Back Up
I posed a discussion this past week on Instagram and had such an overwhelming response I thought it best to continue the discussion here. What floor plan reigns supreme? As we wrapped up this month’s topic of ‘Defining Your Aesthetic’ I asked the question of the time. After a year in quarantine with many of us spending more time in our homes than ever before, did we value our floor plans differently? With historic architecture being, dare I say, ‘trendy’, would the open floor plan make way for more compartmentalized living areas? “Were walls on the eve of making their comeback?”
Early work by architect Frank Lloyd Wright still kept the workspace of the kitchen out of view of the entertaining spaces.
To more completely understand where we are going I thought it best to break down where we have been and how we came to have the modern ‘open concept’ design. If you have been in any period home from the turn of the century or earlier you are quite familiar with the bygone compartmentalization I am referring to. Even within the most free flowing, cased openings the kitchen was purposely tucked away out of view of the entertaining space. In fact, one of the reasons I fell in love with my own home was that I would only ‘need’ to keep the formal living, dining, foyer and front staircase tidy to be prepared for the unexpected drop in from a neighbor or friend. My kitchen was tucked away behind a servants staircase and butler pantry and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Kitchen’s were, and still are, work spaces and the separation was not only for the formality but also a means to contain noise, smells, and mess from the rest of the home. Even with the rise of the combined living and dining rooms in the postwar era (an attempt at making small affordable living seem larger) the kitchen was referred to as a ‘work space’ and therefore kept out of view of visitors. Socially, there was a clear delineation between work and leisure.
“Historically, the kitchen was the last room to be integrated into the open concept. Living and dining rooms began to converge as early as the beginning of the 1900s, when changes in architectural taste and the development of mass-industrialized housing production favored a more compact home design than the rambling, formal “hall-and-parlor” layout of Victorian times.” (Kate Wagner, Bloomberg City Labs)
While the kitchen was the last to join the cohesion of the living and dining space you may be surprised as to why. Without the former generation's expectation that families of means would have to live in staff, the housewife's duties exploded. With gender norms being what they were in the 1950’s, the kitchen began opening up to the rest of the main floor as wives were ‘allowed’ to oversee their children’s and husband’s needs while working in the kitchen. Multi tasking became expected and efficiency was perpetuated in the name of casual living.
But that efficiency created new duties in turn, including those facilitated by then-novel electric appliances. Americans’ ongoing rejection of domestic help made smaller, middle-class homes feasible, even as that very rejection also conscripted Americans, women in particular, to endless labor. (Ian Bogost, The Atlantic)
Despite the shift of social norms and roles within the family constructs, this holdover from the midcentury remains. Modern architecture continues to generate larger and larger homes and the open floor plan has prevailed, even to the extent of creating a second or ‘messy kitchen’. Which begs the question why? Well, enter the era of mass marketing and television. It has only been in the recent decades that networks such as HGTV have dominated and served as the voice of modern home design. Their presence and others have generated a noteworthy industry.
The global home decor market was valued at $616.6 billion in 2019, and is estimated to reach $838.6 billion by 2027 (Cision NP Newswire)
Leslie Tyler Design 2020
The problem, however, is that this programming is a sensationalized version of ‘reality’ and not necessarily ‘reality’ itself. Executives are programming television to be consumed by the broadest audience and therefore promote practices that aren’t necessarily in the best interest of the home or home industry.
“I spoke with HGTV executives,” Kaysen said on NPR at the end of 2019. “And the reason that they are so big on open concept is because it gets the male viewers. Like, guys like to watch sledgehammers and, like, taking out walls.” She added that HGTV decision makers feel that straight men won’t sit down with their girlfriends and wives for an hour of tchotkes and bathroom upgrades if they can’t catch a little sledgehammer action along the way. “It’s for TV,” Kaysen said. “It’s not for, like, what’s the best interests of the house, necessarily.” (Hannah Smothers, Vice)
What? We were being ‘sold’ an ideal that wasn’t rooted in much more than entertainment? Shocking! Combined with modern building practices promoting the desire for less walls - meaning you can make a small (inexpensive) home look enormous with a vaulted ceiling and open floor plan - and charge a premium. We were also being convinced by sledgehammer wielding contractors that our historic, traditional walls needed to go as well. Cha ching, cha ching!
The truth is, after hearing from the many of you, and dissecting the cause and truth behind the continued acceptance of the open concept I am clear only of one thing. Our homes have moved away from being the places of refuge and supporting our lifestyles and moved towards being ‘on display’ for almost everyone else to dissect. I have seen in recent months a more widely accepted appreciation for separation. The cause is precisely due to the need for our homes to actually accommodate us living in them again. 2020 has demanded our homes be offices, school rooms, gyms, and the like. In order for this to succeed separation is an absolute necessity.
I am excited to see where this next chapter will take us as homeowners. Will we see the value of compartmentalizing our multifaceted needs or will executing these tasks continue to merge? For now, I would gather, the appreciation for having separation in the home will make it possible for traditional floor plans to survive to see another era, and at the very least a pause when considering the build of a new.