They’re not making them anymore! OK, that’s a joke. But as our housing stock gets older, it’s harder and harder to find a midcentury home that retains its original features. I’m not exactly talking about architecturally-designed houses, though they are wonderful to see and mostly have remained pristine. Bucks County holds a number of mid-century moderns, though they can be hard to spot; the setting is an important part of the whole and they can be discreetly hidden. But once you see one, you can immediately identify it.
Bauhaus Walter Gropius & Marcel Breuer house
Characteristics include natural building materials: stone and wood, and sometimes concrete. They are often single-story structures, though not always, and many are L-shaped. Big windows bring the outside in, and you often see a wall of windows. Kitchens tended to be almost Spartan in design, with wood cabinets offering a flat, uniform look that make me think of Scandinavian design.
Interiors feature wood accents and finished walls; you will see beautiful wooden beams and ceilings. Also, fireplaces tend to incorporate long, narrow stones or bricks. Built-ins are common, as are flat or low pitched roofs with big overhangs. Straight lines and asymmetrical exteriors dominate. Earth tones are a must. Often the houses were built with the surroundings in mind; a midcentury in the desert may well have a different shape and look from a midcentury in a forest.
Midcentury Moderns are famous for their open floor plan concept. Did you know that Frank Lloyd Wright is usually credited with conceptualizing the open floor plan? His designs go back to early in the century; Fallingwater was completed in 1935. Wright designed a series of Usonian houses between the 1930s and 1950s—meaning “of these United States”—for the budget-minded middle class. They were more affordable than his early Prairie-Style homes, but never really qualified as low-cost. Nonetheless, these Usonian homes paved the way for the ubiquitous ranch houses that popped up in the 50’s through the ‘70s. However, the open floor plan didn’t gain wide popularity until the mid-century, when modernist architecture really took hold.
I think Frank Lloyd Wright must have rolled over in his grave to see what happened to his ranch house concept; “Break the box,” was one of his mottos, and the midcentury home certainly achieved that effect.
Kitchen Courtesy of Alex Tyson Unsplash.com