I wrote my first opinion column for HB&R on the subject of modern architecture back in 2005. I suggested – albeit rather tentatively – that traditional styles had had their day and that modern architecture was about to sweep before them. My grand theory was based on the notions that office buildings were all modern and IKEA was very popular.
But my killer factoid was that, in 2005, for the first time, HB&R featured more modern homes on the cover than traditional. The HB&R cover is a bellwether for housing trends; buyers are far more likely to pick the magazine up off the shelf if they like the look of the house on the cover. Up until then, a modern house had usually been a buyer turn-off — but something happened around that time to dislodge lingering prejudices. Our readers simply wanted to see interesting homes and were no longer so fussed about traditional styles.
Five years on, this ‘anything goes’ trend remains in place. Judging by the past few covers, we have a similar mix of ultra-cool white-rendered boxes and traditional country cottages. But there is also a new trend emerging — a hybrid style that is neither ancient nor modern, and is sometimes referred to as ‘contemporary’. This hybrid features lots of glass (modern), plenty of good-looking bricks (traditional) and timber panelling (could be either, depending on the style). Oak in particular seems to be the height of fashion. And one of the things about oak is that it is very versatile — it can be rendered modern or traditional.
My feeling is that this trend reflects the fact that we like all kinds of designs and that most of us aren’t particularly tribal about what it is we build. Take a look at the world of interiors. Kitchens seem to be going traditional, with range cookers and unfitted cupboards de rigueur. Bathrooms, on the other hand, are veering off towards modern trends, with glass bowl sinks and walk-in showers. Flooring has gone natural, with lots of wood and stone, but walls have gone the other way — smooth, plastered finishes are the order of the day. You don’t see timber panelling on walls and ceilings – so popular in the ’70s – anymore, but externally it’s everywhere. How do you explain that?
Which begs the question, just how do self-builders develop their taste buds and learn what it is they want to create? How do these trends emerge? Well, one very obvious answer is through the pages of magazines like H&R and the many exhibitions we run. People think, ‘I’d like some of that,’ or, ‘Wow, that looks cool.’ They also visit other people’s houses or stay in hotels where some feature or other may be in evidence. Mental notes are made everywhere. Everyone does it, but self-builders more than most.
This, in turn, begs another question. Why don’t the businesses selling into the self-build market make more of this phenomenon? It’s one thing seeing a crazy bathroom at an exhibition, but you can hardly strip off and try it out, can you?
Well, one enterprising self-build company, Hereford-based Oakwrights (oakwrights.co.uk), now offers a ‘try-before-you- buy’ facility, where potential customers can stay in its showhouse (BELOW) for £150 a night, and try out all that innovative gear they’ve heard about and see what it’s like to wake up in an oak framed bedroom with a fully glazed gable wall. It’s something that American and German self-build companies have been offering for some time, but I believe Oakwrights is the first to do it in the UK.
If you fancy stretching your architectural taste buds a little further, then take a look at Living Architecture’s website (living-architecture.co.uk). The company is currently building five very unusual, ultra-hip homes, which will be available as weekly holiday lets throughout the year.
Each house is distinctive. The Balancing Barn (BELOW) in Suffolk is an incredible feat of engineering — 50 per cent of the building hangs in free space, cantilevered out from a hillside, with glass walls giving uninterrupted views over woods, ponds and meadows. Another, the stone flint Norfolk Long Barn, is a modern take on a very traditional form — the Mediaeval hall. Its renowned architects, Sir Michael and Lady Patty Hopkins, aim to use ‘local materials and vernacular forms inspired by the best lessons of Modernism’. You could hardly have a better definition of the hybrid contemporary house.
Which is strange, because the people behind Living Architecture – notably Channel 4’s popular philosopher Alain de Botton – are all avowed Modernists on a mission. But looking at the five homes they are creating, it’s hard not to conclude that the battle between traditional and modern is beginning to look old hat, and that the 21st century home is already beginning to develop its own distinctive style — a style quite different to what we grew up with. So, in retrospect, maybe 2005 wasn’t the point in time when modern triumphed over traditional, but rather when a distinctive new contemporary style began to emerge. Only time will tell.