The wright space

One of the many reasons I got out of high-tech marketing and into real estate was that I wanted to learn about and focus on houses and how houses work (or don't work) for people. And to learn and understand American house styles.  It sounds superfluous, but it's not. Growing up, I wanted to be an architect, now I just want to figure things out.  My partner is an architect, so I can "design over his shoulder" when I feel so compelled, but now my focus is really on connecting people and how they want to live with the right house.  And vice versa, finding the right buyers for unique homes.  It's a two way street. There is not one perfect house for everyone.  

My parent's home, an eclectic mix of my father's contemporary with my mother's traditional preferences

Indulge me for a moment as I step back... for the past 15 or so years, I've lived in early 1900s traditional structures, an 1890 townhouse, a 1920 Victorian four-square and a 1920s brick Harlow building.  All have been gorgeous structures with rich, period appropriate detail and I've been set on figuring out how to make my more modern design sensibility work with these styles.  For the most part it's possible... an upcoming post will share some of my favorite design resources I promise.  Let me just say I was on a first name basis with the proprietor for DWR for a few years.  Why do I mention this?  I live in a late mid-century deck house now and for the most part, my mid-century-traditional-bridge furniture works and my design persona feels better, but it's still not quite right.  This house is earthier, warmer.  So the evolution continues...

Homes need to work within themselves, but also need to complement the people who choose to live in them.  It can be just as jarring to see a country kitchen in a Techbuilt as it is to see a steel industrial kitchen in a center entrance colonial.  The more homes I see that work cohesively - whether a colonial from 1850 or a Techbuilt from 1960 - the more I can appreciate the philosophy of architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright.  

"Wright’s ideology, like that of his international contemporaries, focused on the complete integration of the house ̶ site and structure, interior and exterior, furniture, ornament and architecture, every element of the design was connected." (http://flwright.org/researchandexplore/furnitureanddecorativearts)

Photo credit: http://flwright.org/researchandexplore/furnitureanddecorativearts

While not many of us laypeople will accomplish a home that is quite so ideal we can find and create for ourselves homes that embody who we are and complement the way in which each of us lives.  So how does this all relate back to understanding houses?  I think it's simple, and well it's not.  Everyone has a design aesthetic that they prefer and everyone has specific needs for what they want in a home (whether they can articulate it or not).  The realistic ideal then is finding the home that best complements those needs and preferences.  I believe to do that well, understanding houses and how houses work is paramount.