Q:  What is a "Contemporary' house?

If you have read my article on ‘style’, you may wonder what the term might be for a house built today that incorporates none of the historical precedents that typify housing tracts around Houston.  For the moment let us use the term ‘contemporary’.

 

Contemporary houses are sometimes referred to as modern houses.  However the words contemporary and modern are not interchangeable.  The word modern has been associated three distinct periods of architectural history in the 20^th century.  First came International Modernism (1920s – 1930s).  This was a term most often attributed to Philip Johnson of Penzoil Place and Transco Tower fame.  Johnson, a group of architects from the Bauhaus, and their master, Le Corbusier, introduced the world to the famous modern cube-like home.  It was gleaming white, employed flat roofs, floor to ceiling glass, zero applied ornament (no moldings, balustrades, or cornices of any kind) and every modern amenity available.  Next came Mid-Century Modernism (mid-1930s to 1965).  Less formal than the rigid ideas of International Modernism, Mid-Century Modernism took a more organic approach.  Warmer materials like wood and stone replaced vacant and white stucco walls. This trend grew out of the suburban centers of northern California and spread into furniture, graphic design and urban development.  Ultimately this school was surpassed by Post-Modernism which rejected the utilitarian efficiency of the Modern movement and, in its place, substituted historical reference to remind the public that architecture is really about Greek architraves, primary geometries and Corinthian capitals.

 

 

These styles went the way of all styles, leaving residential architecture in limbo for the last 25 years.  Commercially and civically, there have been sub-movements such as the amorphous blobs of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s and the current spate of sky scrapers that twist, change colors, and dazzle everyone who visits Moscow and Dubai.  Yet residentially, we are left with the somewhat miscellaneous term, ‘contemporary’.

Contemporary houses attempt to be non-historical and stand on their own.  They are typically designed by an architect who has endeavored to deliver something novel, fresh, and singular to his client. To make the house specific to the part of the country where it’s built some architects have employed the concept of regionalism – using local materials, picking up on the area’s cultural heritage, designing for the unique climate of the site – to give the house a stronger sense of place.  This idea has merit and works best when there are identifiable influences on the site. 

 

However in Houston any such influences compete with a torrent of non-regional housing stock.  Also, Houston has very little in terms of natural building products to define its architecture, unlike the limestone of Austin’s Hill Country.  Further, we no longer seem interested in designing for the climate of the site.  We simply combat the heat and humidity with larger air conditioners and turn a blind eye on wind patterns, sun angles, and age-old practices as deep porches with large overhangs, heat chimneys and elevated building platforms. We live in a city whose architectural style is largely defined by its place-less suburbs, which is to say we are not defined.

 

Architects in Houston therefore have a unique opportunity to set in motion how Houston can residentially define itself.  We can break from the current path of our generic every-town and move into innovative territory by reinventing our suburbs.  Central to this idea would be to dismiss the notion that the post-war suburban house style (whether it be Colonial, Tudor, Faux-Bungalow etc.) ought to be the prevailing language.  Houston is the nation’s fourth largest city, the leading city for energy and health care innovation, and one of the most prosperous cities in the world.  Our architecture ought to endeavor to be world-class as well.

         R i c h  M u l l e r   

 

                                                                              
                                        
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