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The open floorplan is a concept that I wish would die a fiery death yesterday. Sadly, I doubt that will change any time soon. Most people seem to love an open floor plan. I hate it. When I am in a room, I only want to be snug in that one cozy room. I don't want to feel like I live in a loft or a cavern. The industry does not give a lick what I want, and I don't feel like buying a home built in the 1940s or 1960s just to avoid an open floor plan.
Smaller homes in the '40s and '50s might have open concept as well, where the living and dining were one big room with the kitchen open on the side in an L shape. Maximizes space in a smaller home while not feeling like every room is a closet. While I don't want to feel like I'm in a gymnasium, I also hate being in furnished closets. I want some room to spread out, move around and have good natural light. I'll leave being "cozy" for bedrooms and bathrooms.
These are some '50s floor plans. The last is the floor plan of the '55 house I lived in for a while. Pretty open, but it was a 900 sf home...
I once had a big bedroom in a townhouse in Las Vegas, I wasn't sleeping well with all that space around me, so I split it in half, for a nice cozy 8 by 10 space. I don't even sleep well in hotels with too much space around me.
The "transforming" apartment may be the end result of both open concept & master suite, mutating into a one room does-it-all.
The 250 sq ft master suite becomes a kitchen, a dining room, a walk-in closet, a parlor, a workplace, and so on.
The "transforming" apartment may be the end result of both open concept & master suite, mutating into a one room does-it-all.
The 250 sq ft master suite becomes a kitchen, a dining room, a walk-in closet, a parlor, a workplace, and so on.
Yep, when I was 22 and on my first job out of college I lived in one of these. We called it an "efficiency". Moving to an apartment with an actual bedroom was a big step up.
Now people want the whole house to be like an efficiency apartment, only a lot bigger. Go figure.
'Open Concept' should be done away with....... I dont know how ppl can live like that!!
Its ugly for one!!
But as a Realtor friend of mine said as I was interviewing the owner of a very nicely rehabbed two-story "workingman's" rowhouse in Powelton Village here with a totally open main floor (that the Realtor was selling), the open plan saves builders money because they don't have to put up so many interior walls.
So it's not going anywhere, unless and until building technology makes fully separated rooms cheaper.
I do, however, often see what I'd call a hybrid setup in custom (or mass-customized) homes in the middle and upper price ranges: A center-hall Colonial front half with a traditional living room and dining room, and what I call an "everyday living suite" in the back. This is an open space that combines the kitchen, the breakfast room and the family room. (A doorway links the formal dining room in front to the kitchen in the everyday living suite, often through a butler's pantry.) It does seem that many buyers find such setups functional, and these houses do sell.
But as a Realtor friend of mine said as I was interviewing the owner of a very nicely rehabbed two-story "workingman's" rowhouse in Powelton Village here with a totally open main floor (that the Realtor was selling), the open plan saves builders money because they don't have to put up so many interior walls.
So it's not going anywhere, unless and until building technology makes fully separated rooms cheaper.
I do, however, often see what I'd call a hybrid setup in custom (or mass-customized) homes in the middle and upper price ranges: A center-hall Colonial front half with a traditional living room and dining room, and what I call an "everyday living suite" in the back. This is an open space that combines the kitchen, the breakfast room and the family room. (A doorway links the formal dining room in front to the kitchen in the everyday living suite, often through a butler's pantry.) It does seem that many buyers find such setups functional, and these houses do sell.
That second plan is extremely nice for a young family. And a separate living room is great for a peaceful getaway if everyone else is watching a movie.
Open plans did not come about because it “saved builders money”…
It was the “cocooning effect”- and the nucleus family! Being “connected” throughout the house.
The less construction cost was just a byproduct-
So? That didn't make the Realtor friend wrong. He didn't say the open plan arose because it saved builders money, just that it did. I was using that observation to argue that it wasn't going to go away unless tastes changed so dramatically that builders couldn't sell open-plan houses for that reason. That seems not to be the case.
And certainly, the hybrid model I described in that same post speaks to your point about cocooning. I even remember featuring a 1960s rancher in Abington that that got written up in The Philadelphia Inquirer because its new innovation — kitchen, breakfast room and family room all in one — made it easier for the woman of the house to keep an eye on the kids while fixing dinner.
Last edited by MarketStEl; 03-14-2024 at 10:15 PM..
And it's certainly not a small, cheap, entry level house.
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