Evolution of Residence Typology Evolution of Residence Spaces
IR 2613: HISTORY OF INTERIOR DESIGN
Tutor: Amal Shah | Sem 3 | Monsoon 2020 Faculty of Design, CEPT University
Ancient Egyptiaan Houses (5,000 BC)
Roman Domus
Roman Insula
Roman Villa
Vestibulum (Fauces) The vestibulum was the main entryway hall of the Roman Domus. It is usually only seen in grander structures, however many urban homes had shops or rental space directly off the streets with the front door between. The vestibulum would run the length of these front Tabernae shops. This created security by keeping the main portion of the domus off the street. In homes that did not have spaces for let in front, either rooms or a closed area would still be separated by a separate vestibulum. Atrium (plural atria) The atrium was the most important part of the house, where guests and dependents (clients) were greeted. The atrium was open in the centre, surrounded at least in part by high-ceilinged porticoes that often contained only sparse furnishings to give the effect of a large space. In the centre was a square roof opening called the compluvium in which rainwater could come, draining inwards from the slanted tiled roof. Directly below the compluvium was the impluvium. Impluvium An impluvium was basically a drain pool, a shallow rectangular sunken portion of the Atrium to gather rainwater, which drained into an underground cistern. The impluvium was often lined with marble, and around which usually was a floor of small mosaic. Fauces These were similar in design and function of the vestibulum but were found deeper into the domus. Separated by the length of another room, entry to a different portion of the residence was accessed by these passage way we would call halls or hallways. Tablinum Between the atrium and the peristyle, the tablinum would be constituted. Sort of office for the dominus, who would receive his clients for the morning salutatio. The dominus was able to command the house visually from this vantage point as the head of the social authority of the paterfamilias. Triclinium The Roman dining room. The area had three couches, klinai, on three sides of a low square table. Alae The open rooms on each side of the atrium. Their use is unknown. Cubiculum Bedroom. The floor mosaics of the cubiculum often marked out a rectangle where the bed should be placed. Culina The kitchen in a Roman house. It was dark and gloomy and smoke filled the room because there was no chimney. This is where slaves prepared food for their masters and guests in Roman times. Posticum A servants' entrance also used by family members wanting to leave the house unobserved.
Medieval Castles
Medieval Manor House
Piano nobile of Belton House. 1:Marble Hall; 2:Great Staircase; 3:Bedchamber, now Blue Room; 4:Sweetmeat closet; 5:Back stairs & east entrance; 6:Chapel Drawing Room; 7:Chapel (double height); 8:Tyrconnel Room;
English Baroque House
9:Saloon; 10:Red Drawing Room; 11:Little Parlour (now Tapestry Room); 12:School Room; 13:Closet; 14:Back stairs & west entrance; 15:Service Room (now Breakfast Room); 16:Upper storey of kitchen, (now Hondecoeter Room
Tulou (17th Century)
Jacobean period Houses
Georgian Colonial Houses
Late medieval hall, Haddon Hall, Derbyshire, showing later fireplace and chimney. In Western architecture, a living room, also called a lounge room, lounge or sitting room. It is a room in a house for relaxing and socializing. Such a room is sometimes called a front room when it is near the main entrance at the front of the house. In large formal homes, a sitting room is often a small private living area adjacent to a bedroom. The term living room was coined in the late 19th or early 20th century.
Parlour is a term used for a variety of different reception rooms and public spaces in different historical periods. In the English-speaking world of the 18th and 19th century, having a parlour room was evidence of social status. It was proof that one had risen above those who lived in one or two rooms. As the parlour was the room in which the larger world encountered the private sphere of middle class life, it was invariably the best room in the home. The parlour frequently displayed a family's best furnishings, works of art and other status symbols. The parlour was used for receptions around formal family occasions such as weddings, births and funerals. Some tradespeople used the parlour of their houses in the service of their businesses. Hence, funeral parlours, beauty parlours, and the like. In the 20th century, the widespread use of the telephone and automobiles, and the increasing casualness of society led to the decline of formal reception rooms in domestic architecture in English-speaking countries. The secondary functions of the parlour for entertaining and display were taken up by various kinds of sitting rooms, such as the living room (chiefly in North American usage), or the drawing room (chiefly in British usage).
A scullery is a room in a house traditionally used for washing up dishes and laundering clothes, or as an overflow kitchen when the main kitchen is overloaded. Tasks performed in the scullery include cleaning dishes and cooking utensils (or storing them), occasional kitchen work, ironing, boiling water for cooking or bathing, and soaking and washing clothes. Sculleries contain hot and cold sinks, drain pipes, storage shelves, plate racks, a work table, various "coppers" for boiling water, tubs, and buckets. The term "scullery" has fallen into disuse in North America, the room being more commonly referred to as a utility room or laundry room.
The Larder
The Kitchen
A kitchen stove, often called simply a stove or a cooker, is a kitchen appliance designed for the purpose of cooking food. Kitchen stoves rely on the application of direct heat for the cooking process and may also contain an oven, used for baking. A stove with multiple cooking surfaces is also called a range. In the industrialized world, as stoves replaced open fires as a source of more efficient and reliable heating.
The AGA cooker is a heat storage stove and cooker, which works on the principle that a heavy frame made of cast iron can absorb heat from a relatively low-intensity but continuously burning source, and the accumulated heat can then be used for cooking. Originally heated by slow-burning coal, the Aga cooker was invented in 1922.
The Frankfurt kitchen was a milestone in domestic architecture, considered the forerunner of modern fitted kitchens, because it realised for the first time a kitchen built after a unified concept. It was Designed to enable efficient work and to be built at low cost. It was designed in 1926 by Austrian architect Margarete SchĂźtte-Lihotzky. The Frankfurt kitchen was a narrow double-file kitchen measuring 1.9 m Ă— 3.4 m
German cities after the end of World War I were plagued by a serious housing shortage. Various social housing projects were built. These large-scale projects had to provide affordable apartments for a great number of typical working class families and thus were subject to tight budget constraints.
Flush toilets received a huge advancement in technology when in 1775 Alexander Cummings, a Scotsman, invented the S-trap. This device, still in use today, allowed for water to be trapped within the plumbing, preventing the escape of the stench from the sewers below.
It wasn’t long before folks discovered that wood, water, and other stuff didn’t mix. Those great bathroom suites of Gilded Age mansions were heaven to behold, but hell to maintain, and by the late 1880s, “open plumbing” was coming into vogue, with porcelain fixtures in full view. Of course, the Victorians then did to these newly visible vessels what they did best—they covered them with intricate embossing, magnificent glazing, and gilded decoration. Late Victorian toilets were masterpieces of the potter’s art, incorporating everything from Japanese and Delft-inspired motifs to classical dolphins and the curling trunks of elephants.
With a modern sewage system in place, newer homes were constructed with a dedicated toilet, sometimes several toilets. Plumbed water was added and the concept of the bathroom, or water closet, was created. But despite the convenience of a private bathroom, behaviour didn’t change so quickly. For women, large hoop skirts were difficult to pull up when sitting on the toilet, and it was considered far more comfortable (and more discrete) to continue to use the chamber pot in the privacy of the large bedroom. And a lady wouldn’t have wanted to make a noticeable trip to the toilet – this would have been seen as immodest. But despite any old-fashioned beliefs of privacy, the need for indoor plumbing, particularly for the toilet, was becoming a necessity as cities became more populated and vertical. There was less and less space for public facilities and Victorian attitudes demanded sanitary conditions, even for the poor. The toilet, which had taken centuries to accept, had finally become considered a necessity to have, regardless of your status in society.
In 1890 Clarence and Irvin Scott designed a perforated roll of paper for use in the water closet. Americans were slow to make this new product a success, and were embarrassed to be seen purchasing a product specifically for the toilet. It wasn’t until the 1930’s that toilet paper sales began to take off, thanks in part to ad campaigns directed at women.
The 20th Century: Bathrooms as places of luxury and privacy After World War I and II, the glamour of Hollywood movies and the rise of the middle class demanded certain luxuries in the bathroom. Like the kitchen, the bathroom was becoming a source of pride, especially for the woman of the house. Although hair and makeup vanities still largely remained in the bedroom, the bathroom was the scene for relaxing and taking care of one’s body. The aspirational housewife of the 1950’s, along with the US housing boom, meant en suite bathrooms for the parents and separate bathrooms for the children. There was a demand for colour, pattern, tile and beauty in the bathroom. Escapism was another popular use of the bathroom and it represented privacy and retreat.
1923 bathroom fixture advertisement, showing glamour and beauty in the bathroom.
Post WWII America saw new technologies enter the home space on a massive scale. Inventions like hairdryers, ventilation fans, new dental and toiletry products and an increase in the makeup and hair industries flooded the bathroom. New neighbourhoods, plumbed for hot water and connected to sewer systems, meant that having access to hot water was expected. The 1960’s saw the advent of the sexual revolution and Jacuzzi’s and sumptuous shaped tubs became commonplace. Styles of the bathroom continued to mirror societal and economic changes that were taking place.
This ad from 1961 shows how the bathroom, now with plenty of access to water, could be a space for play.
Modern bathrooms are also gaining in square footage. Today’s master bathrooms often include walk-in closets, dressing areas, his and her sinks, a shower and bathtub that can fit two people and a toilet. Often these master bathrooms offer commanding views out the window, just like our living rooms and kitchens. Homeowners also have the luxury of materials from all over the world, allowing us to truly personalize our bathroom space.