3 ms·

This article is a train-wreck of a justification for, I assume, the author's own personal taste in interior design. It builds up a total straw man for why open

by rconti 7y ago

This article is a train-wreck of a justification for, I assume, the author's own personal taste in interior design. It builds up a total straw man for why open concepts are terrible, built on ways in which almost none of us actually live. What are the justifications for why "open concept" floor plans in which the kitchen flows into the living area? * Open floor plans are an "acoustic nightmare". Try to imagine the horror of trying to watch television in the living room while some jerk in the kitchen bangs pots and pans trying to get your Totino's Pizza Rolls ready for you. This point is at least fair. Yes, sound bleeds from one space to another, for better or for worse. But I don't want to live in a walled-off Victorian house. I don't have servants making me food. I don't have or want a partner who toils in some distant secluded space to make me my supper. When I'm cooking, I don't want to be isolated from 'the rest of the house'. I want to see the score in the game, or be able to talk to my partner as she unwinds after a long day, if I'm putting the dishes away. * "Designing homes around “entertaining” that happens only a handful of times a year is a wasteful, yet still mindbogglingly popular practice. When people come to visit, they are there to see you, not your open concept." But my open space allows me to communicate with my partner. Or have our parents over and speak with them while we prepare. Or, when we have "handful of times a year" parties, where people end up congregating in the kitchen ANYWAY, we're able to mingle and move freely. Moreover, the statement "they are there to see you, not your open concept" betrays an open hostility that the author clearly feels about WHY people design their spaces the way they do, that you're trying to show off, not that you could possibly PREFER to have spaces that blend together. * We are now apparently building "mess kitchens" so that our fancy designer kitchens don't get messy. Okay, but very few of us are rich enough to do this, go complain about those people doing that thing. * Things are too far apart in an open concept! We have to install 2nd "pot sinks" so that our commute between the sink and the stove is not excessive! Everything is so far apart! Again, rich people problems. Not open concept problems. Stuff can still be close together in an open space. Is the author complaining about the open concept, or the fact that some houses have kitchens marginally larger than an NYC efficiency kitchen you can't even turn around in? * Heating and cooling such a large space is so inefficient! Okay, because everyone WITHOUT an open concept has spaces that are easy to heat/cool separately? AFAIK most people use forced air or radiators or something, and don't really have the ability to heat one room at a time anyway. * We're building these absurd she-sheds and man-caves as rebellion against the open concept! ... so you're admitting that the open-concept only refers to the kitchen and dining and living room, and despite this people still have their private spaces and it basically works just fine for everyone? You also recognize, again, that the open concept does not and has not ever extended to bedrooms or offices or other living spaces? The article almost feels like a parody, since its example of a gloriously convenient 50s kitchen includes a washing machine and dryer and 1950s housewife who, conveniently, never needs to leave her unpaid working environment, or, for that matter, be seen at all.

trgn 7y ago
That's an aggressive reading of that article. She lays out her argument, maybe makes a snarky comment here and there, but it's hardly a rant. Her argument flows pretty naturally imo. Identify a problem. Open concepts are a fad with bad externalities for its occupants and the environment. She points a wagging finger at the normies who bought into the fad, condescending only if you choose to read it that way, but really all in all good natured. More than a fad, perhaps open floor plans are a historical mistake by ideologues who were unable to anticipate its unintended consequences. She draws attention to the richer people escaping to their man caves and sculleries, they wouldn't need to do that if their house wasn't a cacophony of noise and smell to begin with. Her solution is simple and elegant. Just close up that kitchen again instead of holding on to that collective aesthetic obsession with large spaces. She underestimates that people actually value the aesthetics and branding of an open floor plan more than any of its drawbacks. Open floor plans make your small house look big and are ideal for the perfect family, where everybody always gets along, and the loss of privacy is secondary. And who doesn't want to live in a big house, and not have a perfect family? No going back. The open floor plan coincides with the decline of cooking and the replacement of hosting with entertaining. Kitchens are fake anyway. Of the families who I know who actually cook meals, who host their friends and relatives as if they were honored guest to be waited upon, none of those prefer an open kitchen. Those who don't, mine included, for who a kitchen is a place with a fridge and a microwave primarily, maybe a large tabletop for all the crap their kids bring back form school, the people who's idea of cooking is making casseroles and pasta that need to last for days, who's idea of a party is a potluck, they do prefer open floor plans. It's a value shift in what it means to prepare meals, she prefers the old fashioned values, most people no longer do.
- rconti 7y ago
  The only real problem she identifies is "noise". (I'm not sure what the "bad externalities for the environment" you point to are). You trade the inconvenience of noise (noise when you don't want it) for the convenience of noise (ability to hear/see/be involved with what's going on outside of the kitchen). That's one unintended consequence (or was it intended?) >She draws attention to the richer people escaping to their man caves and sculleries, they wouldn't need to do that if their house wasn't a cacophony of noise and smell to begin with. I don't buy this. All homes have private spaces. Man caves would not go away if we all just closed off our kitchens. It implies that the "man cave" only exists because of the open concept, but for that to be true, it would have to mean that it's replacing the living room, which I think you can hardly conclude from the available evidence. When was an "enclosed" living room a paragon of privacy? It seems so utterly bizarre to go from "combine kitchen and dining and living room" to "complete and total loss of privacy". Again, we still have private bedrooms and offices, those with more space in their homes have still more separate spaces. There are implications here that we had to build bigger houses to replace the lost 'private' space, but I hardly see the evidence. The closed-off houses of yore, with their formal dining rooms and walled-off kitchens, were hardly tiny. >The open floor plan coincides with the decline of cooking and the replacement of hosting with entertaining. Kitchens are fake anyway. Of the families who I know who actually cook meals, who host their friends and relatives as if they were honored guest to be waited upon, none of those prefer an open kitchen. Again, thin. Plenty of folks have chimed in here who prefer an open concept, and plenty of folks who prefer a closed-off one. Like my own household, we cook every single night, and prefer the open space. >It's a value shift in what it means to prepare meals, she prefers the old fashioned values, most people no longer do. This is an unsupported conclusion. Again, it's a quasi-pejorative that making your own meals means you prefer a closed off kitchen. That's just not the case. Different people have different preferences, but this condescending attitude that real people who really cook hate all this new fangled nonsense is just not based in fact.

by rconti 7y ago

trgn 7y ago

That's an aggressive reading of that article. She lays out her argument, maybe makes a snarky comment here and there, but it's hardly a rant. Her argument flows pretty naturally imo. Identify a problem. Open concepts are a fad with bad externalities for its occupants and the environment. She points a wagging finger at the normies who bought into the fad, condescending only if you choose to read it that way, but really all in all good natured. More than a fad, perhaps open floor plans are a historical mistake by ideologues who were unable to anticipate its unintended consequences. She draws attention to the richer people escaping to their man caves and sculleries, they wouldn't need to do that if their house wasn't a cacophony of noise and smell to begin with. Her solution is simple and elegant. Just close up that kitchen again instead of holding on to that collective aesthetic obsession with large spaces. She underestimates that people actually value the aesthetics and branding of an open floor plan more than any of its drawbacks. Open floor plans make your small house look big and are ideal for the perfect family, where everybody always gets along, and the loss of privacy is secondary. And who doesn't want to live in a big house, and not have a perfect family? No going back. The open floor plan coincides with the decline of cooking and the replacement of hosting with entertaining. Kitchens are fake anyway. Of the families who I know who actually cook meals, who host their friends and relatives as if they were honored guest to be waited upon, none of those prefer an open kitchen. Those who don't, mine included, for who a kitchen is a place with a fridge and a microwave primarily, maybe a large tabletop for all the crap their kids bring back form school, the people who's idea of cooking is making casseroles and pasta that need to last for days, who's idea of a party is a potluck, they do prefer open floor plans. It's a value shift in what it means to prepare meals, she prefers the old fashioned values, most people no longer do.

rconti 7y ago
The only real problem she identifies is "noise". (I'm not sure what the "bad externalities for the environment" you point to are). You trade the inconvenience of noise (noise when you don't want it) for the convenience of noise (ability to hear/see/be involved with what's going on outside of the kitchen). That's one unintended consequence (or was it intended?) >She draws attention to the richer people escaping to their man caves and sculleries, they wouldn't need to do that if their house wasn't a cacophony of noise and smell to begin with. I don't buy this. All homes have private spaces. Man caves would not go away if we all just closed off our kitchens. It implies that the "man cave" only exists because of the open concept, but for that to be true, it would have to mean that it's replacing the living room, which I think you can hardly conclude from the available evidence. When was an "enclosed" living room a paragon of privacy? It seems so utterly bizarre to go from "combine kitchen and dining and living room" to "complete and total loss of privacy". Again, we still have private bedrooms and offices, those with more space in their homes have still more separate spaces. There are implications here that we had to build bigger houses to replace the lost 'private' space, but I hardly see the evidence. The closed-off houses of yore, with their formal dining rooms and walled-off kitchens, were hardly tiny. >The open floor plan coincides with the decline of cooking and the replacement of hosting with entertaining. Kitchens are fake anyway. Of the families who I know who actually cook meals, who host their friends and relatives as if they were honored guest to be waited upon, none of those prefer an open kitchen. Again, thin. Plenty of folks have chimed in here who prefer an open concept, and plenty of folks who prefer a closed-off one. Like my own household, we cook every single night, and prefer the open space. >It's a value shift in what it means to prepare meals, she prefers the old fashioned values, most people no longer do. This is an unsupported conclusion. Again, it's a quasi-pejorative that making your own meals means you prefer a closed off kitchen. That's just not the case. Different people have different preferences, but this condescending attitude that real people who really cook hate all this new fangled nonsense is just not based in fact.