Archinect - News

How has Hollywood shaped the idea of an American house?

2018-12-22T13:28:00-05:00

The decorated Christmas houses, bedecked in wreaths and lights and the mythology of Christmas, and the haunted houses of Halloween, draped in fake spiders’ webs and punctuated by plastic pumpkins, are two sides of the fantasy. The suburban house represents freedom and independence just as it can come to represent a trap.

What is the aspirational American house and why is the general public obsessed with this version of residential living? Hollywood has painted a picturesque image of what an ideal American house looks like, especially during the holiday season. These ideal homes can be broken into three specific groups: the Christmas home, the Haunted House, and the infamous McMansion.

Image © homesoftherich.net

All three homes consist of staple vernacular styles like large fireplaces, staircases, multiple garages, and windows of varying styles. However, why have these designs won the hearts of the public and have become the "design goals" of many builders across the nation? Some may say these homes embody varying forms of the American dream, each expressing a combination of fantasy and longing within contemporary American culture.

House in The Addams Family (1991) © Allstar/Paramount

Image © homesoftherich.net

When people think of the contemporary American life, "families relocate thousands of miles...

Un-haunting a house: the art of selling a building with a grisly past

2015-11-03T13:48:00-05:00

A chain-link fence surrounds the stately brick mansion at 3201 Woodland Dr. NW in Woodley Park. Most of the windows are covered with plywood. Cars sometimes drive past slowly, with passengers leaning out... In May, Savvas and Amy Savopoulos; their 10-year-old son, Philip; and their housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, were brutally killed inside. Now, less than six months after the shocking quadruple homicide that horrified Washington, the house is for sale. Asking price? $3.25 million.

Evil Architecture: When Buildings Kill

2013-10-30T17:36:00-04:00

We’ve seen the movies, read the books, toured the spooky attractions. This we know: haunted houses are dangerous places. They’re built on evil ground, or on sites where bad things happened, or above the graves of people who don’t want company. ... But that’s not what I want to talk about here. Sometimes buildings are born bad.

Just in time for Halloween, Eggener takes us on a tour of evil architecture in books and movies.

“'Organic architecture must come from the ground up into the light by gradual growth,'" he writes. "So said Frank Lloyd Wright, though none of his buildings ever murdered a client."