Good House of the Month: 1970 (Patreon)

This month's Good House is also found in Bergen County, New Jersey. At 3500 square feet including 4 beds and 4 bathrooms, it's currently on the market for $829,000 . 

I'll be first one to admit that this house is a bit weirder than the usual Good Houses. However, it is a quintessentially 1970 house. The house is built in what is known as the "Shed Style," which, after the era of Eichler houses and other mid-century modern developments, was the next iteration of mass-market modernism. The Shed Style emerged from two sub-movements within the diverse and very strange period of architecture commonly referred to as "Late Modernism": the eco/solar house movement and what is sometimes called "vernacular modernism". 

The solar house movement is somewhat self-explanatory. The late 60s and early 70s were the heyday of the modern environmental movement, and focus on green and solar architecture, led by architects like Richard Levine, created interesting new modernist home concepts most notable for their large picture windows and vast, slanted "shed" roofs which allowed for the most efficient angle and distribution of rooftop solar panels:

Architect Richard Levine with his 70s-era solar house at Raven Run. Via Google. 

A different approach to nature, but similar in its formal execution, was taken by architects such as Charles Moore, whose Sea Ranch complex in California sought to integrate vernacular architectural forms such as sheds and huts with modernism, an ecological approach to site planning, and a nuanced and sensitive siting of the complex that blended with the landscape: 

The Sea Ranch, via Arch Daily. 

Because of the large amount of coverage given to the Sea Ranch in the architectural press to eco/solar projects in places like Popular Mechanics and Scientific American, developers, especially those working in the area of second homes, vacation properties, and condominiums took notice of the use of wood paneling, shed roofs, and large windows utilized by those projects, as these architectural elements were particularly well suited to sites like mountain getaways and golf courses. 

In some respects, the shed style can be seen as a natural evolution of other resort/vacation home architectural forms such as the A-frame, chalet, and octagon house. Like its predecessors, shed-style homes were well-suited to vacation homes because their steep shed roofs helped to displace snow accumulation and their irregular forms, while not particularly conducive to more practical living and working spaces such as kitchens (which were less of a priority than they would be in a full-time residence) were conducive to dramatic high-ceiling spaces, lofts, and vast, expansive views.  

The popularity of the shed style house declined in the 1980s, a casualty of what was a larger decline in popularity of modernism writ large. However, with greater contemporary emphasis in architecture on sustainability, many of the concepts the style brought to the forefront (sensitive siting, integration with nature, alternative energy production, use of natural/sustainable materials such as wood as cladding) have been greatly revived, especially in the work of what is sometimes called the Pacific Northwest school of architecture exemplified by the work of architects such as Cutler-Anderson and Olson Kundig. 

The best part of our Good House of the Month is the interiors - which, suffice it to say, are downright groovy - featuring heavy stone, weird art, brown 70s decor, and classic shed-style ceilings and windows. 

That's it for this month's installment! See you soon with a new Brutalism Post.