essays by Matthew Bialecki, Christian Gladu, Jill Kessenich, Jim McCord, Su Bacon
"Could anyone have predicted in the early 1920s, when the original Arts & Crafts movement died out, that it would enjoy a revival that would start some fifty years later and last longer than the original movement?" So begins architect Matthew Bialecki‘s introduction to Gibbs-Smith’s The New Bungalow. In this and other essays, the authors investigate not so much the classic designs and styles of the American Arts & Crafts movement, but rather their modern and contemporary reinterpretations in architectural, interior and furniture design.
As Bialecki points out, A&C style "has evolved into a national style phenomenon," where cheap and often poorly-made "Mission-style" furniture is available even at big-box retailers, and local restaurants and hotels across the country are designed in modernized variants of the Prairie, Craftsman and Mission aesthetic. Bialecki, in the first essay, proposes that a modern proto-luddite rejection of the mass-produced-in-appearance (which also, ironically, drives sales of mass-produced faux-Craftsman goods) might be promoting the increasing popularity of nature-based architecture, specifically the Craftsman-styled open plans that emphasize natural materials, light and landscape. (read the rest of the review after the link, below)
The publisher, Gibbs-Smith, has included a broad selection of essays
from a pretty wide array of professionals – Bialecki’s "Origins of the
Bungalow," which relates the beginnings of the movement to its current
resurgence and meditates on the appeal of the modern Craftsman home;
architect Jill Kessenich’s essay on renovation and her analysis of "The
Elements of Bungalow Style," which deconstructs both the
currently-fashionable style and compares it to the typical bungalow
design of the original American A&C movement, focusing specifically
on particular issues of space, geographic and temporal context (this
section includes a reasonably exhaustive listing of the time periods
associated with the bungalow movement in the US, from the
post-Victorian Queen Anee to the Moderne styles, giving a breakdown of
the evolution of bungalow style through each era), and The Bungalow
Company‘s Christian Gladu’s essay on "The New Bungalow Revival," which
focuses narrowly on new bungalows and the use of various elements
bungalow style in contemporary development, with sections on planning,
neighborhoods, general guidelines on square footage, and guidelines for
designing various modern rooms (bath, kitchen, bedroom, workspace)
which serve more modern needs while still articulating the look and
feel of a traditional Craftsman home.
Other essays include architect Jim McCord’s insightful "How to Get
‘the Look’ in New Construction," which is a must-read for anyone
planning a new house to be constructed in the Craftsman style. McCord’s
advice is aimed both at custom-home builders and those shopping for a
house in a planned community or neighborhood, and includes information
on choosing developers, kitchen and bathroom planning advice, general
materials and construction information, and plenty of background on
cabinetry, hardware, flooring, tile, doors and lighting. Focusing
specifically on lighting, Historic Lighting’s Su Bacon writes an
excellent and extensive piece on light fixtures in the Arts &
Crafts style, with plenty of photographs of projects from Sam
Mossaedi’s Greene & Greene influenced fixtures to more contemporary
lamps and lanterns produced by Arroyo Craftsman. Sections on sconces
and the many types of ceiling-mounted or -hung lighting flesh out
Bacon’s essay.
The final sections give a general technical and philosophical
overview of the movement and where it’s gone in the past 100 years,
with Bialecki showing off some of his own modern bungalow-styled
interior and exterior work. This section includes drawings and some
excellent large photographs that really illustrate how well modern
fixtures and use of space can be integrated in a larger but
unmistakably Craftsman structure. At the very end of the book, a number
of photographs of all sorts of details – garden structures, furniture,
lighting, interior architectural woodwork, mouldings and more – give
the new-home builder (or those of us who can only fantastize about
building our own perfect modern bungalow) plenty of food for thought.
This book is far more for the present or future planner or builder
who looks forward to working with an architect on their own home
project, and is certainly not for a strict old-home aficionado; while
much of its advice can be related to the remodeling of an older home,
it would be far more usefully applied to the building of a new home.
Thus, I recommend this book for the builder, the planner, the student
of architecture and those who are looking for and can afford a more
customizable option to buying an older Craftsman home.