'Moderne' Houses
'Moderne' houses arrived in Britain after the First World War bringing with them a revolution in house design. The government-sponsored drive to mass produce 'Homes For Heroes', for returning soldiers, led to a desire to industrialise the process of housebuilding. Britain looked to Europe, and the new International Modern Movement for inspiration. For the UK homeowner, Moderne houses (and some amazing Poirot episodes) were the result. Moderne houses in the UK tend to fall into one of three kinds Moderne, Restrained Moderne and Hollywood Moderne.
International Moderne
The 1925 'Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes' in Paris gave the world the phrase 'Art Deco' and heralded the new architectural style of 'International Moderne'. This style rejected excessive decoration and ornamentation. Buildings in this style are characterised by straight lines and geometrical forms, with the use of metalwork, the extensive use of glass and cantilevered structural elements. The building shapes were based on the idea that 'form follows function', that design is determined by purpose.
Vernon Blake remarked “Unquestionably every Englishman who visits the pavilions and stands of the modern French ensembliers will ask himself whether he would care to live among such impeccable surroundings from which cosiness is markedly absent… our Englishman, mindful of fireside joys, of capacious easy chairs, will, perhaps, admire, then turn aside and leave such artificialities to the exhibition and to France”.
'Moderne' Houses
'Moderne' houses arrived in the UK and were as shocking as they were revolutionary. The stark lines, white stuccoed walls, Crittall Windows and flat roofs of the houses that were produced reflected the new international aesthetic being pioneered by the Bauhaus and architects like Le Corbusier. But to British sensibilities, they were divisive.
Often wrongly referred to as Art Deco houses (See 'Is My House 'Art Deco'?), or lumped into the catch-all description of '1930s Houses', these buildings appeared in the UK in the early 1920s and were still being built by the late 1940s. At the Ideal Home Exhibition of 1934, the 'Village of Tomorrow' was comprised of houses built exclusively in the Moderne style, with their flat roofs described as ‘a whole floor of extra space, and delightful means to revel in the out-of-doors... to take your meals in the open, and... sleep al fresco’<ref>Ideal Home Catalogue (1934), p. 127 </ref>. Diagrams were produced showing how hipped roofs blocked light from your neighbours across the road.
The new style was not universally accepted in the UK and there were concerns that our weather made flat roofs and sun decks an impractical solution. Sometimes called 'sun-trap' houses, they were very popular on the English south coast Riviera. Moderne houses were satirised as '20th Century Functional' by the great Osbert Lancaster in his 1938 book Pillar To Post,<ref>Pillar To Post, Osbert Lancaster, 1938</ref> which poked affectionate fun at the various building styles emerging in the UK after the war.
However, as well as wonderful estates of modest family houses such as Silver End in Braintree, the period also produced renowned modernist houses by architects such as Gropius, Lubetkin and Wells Coates. Beautifully restored these regularly appear in films and TV dramas depicting the period such as ITV's Poirot.
However, as well as wonderful estates of modest family houses such as Silver End in Braintree, the period also produced renowned modernist houses by architects such as Gropius, Lubetkin and Wells Coates. Beautifully restored these regularly appear in films and TV dramas depicting the period such as ITV's Poirot.
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Semi-detached Moderne house in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
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A striking detached Moderne house.
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The exquisite 'High & Over' in Amersham, Bucks.
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High Cross House, Devon. One of the classic 'Moderne' houses.
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Killowat House, Bath by Mollie Taylor
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A 'Moderne' Suntrap house
It didn't take long for the mood to change, and in the 1935 Ideal Home Exhibition there was only one house in the pure Moderne style. The curved look still remained for windows but the hipped roof returned and, with them, the arrival of a more restrained form of modernism.
Restrained Moderne
'Restrained Moderne' was the style that emerged quickly as it became clear that the public was held back by nostalgia. It was a style assembled for people who were seduced by the clean lines of the Moderne movement but who were slightly put off by the brutal nature of the flat-roofs. Restrained Moderne was a uniquely British fudge with the lower lines and horizontal mullioned windows offset by a nice safe roof 'like your mother had'. By the end of the 1930s consumers had also begun to reject the general simplicity. They began to ask for decoration around doors and windows - leaded lights, doorways and gates became more decorative, and the confusion with Art Deco began.
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Semi-detached Restrained Moderne houses in Richmond, Surrey.
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A detached Restrained Moderne house, showing clean lines, but tiled roof.
Hollywood Moderne
There is some debate about whether a style called Hollywood Moderne exists for houses in the UK. There was clearly a phenomenon of larger Restrained Moderne houses built in the late 1930s that adopted the styling of Hollywood Boulevard - sweeping driveways, green or blue pantiles on the roof, and balconies with ArtDeco flourishes. Hollywood Moderne was a style that lent itself to larger, detached houses with a nouveau-riche pretension to movie grandeur.
Streamline Moderne
In the US Hollywood Moderne evolved as a more formulaic architectural style that chose trains and boats as its inspiration. Its highpoint was skyscrapers like the Chrysler Building in New York.
See Also
TumblaWiki Is My House 'Art Deco'?
FlickrGroup: Modernist Houses Of The 1930s
Docomomo - Dedicated to The Moderne Movement
References
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