I was recently contacted by a gentleman who is changing careers.
He's confident in his decision but not his current wardrobe.
He asked for some suggestions on where to start.
These tips are gender-neutral!
Let's start here:
I brought up the topic of separate bedrooms this morning, only to be greeted with, 'Should we each have our own house, too?' Geesh, sensitive.
Architectural trends reflect our culture, but how far do these trends reflect our instincts?
My first thought was that the shared bedroom is a socioeconomic thing—lots of money = lots of house. Not so much money = not so much home.
You know what I'm talking about, so let's not go into tiny house living choices or the cost of a 435 s.f. apartment in Vancouver because I'm simply talking about the concept of the shared bedroom.
My second thought - brought into fruition by a comment regarding prudery - is an image of a lovely Homo erectus couple snuggled up under a muskox blanket in front of their amber-hued, crackling cave fire. The shared bedroom now becomes a mammalian instinct.
Stay warm, stay safe, and have sex (in whichever preferred order).
My next thought - is Lucy and Ricky's bedroom - sure, it was fictional (somewhat), and they were shown in separate beds due to TV regulations of the 1950s. Still, I'd argue that it was actually the result of the continuous evolution of Western socioeconomic and mammalian instinctual concepts.
Okay, let's leave it at that - I want my own bedroom, and ignorance is bliss.
I'm in a dysfunctional relationship - with West Vancouver. I moved out of West Van in July. I was getting too bitter about the clash of ideas concerning housing, being ripped off in rent, and all the bloody traffic on Marine Drive. Well, I'm moving back.
Turns out I'm not the only one that's getting fed up, though:
West Vancouver Council moved unanimously to commence community consultation and draft a bylaw addressing form and character in West Vancouver homes. Jeremy Shepherd, North Shore News.
You can watch the 'boisterous' council meeting on video and read the full meeting agenda from October 20th here.
Thanks to Brent Richter's Twitter feed for bringing this meeting to my attention.
I touched on this topic in February 2014 when West Van held its first public Info Session. What came from the Info Sessions were recommendations from West Vancouver's Manager of Community Planning, Stephen Mikicich. You can read those recommendations from June 2014 here.
So, back to the title of the post. Which significant home is gone? Well, it's Dan White's Vernacular Orchard Way home that I've posted many times about (search Dan White at the top of the search box). Mr. White is also the architect of the Museum of Vancouver just finished a retrospective on.
I can't help but see the correlation between what's happening in West Vancouver and what Alan Weintraub and Alan Hess discuss in their book Forgotten Modern: California Houses 1940-1970.
Except for a few hometown architects (Whitney Smith, Harwell Hamilton Harris) and a few stray writers and professors (Jean Murray Bangs, Jack Hillmer, Esther McCoy), almost no one knew of them, [Charles and Henry Greene], except as relics of the past (Hess 2007, 8).
