Ken Hoyt

Give me a choice and I’ll vote for fluff every time. The merely ornamental is terribly undervalued. Beauty for it’s own sake is important, and yet it requires structure or it becomes the visual equivalent of empty calories.

In a home beauty should provide the ease and comfort that make the necessary furnishings inviting and attractive. It is somewhat akin to softening a hard bench with a beautifully colored pillow. The pillow doesn’t improve the function, but it does increase the joy.

Occasionally I find myself overstimulated intoxicated numbed by the pretty pictures in the latest shelter magazines. It feels like having an explosion of bridesmaid dresses in my brain; giant fluff balls of pastel and chiffon. Pretty but useless.

It’s then that I know that I have to check in with professor, architect and writer Witold Rybczynski. He has been a touchstone since two decades ago, when I read his book, Home: A Short History of An Idea. That book explains how historical influences affected the development of the concepts of comfort and domesticity. His insight reminds me that a home isn’t a confection; it’s a structure that provides shelter and nurtures life.

Lately Rybczynski has become the architecture writer and critic for Slate. Which makes for a bounty of reading (outside the treasure trove of books), as close as my computer.

His latest trio of articles excerpt his most recent book, Last Harvest: How a Cornfield Became New Daleville: Real Estate Development in America from George Washington to the Builders of the Twenty-first Century, and Why We Live in Houses Anyway. The three articles provide a capsule version of the book beginning with Why Do We Live in Houses, Anyway? A brief history of the home. Next he gives his take on a modern curiosity: The Ranch House Anomaly; How America fell in and out of love with them. The last installation is a slide show covering the process of building a new community: How a Cornfield Became New Daleville; Building a town from scratch.

Still and all I love pretty rooms, gorgeous fabrics and stylish furnishings. Rybczynski just makes me feel a little smarter about it.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Anti-spam text: (Required)*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security text shown in the picture. Click here to regenerate some new text.