Apr 30, 2025 | 1990s, 2020s, Uncategorized, Week 5
SUMMARY:
Hilde Heynen’s analysis of the modern interior felt very critical. To me, it highlighted the lifeless quality that modern interiors tend to have. The death of life in these spaces comes from the loss of comfort. First, comfort is lost in the overuse of windows, which always puts the home’s interior on display. Secondly, the lack of personal decoration removes the homeowner’s intimate connection to the space.
If you have ever been in a glass box of a home in the dead of night then you might be able to understand how comfort is lost when there is too many windows. When all the lights are on at night and you can’t see out, but you know that anyone passing by can see you perfectly well..it’s a very disturbing feeling. Thank goodness for curtains.
Figure 1. An image of a modern interior with neutral colors and large windows, showing the design of modern homes. The Spruce. Ashlyn Needham. April 5 2025.
Losing the ability to personally decorate your home kills a space by being too still. Living is to move around and change. For example, as people age, their needs for space change. A baby needs a quiet place to sleep, a teenager needs privacy, and an adult might want to host parties. Each stage of life needs to be decorated and altered depending on the owner’s needs.
Figure 2. Living Room Space
House Beautiful, 1991, No. 9-12, pg. 107
Apr 30, 2025 | 1920s, 2010s, 2020s, reaction paper, Uncategorized, Week 4
Summary
During a time when architecture (along with the majority of professional fields) was male-dominated, House Beautiful and other “Shelter Magazines” gave women a medium to contribute to the field of design. In the 1920s, women were beginning to attend architecture schools, including Lin Huiyin. Lin Huiyin was the first Chinese woman to study architecture in the United States and completed her education at the University of Pennsylvania. While women were able to attend school, it was not yet socially acceptable for them to work, restricting Lin and similar women from directly applying their education. Instead, many women took to writing and worked for architectural publications like House Beautiful as a means of influencing and interacting with the field of architecture. It is not known if Lin herself read House Beautiful; however, some of the women in her circle did and took part in writing the and in some capacity influenced Lin’s career. House Beautiful played a vital role in providing a space for women to contribute to and work in architecture and paved the way for future women to enter the workforce.
Historical Case – House Beautiful Volume 56
The case from House Beautiful comes from the July 1924 issue and was written by Ethel Power. At the time Power was the editor in chief of House Beautiful and she serves as a key example of a woman in architecture during the 1920s. While she could not practice at a firm, she was able to contribute through writing and critique.
Figure 1. Commentary on a prominent home renovation project in House Beautiful written by Ethel Power. House Beautiful 1924, no. 56, p. 462.
Current Case – Kazuyo Sejima
Kazuyo Sejima is a Pritzker Prize-winning architect from Japan. Sejima, who began her career in 1981, has worked on numerous celebrated projects in and out of Japan, including the Glass Pavilion in Toledo, Ohio, the Sumida Hokusai Museum in Tokyo, and the New Museum in New York City. Her acclaim and accolades are indicative of how the role of women in professional settings has changed significantly. From previously being restricted from architecture firms to now running their own, women have come a long way in architecture, in part thanks to early efforts from women like Ethel Power and publications like House Beautiful that established a place for women in the field.
Figure 2. Kazuyo Sejima’s Grace Farms River Building in New Canaan, CT; An example of her modern, dynamic, and innovative style. Image courtesy of: ArchDaily.
Apr 25, 2025 | 1920s, 2020s, reaction paper, Uncategorized, Week 3
Summary
In the article Elsie de Wolfe and her female clients, 1905-15, Penny Sparke asserts that Elsie de Wolfe helped to create the female-dominated profession of interior decoration as we know it today by providing wealthy, upper-class women with distinctly feminine and refined spaces. She utilized her professional connections with elite women to grow her network and develop her reputation as a tasteful decorator, eventually expanding her career and influence and enabling women to be paid for their traditional jobs as decorators of the home. While she may not have fought against feminine design stereotypes, she still inspired a professional environment where femininity was appreciated. A key example of this was her work for the Colony Club from 1905 to 1907, where she designed and curated a new interior for the all-women social club. She was then able to use this momentum to undertake more professional projects for women and gain notoriety in high society for her elegant taste, turning her former hobby into a successful career.
Historical Case
“Rooms Exhibited by the Women Decorators’ Club.” House Beautiful, Aug. 1929, pp. 146–147.
The interiors shown in House Beautiful by the Women’s Decorators’ Club utilize a geographically and historically varied blend of styles with a lighter palette, a key signature of Elsie de Wolfe’s projects. The spread was composed for the August 1929 issue —just shortly after the height of de Wolfe’s career— making it likely influenced by de Wolfe’s style. The role of women as the chief decorators of this project was also likely impacted by de Wolfe’s professional and public presence.
Figure 1 – An interior designed by the Women Decorators’ Club with a variety of textiles and styles. House Beautiful Aug. 1929, pg. 147.
Current Case
Sheila Bridges is a modern example of a female interior designer creating unique, sophisticated, and expressive spaces. Her interiors feature a variety of styles and references, usually with vibrant pops of color and bold patterns. Bridges often incorporates pieces from numerous eras of design and references to her African American identity —seen in her own personal home, The Hay House. During her career she has worked with numerous influential public figures, including former president Bill Clinton and former vice president Kamala Harris.
Figure 2 – Sheila Bridge’s “Hay House” in Hudson, NY; Eclectic furnishings with vibrant pops of color. Image courtesy of: The New York Times.
Comparison
Both examples come from prominent designers that intelligently incorporate several historical references and their own identities. In the case of the Women Decorators’ Club, the female designers followed the example of de Wolfe, incorporating their femininity into their work through their use of a brighter palette and floral patterns. In the case of Sheila Bridges, she frequently refers to historicist styles as well as her Black identity, shown by her use of Black art. In some aspects, this expression of personal identity in interior design also goes back to de Wolfe, albeit in a different, more complex and nuanced way distinct to her.
Apr 23, 2025 | Uncategorized
SUMMARY:
To summarize the article “Lin Huiyin, House Beautiful, and Women’s Place in Architectural Culture in the United States in the 1920s”, the influence House Beautiful magazine had on women’s roles in architecture was enormous. First by giving women a place to express their professional opinions on architecture and design through writing and secondly by making the magazine accessible to and targeted towards women. This woman-to-woman advertising helped define architecture and interior design as a place where women could thrive, in some cases more greatly than their male counterparts.
Women with degrees in architecture were not publicly accepted as professional architects. It wasn’t until House Beautiful gave them an opportunity to be recognized individually and with professional opinions that multiple women grew famous, all thanks to their educated writing published in House Beautiful magazine. Rose Greely, Lucy D. Taylor, and Lucy Monroe Calhoun are just a few of the authors who were able to publish professional observations of landscape, architecture, and interior design.
The works of these authors were well-recognized and shared by many women at the time. Author Kathleen James-Chakraborty writes about the influence of these writers by following the story of Chinese student Lin Huiyin and references House Beautiful throughout the entire reading as a piece of media that Lin Huiyin would have certainly been introduced to, even though she almost certainly faced discrimination in America. This highlights the widespread influence that House Beautiful had and, more importantly, the widespread influence that educated female architects had on other women at the time.
APPLICATION:
Representation of a womans work by House Beautiful in 2025:
House Beautiful Article, 2025 (https://www.housebeautiful.com/design-inspiration/house-tours/a64423411/adam-wagner-monterey-county-california-home-tour/)
article by: Kate Mccgreggor
This article, posted by House Beautiful just last week, is featured on the main page of their website. It is authored by Kate McCgreggor, an educated woman whose work is advertised on the House Beautiful website.
In this much earlier edition of House Beautiful, another female designer is promoted; Elsie DeWolfe
Apr 23, 2025 | Uncategorized
A common theme throughout the article is that House Beautiful, a magazine largely circulated in the 1920s, played a significant role in shaping the culture surrounding the relationship between architecture/design and women. The magazine created an outlet for women to engage with design through appreciation or creation, with the help of influential figures like Lin Huiyin. This occurred in a period when education and professional practice in the field excluded the majority of women, filling a much-needed space.
Figures like Lin Huiyin represent House Beautiful’s impact on women. After being denied the opportunity to gain a professional degree in architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, she pursued alternative education and validation methods within the pages of House Beautiful. She used this exposure to highlight traditional Chinese and American architecture and honor the contributions of famous women in the arts (Verna Cook Salomonsky and Lois Lilley Howe). Strong female examples created role models for women readers as they learned how to navigate a male-dominated field.
The magazine also functioned as a leap into the literary field for some female contributors. Editors like Ethel Power and writers like Catherine Drinker Bowen used the magazine as a starting point for a broader influence. House Beautiful represented a critical intersection point between gender and architecture, providing a sense of female agency in design.
A contemporary case following the themes based on Huiyin’s time in House Beautiful is the work of architect Jeanne Gang, specifically her Aqua Tower in Chicago. Gang’s practice creates a creative space for women to shape the built environment, a modern equivalent of what House Beautiful promoted in the 1920s. Aqua Towers is a sculptural and sustainable skyscraper, merging function/human-centric design with 
artistic vision. Gang’s huge contribution to Chicago’s skyline demonstrates architecture as a profession and cultural narrative shaped by women’s perspectives.
Figure 1. Human view of the Aqua Tower in Chicago. Photo by New York Times
A historical case from the print archives of House Beautiful is the work of Lillian Burleigh Miner, featured in the 1926 issue. Miner was an architect and furniture designer whose work represented the Colonial Revival spirit that House Beautiful advocated. Her pieces often highlighted craftsmanship, restraint, and historical reference, bridging tradition and modern domestic life, which the magazine’s efforts stressed. By showcasing Miner’s furniture and interior work, House Beautiful validated her role as a serious designer at a time when women’s contributions were often overlooked. For Lin Huiyin, encountering such profiles would have offered a powerful model of how women could influence architecture not just through buildings, but through the objects and aesthetics that shaped everyday life.
Figure 2. Example of Miners Written Work, House Beautiful 1920, pg. 42.
Apr 20, 2025 | Uncategorized
Sum: In her article “Leaving Traces: Anonymity in the Modernist House”, Hilde Heynen explores the concept of anonymity in modernist architecture, particularly in residential design. She examines how modernist houses, often associated with icons like Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, were designed to eliminate personal identity and cultural references. These homes embraced minimalism, with clean lines, open spaces, and functional design, rejecting ornamentation and individual expression. Heynen argues that the modernist house, with its anonymous and impersonal nature, sought to create a universal space for all people, transcending specific cultural or personal identities. However, this anonymity also led to a loss of individual traces, turning the house into a generic space that did not reflect the personal lives or history of its inhabitants. She contrasts this with older, more traditional homes that were rich with personal touches and cultural specificity, making the modernist house’s emphasis on anonymity a key shift in architectural design. Heynen’s analysis suggests that the desire for a universal, impersonal aesthetic in modernist architecture came at the cost of individual identity, leaving behind “traces” of its occupants’ absence rather than their presence. This tension between universality and individuality remains a defining characteristic of modernist design, influencing both architecture and interior design practices today.
Crit: While Heynen critiques modernist architecture for promoting anonymity and erasing personal identity, this interpretation overlooks a more critical aspect of minimalist design—it is, in fact, highly prescriptive and controlling. The minimalist ethos, with its emphasis on clean lines, sparse decor, and a uniform, uncluttered space, presents an ideal that can feel restrictive rather than liberating. Rather than offering a “blank canvas” for personal expression, it imposes a standardized vision of what a home should be, where simplicity and functionality become the ultimate goals. This emphasis on universality often leaves little room for individual interpretation or deviation from the ideal, dictating how people should live and inhabit space. In this sense, minimalist design is not as much about personal freedom or an authentic way of living as it is about enforcing a rigid set of aesthetic and functional values. Modernist homes, while seemingly a break from traditional norms, actually prescribe a new set of constraints. The emphasis on clean, impersonal design values the abstract over the personal, effectively shaping the way inhabitants are meant to relate to their surroundings—detached, ordered, and devoid of emotional or cultural clutter. Rather than being a space for individual identity, the minimalist home becomes a controlled fascist environment that reflects a desire for uniformity and control, not freedom or self-expression. The insidious truth: minimalist design isn’t neutral—it’s bossy. The so-called “blank canvas” of modernist homes is less about freedom and more about following a strict set of design commandments. Thou shalt not clutter. Thou shalt not ornament. Thou shalt definitely not hang that weird painting your aunt gave you. What’s presented as serene and liberating is, in reality, a tightly controlled aesthetic regime that tells you exactly how to live (quietly, cleanly, and preferably in beige). Modernism didn’t just reject the past. it installed a new rulebook that comes with a built-in judgment: mess is moral failure, color and culture are suspect, and personal mementos? Tacky. Minimalist spaces love to pretend they’re above all that messy human stuff (emotion, memory, actual living). But they’re not blank canvases, they’re echo chambers of elitist taste. And if you feel uncomfortable or out of place in one? That’s not an accident. It’s design.
Ex: Historical Case,Farnsworth House (1951, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe). The Farnsworth House is a modernist icon: pristine, glass-walled, floating in nature. But behind the aesthetic purity lies a cautionary tale. Designed by Mies van der Rohe, the house offered its inhabitant, Dr. Edith Farnsworth, little privacy, zero storage, and no tolerance for disorder. Though hailed as a triumph of minimalist design, the home was deeply impractical—and Farnsworth herself was openly critical of its unlivability. It didn’t reflect her life; it erased it. What was sold as elegant simplicity was, in practice, an architectural straightjacket—minimalism that demanded maximum conformity. Contemporary Case, The Apple Store Aesthetic in Residential Design Today, we see a similar form of aesthetic authoritarianism in the rise of the “Apple Store” home: interiors dominated by white walls, sleek surfaces, and carefully controlled clutter. Think matte finishes, invisible storage, and homes that look like no one’s ever cooked in them. This aesthetic, popularized by social media influencers and tech-driven branding, pushes a hyper-controlled vision of beauty and success. Like the Farnsworth House, it pretends to offer calm and clarity, but only if you agree to live like your furniture might be photographed at any moment. No chaos, no color, no crumbs. Minimalism is “freedom”, but only if your version of freedom includes hiding your personality in a drawer.
Figure 1. The Threat to the Next America
House Beautiful, April 1953
Elizabeth Gordon
Figure 1. Apple Store, Barcelona, by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Barcelona, Spain.
CRC, 2019
https://civilarchitectureconstruction.blogspot.com/2019/02/worlds-breathtaking-architectural-apple.html