Private Bedrooms And Open Bathrooms - How Times Have Changed

Moving on from private houses that had separated uses and retreated from the outside, modern Australian housing design allows for "communal space and privacy, comfort but not excess" and communication with the world.

January 12, 2004, 6am PST | Abhijeet Chavan | @legalaidtech

Rather than creating larger houses with more specialised-function rooms, Helen Greenwood examines almost "a return to a medieval concept of space" -- the creation of more fluid spaces that reflect our needs and desires. She traces the changing attitude from the multi-use rooms of medieval times and Renaissance Italy through to the private rooms that emerged out of the Enlightenment and dominated 19th and 20th century housing design. Reflecting upon Le Corbusier's house as a "machine for living", Bachelard's house of/for dreams, and the 1999 New York Museum of Modern Art exhibition "The Un-Private House", she examines modern Australian housing design. Australian architect Peter Stutchbury sees homes becoming more like "temporal shelters" with connected spaces that can all open and be shared by the family. Greenwood explores how this is being reflected in our modern private bedrooms, technological living rooms, open bathrooms and the centre of communication our kitchen/dining areas.

Thanks to Charlotte Fitzgerald

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Less privacy, please

Published on Saturday, January 10, 2004 in The Sydney Morning Herald