Modernist homes are more than just a collection of sleek, glass boxes. The design style is meant to blend with surrounding landscapes and reflect the homeowner’s desires. As a result, the authors of two new books, “Hudson Modern: Residential Landscapes” and “Texas Made/Texas Modern: the House and the Land,” concluded that modernist homes across the United States have tended to reflect regional differences. The Associated Press’ Katherine Roth explains more details on how they may differ.
Unlike modernism elsewhere in the country, Texans favored hand-crafted details, and local features like thick walls made of Mexican-style "Saint Joe brick"; screened-in porches; patios; and narrow connectors between spaces known as "dog trots."
In the woodsy Hudson River Valley in the Northeast, on the other hand, the aesthetic is quite different. Winters can be long and cold, summers muggy, and many of the architects and homeowners live, or have lived, in nearby New York City.
"Glass doesn't do the greatest job of keeping out the weather. And sometimes what you want is some opacity and some solid surfaces, to feel protected from the elements," Sokol says. "There's a poetic and a spiritual need as well. If there's a snowstorm brewing outside you might not want to be in a glass house. And it gets hot there in the summer."
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