The house designs of today reflect the eclectic range of tastes of modern homeowners, with styles that range from the classic Victorian to the ultra contemporary European style and everything in between. There is still a specific type of home design that is considered specifically “modern,” however, which is distinctly separate from any other styles such as Southwestern, Spanish, Tuscan or Colonial. Modern house plans are inspired by the modern art movement that also infiltrated the architectural movement of the latter half of the 20th century. This style is still exceedingly popular today.
The home plans of the modernist movement embody the sense of rebellion against previous styles, aesthetics and methods of more classical movements. These home floor plans are hard to categorize, as the modern movement went on for approximately 60 years and incorporated many different architectural styles such as Arts & Crafts, Ranch and Art Deco. The stars of the modern architecture movement are still the most well known names in this art form, though. Architectural giants such as Frank Lloyd Wright in the United States, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in Germany and Le Corbusier in Switzerland made this movement the popular success that it was, and their works and influences live on today.
There are several elements that distinguish modern house plans from any other types of homes. The floor plans include open living spaces, for starters, thanks to Wright’s influence. He believed that separate rooms obstructed the natural flow of living. You can still find floor plans with very open spaces for entertaining, relaxing and dining, as well as other modern factors such as large plate-glass windows and outdoor patio areas. Outdoor spaces are integral to many of the home floor plans that you see today, as they provide more usable living space and allow for a blending of the outdoors and the indoors. The modern home design also tends to utilize a lot of clean lines and geometric shapes without a lot of unnecessary decoration within the architecture itself. Materials like steel, glass and concrete are also more common in modern house designs, as opposed to the natural stone, wood and plaster of traditional homes.
Home plans inspired by the modern movement put function before form and utilize wide open spaces to inspire a sense of community among the inhabitants, although some might say the utilitarian nature of these homes is not very homey. But today it is possible to find floor plans that take many of the ideas of the modernist movement and combine them with some other classic ideals to create a contemporary look that is all your own.