Modern Floor Planning: A Contemporary Revival

The modern architectural style is back as a hip, contemporary style that sells. It includes signature design elements and floor plans. A big reason for this resurgence is modernist floor plans that give buyers what they want: large, light-filled open areas that connect all living spaces into one great room.

Some builders are using these principles to bring light and spaciousness into typically cramped urban townhomes. "Townhomes tend to feel long and dark," says David Carnicelli, a partner with in situ DESIGN Architecture in Denver. He says modern-style production homes weren't available in his market until three or four years ago, but they've proved popular. For example, the firm's Merchant Row project, a six-unit townhome development for the Curtis Park Investors Group, sold out within six weeks of final completion.

The project used modernist principles of "simplicity of design and open space planning," according to Carnicelli. That included making the spaces appear bigger by visually connecting them to other spaces. "We made the kitchen the center of the house and only used level separations and low divisions between spaces," he says. Living areas were separated from kitchens by two steps and a 36-inch floor cabinet. "People in the living area will still see the people in the kitchen, but won't see what's on the counter."

The design even visually connects spaces separated by walls. Merchant Row homes include centrally located, three-story light wells that bring light into the great room on the main living level. Adjacent bathrooms and bedrooms include touches of frosted glass or interior windows, so they also can receive daylight.

Another Denver-area developer using the modern style is Continuum Partners, which has built hundreds of housing units and has recently finished a townhome project adjacent to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver. Architects with Studio Completiva in Denver designed a dozen townhomes for this tight, 1.37-acre site. Its modern calling card is a close relationship between a home's interior and exterior. Main areas have well-placed expanses of glass that give them a connection to the exterior. In more private areas, views out onto planted settings, rooftop terraces, patios and balconies visually expand interior spaces.

The link between inside and outside is also clear in recent projects by Optima, a Glencoe, Ill.-based design and building firm that has completed hundreds of homes in the Chicago area, including many modern townhomes with enclosed courtyards off the bathroom. "We have floor-to-ceiling glass in bathrooms, but a fully enclosed courtyard provides privacy" while maintaining a feeling of openness, says Todd Kuhlman, one of Optima's senior design architects.

Where enclosed courtyards were not an option, Optima used frosted or sandblasted glass walls to provide privacy while bringing in light. "The treated glass still provides exterior light and an impression of expanded space," Kuhlman says.

Kuhlman claims Optima's projects typically sell quickly, which may be all the more reason a contemporary home builder needs to explore modern floor-planning concepts.