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In Western architecture, aliving room, also called alounge room (Australian English[1]),lounge (British English[2]),sitting room (British English[3]), ordrawing room, is aroom for relaxing and socializing in aresidentialhouse orapartment. Such a room is sometimes called afront room when it is near the main entrance at the front of the house. In large, formal homes, a sitting room is often a small private living area adjacent to a bedroom, such as theQueens' Sitting Room and theLincoln Sitting Room of theWhite House.[4]
In the late 19th or early 20th century,Edward Bok advocated using the termliving room for the room then commonly called aparlo[u]r ordrawing room, and is sometimes erroneously credited with inventing the term. It is now a term used more frequently when referring to a space to relax and unwind within a household. Within different parts of the world, living rooms are designed differently and evolving, but all share the same purpose, to gather users in a comfortable space.
Inhomes that lack aparlour orfamily room, the living room may also function as adrawing room for guests.[5] Objects in living rooms may be used "to instigate and mediate contemplation about significant others, as well as to regulate the amount of intimacy desired with guests."[6]
A typical Western living room may contain furnishings such as acouch,chairs, occasionaltables,coffee tables,bookshelves,televisions,electric lamps, rugs, or otherfurniture. Depending on climate, sitting rooms would traditionally contain afireplace, dating from when this was necessary for heating. In a Japanese sitting room, called awashitsu, the floor is covered withtatami, sectioned mats, on which people can sit comfortably. They also typically consist ofshoji,fusuma, and ramas which allow for the space to be very minimalistic and cohesive.[7] Japanese living room design concepts contradicted UK and New Zealand ideals in the way that Japanese culture believed in warming the person, instead of the home. This consisted of owning a portablehibachi for cooking needs rather than heating needs, meanwhile people in the UK and New Zealand used fireplaces to warm the space and not for cooking needs. Japanese cultural belief systems affected their design characteristics in the way that ornamentation should be minimal while incorporating natural elements.[8]
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Until the late 19th century, the frontparlour was the room in the house used for formal social events, including where the recent deceased were laid out before their funeral. This room had only traditionally been used on Sundays or for formal occasions such as the ceremonies of deceased family members before proper burial; it was the buffer zone between the public and private area within the house. Sundays are now more typically used for watching football on large color televisions causing larger family rooms to become more popular during the 1970s.[9] The term "living room" is found initially in the decorating literature of the 1890s, where a living room is understood to be a reflection of the personality of the designer, rather than the Victorian conventions of the day.[10] Only the wealthy were able to afford several rooms within a space such asparlors,libraries,drawing rooms, andsmoking rooms.[11]
The change in terminology is credited toEdward Bok due to his accreditation of the magazine article,Ladies' Home Journal. The article was specifically targeted to women and provided them with reliance of popular content in relation to home design at an affordable price and Bok's vision of the ideal American household and the roles of the women. Bok strongly believed that the space should be "lived in" rather than having an expensively furnished room that was rarely used within the household. He had promoted the new name to encourage people to use the room in their daily lives as a gathering space.
Interior designers and architects throughout time have continuously studied users within a space to design to best fit their needs and wants. King of France,Louis XIV’sPalace of Versailles can be considered having one of the most lavishly decorated living rooms in the late 1600s. During King Louis XIV's reign, the architecturalLouis XIV style orLouis Quatorze was established. This style can also be identified as the FrenchClassicism and had an influence on other countries.[12] It included the bold use of marble and bronze materials. Louis XIV worked alongsideLouis Le Vau andAugustin-Charles d’Aviler to designappartments de parade, otherwise known as formal rooms that usually consisted of discussing and conducting business matters. They also designed,appartements de commodité, which were rooms that the homeowners could relax and lounge in.[13] This style, known as theLouis XV style, orLouis Quinze, was designed intentionally to combine formality with a new level of comfort.[14]Charles Étienne Briseux, French architect whose architectural style was prominently Louis Quinze, publishedArchitecture moderne ou L’art de bien bâtir in 1728, introduced comfort which later became an obsession to have specific materiality and furnishings within the interior of a space. Its influenced began in Paris, France, and then quickly spread across Europe reaching the attention of the wealthy and lavish.
TheIndustrial Revolution emerged in the late 1700s which completely shifted America from an artisan and handmade process to a society that was dominated by a machine manufacturing industry.[15] This allowed the production of chairs, tables, light bulbs, telegraphs, and radios that allowed society to purchase at a reasonable price to add into their home. The rise of the Industrial Revolution played a huge role in the advancement of the living room because due tomass production, decorative items became more available to the middle class.
An example of this evolution is theMiller House designed byEero Saarinen. Saarinen knew that he wanted to design a living room not only with an appropriate architectural style but to feature "conversation pit" that sunk users to the ground making them feel a bit more "grounded."[13] It encouraged relaxation and conversing which the Miller House was one of the first spaces to celebrate and introduce the conversation pit.[16] The Miller House's architectural style was known asMid-century modern, this indicated that it was introduced afterWorld War II between 1945 and 1960. The movement was associated with minimal ornamentation, simplicity, honest materials, and craftsmanship.
Romanesque (800–200):[17]
Gothic (1100–1450):
Renaissance (1400–1450):
Baroque (1600–1830):
Rococo (1650–1790):
Neoclassicism (1730–1925):
Art Nouveau (1890–1914):
Beaux Arts (1895–1925):
Neo-Gothic (1905–1930):
Art Deco (1925–1937):
Modernist Styles (1900–present):
Postmodernism (1972–present):
Neo-Modernism (1997–present):
Parametricism (1997–present):
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