Apropos of nothing: One of the wildest degradations of meaning in the last few decades is "luxury."
"Luxury" homes have the same appointments as everyone else's, by and large due to for-profit home-building. There is zero artisan involvement in, like.
Anything.
And Minimalism! The complete victory of Minimalism, which means engineered and machine-finished materials EVERYWHERE. Glass, laminate, steel. Again: The same materials used in everyone else's homes. But LESS of it. So they CHARGE YOU MORE.
Wild.
Compare Carson Mansion, built in 1886, to a modern estate.
Even if you don't dig Victorian architecture, you have to admit there is MUCH more artisan involvement in Carson.
Whereas the La Jolla house has plaster, engineered wood, and concrete. Way cheaper. And we're conditioned to accept it.
"But Spike, human labor is much more expensive than it used to be."
Yeah, no, that modern mansion is $32 million. Anyone who could buy that abomination could hire a sculptor to carve some Art Nouveau crown molding. We've just been programmed to no longer consider artisan finishing as luxury.
Actually there are! I go to life drawing with one (carves custom marble fireplaces/mantelpieces) and it's wild to hear him talk about his job. Also got to know a Roman-trained chisel-and-hammer stone letterer. It's a feast or famine life but what jobs there are pay well
I have a friend that is presently restoring a second empire house, and the answer is yes, but it's very niche.
And they tend to be nerds about it that do things like collect period specific woodworking tools.
I worked with a master blacksmith, one guy, who would install these incredible pieces into people’s homes.
Entire staircase railings of metal, shaped into grape vines, with leaves and grape clusters.
If unable to find someone to carve wood it IS possible to recreate it with plaster, either using molds or building it up by hand.
Hell, you can even use multiple kinds of ready made trim stacked up to look fancy. Not art nouveau but still really nice.
I also have a feeling that too many “nice house” owners now consider bespoke furnishings to hurt their property’s resale value.
My mother watches both French and US house renovation TV shows, and to paraphrase her: the former feel like they’re working on homes, while the latter work on investments.
The irony is the real luxury isn't the crown molding or a minimalist design, it's affording the staff to keep it clean.
The conditioning of luxury to be associated with commodity goods is to convince people to be happy with consumption. Don't eat the rich, you can have the same dishwasher as them.
Your comment critiques stylistic differences. The house in La Jolla isn’t an abomination to everyone, but it seems to offend you. Be truthful and ask yourself why, it will inevitably lead to certain biases engrained in you as a person, which is fine, BTW, because that’s why we have opinions. 😉
A post-modernity return to finishings and decoration in architecture and goods has been kind of a vague theme in a lot of my projects, and now something I actively look for. The Neo Andean style is pretty hot stuff in that direction!
One of my idle pastimes is to look at million dollar plus houses in my area to determine why anyone would pay that price, and rarely do I see one where I go, “ah, I get it”.
"Luxury" = spend money like the wealthy to pretend you're wealthy. There is no greater aspiration for the plebs than being just like their bosses, and their wealthy role models. Everything's fine here. It's fine. Look ... you can afford a 'luxury.' Therefore, you are fine and everything's fine.
I'm wondering how long it will be before we start seeing "concierge" homes.
Like, you'll have to pay a small monthly fee (on top of your mortgage to the lender) for the whole time you own your home or they'll press a button at headquarters and your home collapses.
sadly the hyper-minimalist interiors actually require a lot of skill to produce. speaking as someone who has fancy fuckin drywall and no trim, even around windows and no trim at the floor either. trim hides errors. it’s practically why it was invented
My kingdom to build a house now with the craftsmanship of a Victorian home, or hell, the epitome "Craftsman" home, with all the modern bells and whistles. Give me real, actual made-to-last custom everything instead of cheap, fast fashion of architecture.
Only nice Victorians were made with real craftsmanship. 😬 (I can say it, I live in a janky one! Some good materials in it, but mostly because they cut down every nearby old growth forest to make ‘em.) Still haven’t seen a poorly made Craftsman, though.
If I was mega rich, I’d have one of those art nouveau homes where absolutely every detail is custom designed and hand-crafted to be artistically in harmony, and it’s all made to look like plants and bugs and things
There's a lot of survivorship bias here- a poorly built house from 1880 fell over before 1950 while a cathedral from 1500 is effectively immortal. There are houses being built now that will last 100 years but they aren't being built by Toll Bros.
I’ve been thinking recently about how luxury goods aren’t luxurious anymore. You know what’s cheap for car companies to do? Put hvac controls in the touchscreen! Way cheaper than using physical knobs. But somehow that’s seen as futuristic when it’s literally more difficult to use!
A quibble: you're comparing a bespoke mansion to spec mansions. The 1886 reflected the tastes of the owner, the 2024 monstrosities are designed to appeal to those with no taste. The luxury you seek, by your definition, is not advertised to prospective buyers as it has already been bought & paid for.
Every beloved art style throughout history is the result of people being conditioned to see it as attractive. Impressionism was seen as vulgar until folks got used to it. My suspicion is that there will be a backlash to modernism and AI art that will embrace more handcrafted work.
The one the left looks like you might lose track of time in the library. The one on the right looks like you might get lost forever trying to find a bathroom near the computer cluster.
