what will be the original features of the houses being built today?

[DiaDuit]

apart from magnolia paint.

I'm watching LLL and they are talking about how a house has had the original features removed, cornicing, fireplaces, ceiling roses etc. I know lots of people restore houses and put back the features that have been removed over the years and I'm wondering what original features they will talk about in 100 years when referring to houses being built now.

any ideas? new houses all seem very bland and samey to me. I cant pinpoint anything that would be considered 'of it's time' (now) in 100 or even 50 years.

I think a nostalgia and desire for period features is in itself a period feature. So stripped floorboards, restored sash windows, re-opened fireplaces... it'll be known as Neo-Victorian.

It's because we're much less optimistic about the future than we were in the 20s through 60s. They wanted new, modernist, futuristic architecture and features because they thought we were moving to a better future. Instead, we want to look back to past, to live in a "better time". When Georgian and Victorian houses were built, Britain was one of the leading countries in the world so the architecture reflected that. Now we're struggling as a nation, with our ambitions reduced, so we look back to old days to recreate signs of elegance and social status.

Easy to heat
Easy to clean
Easy to maintain

We've moved from a large feature full house with a huge garden to a "featureless low quality box " with an EPC rating B. It's well planned with well proportioned rooms.

We have more money and more time. It feels like the house is looking after us rather than us looking after it.

Most houses built today won't be standing in 100 years

Coloured glass splashbacks in the kitchen. Also my builder tried to convince me that this 3D panelling thing was the next big thing today - when I pointed out this was clearly the artex of the future he shrugged...I guess it will keep him busy in 15 years time when everyone wants it removed!

Window shutters? (Not the original 'period' shutters but those ones you get in John Lewis)

Sliderobes (or equiv)?

This is a moot point really, as things have changed since then.

It's like saying what music style is going to be reminiscent of the 2010s..well all of them are completely ubiquitous now. Music isn't evolving like it was, in giant leaps - it's still evolving of course but most stuff has 'been done' in the context of the instruments and technology we have now.

Houses then were built with a different ethos. These days it is all about maximising the number of houses or flats that can be crammed in, while in those days there was far more land to spare, families were larger but the industrial revolution was still ongoing and people were excited by new stuff they could use, methods they could employ, while maintaining the artistry and care and SKILL that was used in building these homes.

You don't get new builds using hand crafted hard wood windows with decorative run through, hand carved key stone, hand carved stone mullions and hand made stained glass in the doors.

It just wouldn't be plausible in terms of cost. Houses then were built as works of art and deserve to be treated as such.

These days a home is just for function really, with a bit of prettiness thrown in if it's affordable enough. But there is very little skilled work involved, very little art.

Thinking of the best stuff from the current era, I guess you have to look at the individually designed homes being built at massive cost to private architect specs, the sort of modern beauty you see on Grand Designs - the walls of glass, the state of the art finishes, some of the most beautiful buildings in London for example (the aubergine etc).

I hate to say it but most modern builds are just run of the mill boring boxes, which can be fantastic homes if you just want suitability for purpose, but the features themselves are non existent. It's the ethos, and the functionality, that may well be celebrated in years to come - effective heatings systems for one thing. Stuff like that.

I'm not deriding functionality btw, I applaud it. It just isn't contained within the discrete parts of present era buildings.

Things needed to become this way and that's why I don't dislike modern buildings, as long as they are built with good materials and common sense so that they are superb homes.

A Victorian or Georgian house though is in a different league. No one's going to be paying millions in 100 years for an original wall with fantastic graffiti art on it, because this is a transitory art. It's ubiquitous and relatively easy to come across. That doesn't devalue it in the Now. But it won't last like an incredible oil painting will last, like a Victorian marble fireplace will last.

Modernity is about living as best we can and it is a continuously moving thing. A product of artistry is something that should be preserved but you can't preserve an ethos.

Those rectangular wall tiles are a throwback to the 1930s.

We had them in our first house and made the mistake of taking them off the kitchen wall - they were set in concrete and we had to replaster the wall. In the bathroom we tiled over them - hangs head in shame as we used crystal vein tiles Pleased to say that we used a sort of caramel colour with a white bathroom suite and tiled the floor with cork tiles, so we avoided a coloured bathroom suite.

In the 90s we had a whisper pink bathroom suite with a corner bath. The design of the bath was brilliant as it had a small upstand that fitted against the wall. This meant that the tiles went down over it, and so there was none of the mess of having to renew the sealant around the bath.

We then moved to a 90s house and the previous owner had installed a pale grey suite in a north-facing bathroom. It always felt cold in there, despite warm colours for towels.

I loved my sepia bathroom suite, back in the day. And it was cheap - for some reason no-one wanted to buy a brown toilet, basin and bath

we had a pink suite in a newish build house and liked it.