The living room has been transformed in the past half century. Once a formal room reserved for adults or for receiving guests, through technology it has evolved into a casual setting where much of family life is played out.
“Over the past 50 years, the distinction between different living spaces has become blurred,” says Zoe Hendon, head of collections at Middlesex University’s Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture. She says that a major impact on the layout and design of living rooms was technological advancements making the arrival of central heating possible.
Family life used to be huddled into one room as people gathered around a fire to keep warm. The arrival of central heating meant living areas in homes could be expanded and different rooms adapted for different uses.
At the start of the 1960s, only 5% of UK homes had central heating. By 1971, that number had risen to 34%, and a decade later it had almost doubled again.
Central heating technology itself has come a long way since. Latest developments such as the Hive thermostat mean the temperature of your home can be controlled remotely and easily using an app on your smartphone. Whereas the thermostat itself was once a bland box that was hidden out of sight, it can now be displayed proudly as part of the room’s aesthetic. The Hive thermostat is intended to be as beautiful as any other device in the room, says its designer Yves Béhar of fuseproject.
Technology has also improved the way homeowners interact with their homes. The Hive thermostat has been designed to be user-friendly. “The challenge was much more than making something beautiful or different, but making something usable, truly functional for everyone in the household,” Béhar explains.
Central heating helped usher in the craze for “loft-style” open-plan living spaces, as bigger spaces could now be kept warm. Underfloor heating became popular because the new open-plan layouts had few walls on which to attach radiators.
Open-plan was achieved by knocking through living rooms and dining rooms to create a big family room and entertainment space, ideal for parties to gather around TVs to enjoy sporting occasions and favourite family programmes.
The arrival of the TV played a major role in the reconfiguration of the living room as it replaced the fire as centre of attention. As TV sets evolved from boxes, viewers were no longer huddled round a corner of the living room, rather they could watch vast flat screens hung on or propped against the wall. Nowadays, even these are being replaced by individual screens as people “dual screen”, watching a TV and a personal device. Once again, technology is influencing the design of the home and its dynamics.
Yet TVs are not the only source of entertainment. Gramophones were introduced into living rooms in the late-19th century and they evolved into ever-more advanced record players and hi-fi stereo systems. From the 1960s onwards, record collections would spread along living room shelves, replaced by CD stacks in the 1980s.
Nowadays, such musical clutter has been removed from living rooms as Wi-Fi enabled speakers connected to the internet via apps, such as Sonos, allow people to access an almost unlimited library of music online.
The technology of the connected world has brought comfort, control and convenience to the living room and is influencing the way we interact with our homes.
