Category:1960s Bungalows

Triang Minic Motorways M1806 and M1807, Bungalow with Automatic Garage (1964) [image info]

The toy model and dollhouse record preserves the imprint of a very distinctive and apparently short-lived architectural style of bungalow, that, right now, we are struggling to find a name for.

Although bungalows had often been associated with retirement homes, home and lifestyle magazines in the 1960s started to introduce readers to the homes of Hollywood celebrities, and this added glamour to the "Californian ranch house" idea, of living on a single floor, in an area where low land costs (or the owner's budget) didn't require building upwards.

The more "forgiving" structural engineering of a simple single-storey house allowed architects free reign to incorporate their choice of architectural design themes. Typical features of the new design were open-plan spaces, asymmetric roof angles and unexpected geometries, protruding overhanging wall-ends, sometimes overhanging roof sections with supports, alternation of stone textures with flat-rendered walls, large glassed "vista" wall sections, and high asymmetric stone-finish chimney-breasts, that often mixed vertical and slanting sides, the overall all impression being a mix of uncompromisingly futuristic angles and modern glass with references to traditional "arts and crafts" building methods.

For larger layouts, it seems to have been common to have three sections, a central section with a glass wall facing a semi-enclosed area with a small patch of lawn , pool or water feature, and two flanking sections.

Examples:

• Although the stackable Jenny's Home room-boxes immediately suggested flats, they could also be used to assemble bungalow layouts, and although the format required vertical sides (and couldn't use jutting wall-ends), the range did feature the classic slant-sided stonework bungalow chimney.