GTU

Nick Shavishvili, Tamar Chubinidze. American Private Villas in the Last Decade: The Long-awaited Alternative? Georgian Technical University- Journal "Works"- quarterly publication. N3 (525) 2022

Resume. The article discusses architectural projects of countryside and suburban private houses in the United States, mainly in its central regions, that, according to the authors, today create a long-awaited alternative to the US commercial architecture, which is in a state of crisis due to corporate pressure on it. The authors reviewed projects published in 7 leading American specialized journals in 2011-2020, many of which, according to the criteria chosen by the authors of the article, became notable for their growingly stimulating trends.

The authors of the article did not intend to make a complete classification of the collected materials, although they did offer some typological signs for grouping the studied villas. Almost every private house of the last decade is connected to the forest or mountain, waterfront or other natural environment, the trend that has overcome the early-modernist problem of alienation from the surroundings. At the same time, private villas of the studied decade even act complementary to their environment by staying connected to it yet acting autonomously. Both natural and high-tech construction methods and materials, laconic and understated strategies typical for the current stage are frequently used, as well as we see now examples of satisfying the wishes of unpredictable customers and successful attempts to create a sustainable home with solutions appropriate to various natural climatic conditions. With all of this, the trends of the long-awaited alternative to the commercial architecture of cities seen in American private villas are becoming clearly evident.