For the past few weeks we have been learning about the different aspects of steampunk and on top of that we read a book called Leviathan, this book is about a world war incorporating guns and high-tech/futuristic machinery which we then have to do a mini book report.

Now if you don’t already know what steampunk is, it’s basically just a sub-genre of science fiction which incorporates technology and aesthetics, this was inspired by steam powered machines.

For this blog post each person in our class had to choose an interesting question just like what I did for the Crane Brinton post where I made a mini iBook (if you haven’t read that yet click here) Anyways, for my question I decided to ask…

Were steampunk houses built for easy access or style? Basically what I’m trying to research and find out is if there are certain aspects that are just for style or do they have a purpose? (By the way this is for steampunk architecture) For example when you look at modern day houses and you see the slanted roofs they aren’t just there for style but for easy rain and leaf drainage making the roofing purposeful.

For this blog post I’ll be following along the same lines as the example above and will only be covering a few aspects that I research and that I saw repeatedly in various websites and images.

Two or three story houses:

To start off I’m going to talk about two and three story building. I think that most people who have a two or three story house would be lucky but at the same time it’s probably not very practical. First of all imagine all the sets of stairs you would have to climb just to put your laundry away versus having a lower house with only one or two story’s where you would have more width to put more practical things inside of it you would also have taller rooms and smaller closets and living spaces.

Obviously I’m trying to figure out how practical it is and I think that just by comparing the two houses I think that the three story aspect of the era is more a style than purpose.

Steep roofs:

Next is steep multi faceted roofs so just like I was explaining in the example the triangular shaped roof is a great, practical idea for drainage and if you make it even steeper like they do in the steampunk architecture it will improve the drainage even more because the water can flow faster.

But just like the three story houses it narrows down the living space which isn’t very practical either for everyday use. So in the end I think that it’s more for style then purpose because today drainage is something you would want to have on your roof but I don’t think that was a big part for that genre back then when it all started

Wood or stone exterior:

The majority of houses in the steampunk era had wood siding and not stone or glass. This is practical for 3 reasons, the first being easy access and installation, two being cheaper and easy to purchase in bulk and small portions and finally the third reason being you can style the wood easily and paint it easily. The only thing I can come up with that would be a “con” is that the wood will be an easy place for ants and insects to build there homes in and also that it won’t last as long as the cement would.

Overall I think that the world characteristic of these house is a practical and easy way to install and have.

Decorative trim:

Finally the last aspect is the decorative trims around and inside a house. For example there are many houses in the steampunk era covered with elaborate and various materials like metal, wood and even paint. A popular trimming in the Victorian era and steampunk genre is the Crowning and Decorative Moldings.

These Aspects of the steampunk genre can be very beautiful sometimes, but not always practical, for a few reasons. The first being that the molds can be very flimsy and can chip off easily, you would most likely have to repair it every few years and finally it is also most of the time made with wood, paint and dry walling mud which like I said in the other paragraph is easy for insects to dig away at and eat. I think you already know what I’m going to say for the outcome of this one… that’s right its probably not the most practical aspect of the designs and more for decoration and style.

So to answer my question using all the information I just researched I have came to a conclusion that during the era of steampunk and also today in the era people are more focused on the stye of architecture then the practicality and purpose of a object or design. I came up with this conclusion by just looking at the pros and cons of each design I chose, which wasn’t all of them but was just a few that I thought were the most important. I hope you enjoyed this post, and If maybe you thought most of the design had a purpose and wasn’t there just for style comment and tell me why.

Bibliography:

Wikipedia

Architect website # 1

Architect wbsites # 2