The Meaningful Modern Home | Celeste Robbins
Intro: Welcome to the one and only interior design book podcast, decorating by the book, hosted by Suzy Chase from her dining room table in New York City. Join Suzy for conversations about the latest and greatest interior design books with the authors who wrote them.
Celeste Robbins: I'm Celeste Robbins and my book is The Meaningful Modern Home.
Suzy Chase: This is your first monograph highlighting a collection of nine contemporary homes by you and your Chicago based firm, Robbins Architecture. So what does the title meaningful modern home mean to you?
Celeste Robbins: The word meaningful, I feel, kind of evokes an emotional response, and I think that’s what I was looking for, kind of a feeling of connection. And when someone says that's meaningful, there's kind of a sense of something that's deep, human, and kind of real. And I knew our work was warm, but I felt that it went beyond warmth and so we chose the word meaningful and it kind of starts you thinking that this is about something for a particular person, a particular site. It has meaning. And as you look through the book. I think you'll be surprised that it doesn't feel as maybe what most people think of as modern. So I like the fact that it conveys those two things because that's kind of the point of the book, which is what is modernism to me and how I feel knowing that definition makes it a home with meaning.
Suzy Chase: Let's go back to that perfect spring day in Chicago after you completed ground up construction on your own modern home, you opened your doors to a housewalk, which I'd never heard that term before, which means it's basically an open house for visitors and neighbors to take a peek. And to your surprise, the visitors expressed the same reactions over and over. So what did they say?
Celeste Robbins: The housewalk was for the parent teacher association for our school, and somebody had backed out and they knew I had just finished my house and they asked me to do it. So it was very new, and a lot of people are questioning whether they want to open their house to strangers but as an architect, I'm always excited to do that because I want people to be able to walk and experience it. So I was really excited to say yes. But then I started to feel anxious about it because I think modern homes. A lot of modern homes in the area have not been seen as successful. And I was kind of like, oh jeez, my house going to be the home that people skip and go on to this other beautiful tutor and as people came in. I think they were kind of curious about the house but then they were surprised because they liked it which I think they came in kind of expecting that modern wasn't their thing. And there was a sense of excitement. That was almost like, oh, my gosh, I could live here. I didn't think I liked modern. People would literally go back and get their mother and bring them back to the house to show them and to just kind of be so surprised among themselves that they could actually feel happy and want to be in a modern home. And that was kind of a surprise to me, to hear such a positive reaction from so many people.
Suzy Chase: Speaking of thinking modern isn't your thing, I am guilty of saying “I could never live in a glass box” more than once. What's your personal philosophy when it comes to incorporating warmth, softness, and livability in a modern design? And I think that's what people connected with on the housewalk.
Celeste Robbins: Yeah, the house has a lot of windows, and so there might be a sense of glass box-ish for them. I think every home is very personal, and how a person wants to live is very personal. And what our sense of home is and what lets our shoulders come down and how we see and feel. Beauty is unique, but I feel there is a common kind of universal thread that nature can help with that feeling of serenity. And so for me, I'm not making glass because I'm trying to make an egotistical statement about modernism and who I am, and I'm this and you're that. But it's really a much different reason. It's really more about taking in the surroundings, bringing it into your home, letting you stop and ponder and feel a part of kind of what nature's beauty is. And for me, that's sort of this timeless art that's always there. So the home has a sense of connection to nature that's, I think, really important. But I also just feel like modernism is a set of principles, and that's so important to convey in the book. That it's not this kit of hearts that means it's a flat roof or it doesn't have moldings, but they're really principles about how to live that reflects a lot of how we live today. So there's open spaces if you think of a more traditional home, they were really defined by the function of that space. A kitchen for cooking, and that was a room with four walls. Dining room was a room with four walls and a door and a light and the table in the middle. It was about eating. And today we see open spaces that might have a table in it for eating or puzzles or the kitchens are open.I think that's kind of the easiest example for people to think about. So all of these kind of modern ideas are really what I consider modernism. And not so much what many others kind of think of it as. I could kind of go on and on about that, but maybe it'll all come out through our conversations.
Suzy Chase: You just mentioned how nature plays a part in your designs. And one of my favorite lines in the book is you write, “sometimes I may leave a surface blank because the white wall can be the perfect canvas for shadows and light as the day passes”. That's so evocative and beautiful.
Celeste Robbins: Oh, thank you. I do want to make sure that there is that I think sometimes people are afraid of a simple drywall wall, but I think it’s all about kind of balance and light. And do notice when the leaves are making a pattern on the wall. It feels like a Japanese screen to me. In another time of day, it might be something completely different, or even in the season when the sun is higher or lower. And so it's not that I want all the walls to be that, but I just feel like it's okay to have some breathing room in a home. You don't always need to be making your mark. Sometimes it just wants to be quiet.
Suzy Chase: What architects inspired you in your early training at Cornell?
Celeste Robbins: You know there are two schools of thought from architecture.I'm sure there's sort of like a marriage of all of them. But Cornell is based on the beaux arts teaching, which was really based on looking at the past. And so we were always looking at precedents, always looking at architects before us. And the style was irrelevant, it was really more about the idea behind it. And it didn't matter whether it had molding or it could have been divided, light or not. It was really just kind of like understanding the essence of that. So we were constantly looking at everything all over from any different period. So Corbusier was big.I think all architects are inspired by Corbusier in terms of modern, but we were looking really at how he used balance, how movement through the home was an important aspect to the know, how his use of space. So it was always like looking at something and analyzing it and what was kind of the idea behind it, so you could take the idea and not make it literal. So we looked at Frank Lloyd Wright and his connection to nature, Michelangelo, and his kind of emotional sort of expression, and how you could feel kind of the energy behind his work. My first trip with Cornell was to Egypt, Turkey, and Greece. We did the summer program, and it didn’t mean I was coming home doing amphitheaters, but kind of the idea behind the program was to learn how to see. So it really could have been anything. I think it depended on the project. The professors would say, suggest a certain architect to go look at because of the idea. And I think that's important because it's a lot about what I want to say about modernism is just not think of it so literal, but maybe what's the meaning behind it and less about the sort of boxes to check of what makes it modern.
Suzy Chase: In the introduction you mentioned, in some cases, you work hard to make the architecture virtually disappear. I'm so curious about that.
Celeste Robbins: I went out on my own when my son was born, and I was always working in larger firms doing schools. So I really had no experience in residential architecture. I met an interior designer that I would work with, and she and I connected really well. She was just starting her career as an interior designer, but it was sort of later in her career. She was in her 50s, but she had just this lifetime of sophisticated and artistic background. And so I really kind of learned about the home and how it lives. So I was never just thinking about the architecture it was always this whole package of the furniture, the fabrics, the art on the wall, the landscape outside and so I guess from there I was okay if it was quiet, because I knew there were these other players that were also part of this whole language of the home that we’re going to be part of it. So you don't want the architecture to be kind of screaming out at people for attention, because maybe you want the attention to be on the art. Maybe that's what it's about. Maybe it's just about the view out the window. And so if you don't notice what you're doing, but you have a feeling, that's what I want you to notice, is the feeling of just like, I want to be here I like how I feel in this space. And whether it's the architecture you notice or maybe it's the view, that's okay with me I feel like I did my job if you just feel good.
Suzy Chase: Your first house was a mid century modernist home built in 1938 by Henry Dubin, who was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. How did this house speak to you?
Celeste Robbins: Well, this was the first house as a family we lived in so it's not my first house that I did, but I lived in it, and I was a young mother. This was just when I was starting my career. And moving to the suburbs was sort of like a question mark. So it just became a thing about I needed to live someplace that excited me and I wanted a little bit of a project. I had stopped working at these large firms. My career really was just starting and the realtor kind of brought us to this Henry Dubin house almost like it was land like we could tear it down because it was so sort of like not appealing to most people that saw it and I just loved this house. It was meant to be a couple of years starter home. It ended up being 15 years in that house. It had great energy. Henry Dubin was looking at Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian homes, which are less common in the Chicago area, there's more prairie style here. But the Usonian homes had this sort of like modern aesthetic with corner windows, a flat roof, roof overhangs and kind of a complex shape to it because it was creating outdoor spaces along in with the indoor spaces. So I just soaked it in. I was always looking at that house. And when I went to men build our new home, a lot of people that knew me and knew that house said, I feel like this is the grown up version of your first house. So you can definitely see the influence. I just don't know that I can say specifically what it was, but it was definitely connection to nature. I love having little nooks within larger spaces and large windows that looked to the outdoors.
Suzy Chase: So on page eleven, we discover a lakeside mid-century in Michigan, which you fell in love with after the Dubin house had such an impact on you.This 3000 square foot home was designed by Winston Elting. And it takes simplicity to another level. Could you please describe this home?
Celeste Robbins: This home came to my attention because someone had reached out to me to do a renovation to it. They were looking to buy it and I looked at this house and I was like, oh, my gosh, this sas to be my project. This is so my style. It just resonated with what I do naturally. It was a home that just felt very comfortable for me. And they ended up not purchasing it. And so we went up and looked at the home and it just felt like it was kind of reminiscent of the first home that we bought. So my son and his future now wife was with us. And it was just uncanny. I mean, everyone noticed it. The brick fireplace, they had this Noguchi paper lantern. That was exactly the light we had in our first house. And within 30 minutes, we put an offer on it. And it had been in the market for a while. It was published in Elle Décor and is in the book so many people have connected with that house, I think because it is small and it lets people feel like that's kind of what I want. I guess the simplicity aspect to it wasthat a lot of the homes. We design are larger, 10,000 square foot homes on really big properties. And so we try to break the scale down of the site in the home. So the houses, the floor plans, usually have a complex shape wrapping around you making outdoor rooms that give you a sense of place and kind of scale as you sit within the landscape but this house is smaller, and it's just a plain rectangle. That's it. It has a rectangle and a cantilevered kind of well, not cantilever, but like a covered carport in front. So it's the opposite of what I do. But the way Winston Elting brought nature in was he carved courtyards within the rectangle. So there was carve outs within the rectangle that bring. There's two of them, a tree, and are surrounded by windows. So as you move through the home, you're constantly viewing either the lake on the one side or these intimate moments on the opposite side, which are kind of like these little Japanese gardens that just celebrate a tree. It's really lovely.
Suzy Chase: Talk about that fireplace.
Celeste Robbins: The fireplace is just incredible. It's this great room. To me, a great room is, it's got a dining area, a large sitting area, it's actually the entry, too. You walk right into that. And instead of putting a fireplace on. Access with the room, which I have. To say, I do a lot of. He took the fireplace and slid it off to the edge, and that sort of forced the seating group off to the edge. And then in my case, I added a round table on the opposite side that has this large window. And the combination of all of that is so successful, like the seating group has a built in on the wall. It allows you to feel like you're so sort of cozy and with the nook of the fireplace and then kind of one of the most powerful things he does in that moment is he puts a little slot window right where the wall of the built in meets the corner fireplace or the fireplace. And that window changes everything about it, because instead of it feeling, like, too dark and too much, like, heavy in a corner, it's broken up with light as the sun kind of grazes over the front of the fireplace and kind of lightens that whole connection. And then on the opposite side, because he slid the fireplace over, there's this large window, which gives a sense of place for this table.And every time you're walking down the hall from the bedrooms, you're looking out that window, which I think is just such an important aspect to a modern home is to just movement and how you move and what you see and how you feel. So there's a lot to be inspired by that fireplace.
Suzy Chase: And he used something called Chicago brick. I'd never heard of that.
Celeste Robbins: Chicago brick was kind of used on the side of buildings. It was the more common brick, and it has this really beautiful pink coral with a little yellow in just. I love the way the brick is. It's kind of the perfect amount of animation in life, and I'm crazy for the color. So I added a window in one of the rooms. I I save all the brick because I feel like someday I just might need it so it's a beautiful brick.
Suzy Chase: One last thing I want to say about this house is you write in the book, the more time I spend in this home, the more I soak in its beauty and intelligence. And I think Winston Elting would have been thrilled to hear that.
Celeste Robbins: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I feel like to do. Something so artistic and yet in a way that at first glance seems simple. I feel like it takes a really skilled hands to do know. I think probably one of the most important talents is to be able to edit your own work and know when to remove things and when to play things up. And I think this house is just such a good example of that.
Suzy Chase: And then on page 197, we come to the home where I met you in Tribeca, here in New York City. That was such a lovely party in an exquisite home that you designed. I kept thinking how gracious it was for the owners to open their home up. Could you just talk a little bit about this.
Celeste Robbins: This is different because it's a renovation in a Tribeca loft. And so the aspects that we're working on or thinking about are not the outside shape of the home. It's really, how do you create space within it. I had worked for this client's parents. I worked for this couple in another project in Park Avenue, New York, and they worked with this interior designer in the past as well. So we had a really lovely relationship between the client and me and Mary Luby, the interior designer. And then we brought on a lighting designer, Darrell Hawthorne. I think a lot of this house was about how to bring this sense of serenity to a Tribeca loft. When outside, you have all of this kind of, like, water towers and complexity and kind of layers and distance and sound, even how do you bring a sense of serenity to the home? And so that was what was really driving this owner. And there's a difference between serenity and sterile, and that house is very white. And yet it's not sterile. I think the idea was something's being presented to you, and you're excited to see it like when you first walk in, she has the beautiful art and the cantilever bench with light that you can dial into a different color, which sounds cheesy, but it's kind of amazing. So it was this really kind of layered aspect of working with the lighting designer, the interior designer, and then our work, which is more architectural, with the kitchen cabinetry and bathrooms and all of that. And how do those things all play a role together? And I think that's a really good example of all of that it's so important to me that is always a collaboration, because what I'm doing is one thing, but the interior designer and the artist and what they're bringing in is also just as important. And so I think because we had worked together, all of us, we never had meetings without each other. We always met individually but me and Mary would always meet before we met with a client. She didn't want to know whose idea was but she just wanted one cohesive idea that we presented and always was pushing the envelope. She's a great client. I mean, always wanting it to be. I forget the word she would use. Epic or something like game changer. I'm glad you felt something when you went there, because I feel like that's such a success for a project.
Suzy Chase: I think we all felt something because I met so many people that night, and the home was so welcoming, and I felt like it opened up conversation between the strangers at that party who left being friends.
Celeste Robbins: Oh, that's nice.
Suzy Chase: Now to my segment called home, where I ask you to describe one memory of your childhood home. And please start by telling us where it was.
Celeste Robbins: I have to say my bedroom. I lived in a very middle-class ranch home in Ohio, that they all looked so much the same that I had to tell people it was the Virgin Mary in the corner of the garden that that was my house, to stop there because they were all so similar. But my parents did these built in bunk beds that were at right angles to each other. It was very cool. So you had the one bunk bed, and then it turned 90 degrees below. And the ladder kind of was where it wasn't. And then there was a desk underneath that, and just that form seemed to be, like the impetus for all sorts of creativity. I would take string and with safety pins and design a way to make your bed by some pulley system over the top of the bunk above. I would take blankets and tuck them into every drawer because that was also built in on the other wall to create spaces. I once called my dad from home at work, which was, like, not a thing you did in those days, and asked him if I could tap into the gutter that was outside my window for a water feature in my bedroom. So, I don't know, I just feel like that room was just, like, a lot of creativity for me. So that's my memory there. I mean, I could go on, but it was good.
Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media?
Celeste Robbins: So Instagram. It's at robbinsarchitecture. All one word. And the web is robbinsarchitecture.com.
Suzy Chase: This has been so great. Thank you, Celeste, for coming on Decorating by the Book odcast.
Celeste Robbins: Well, thank you for having me. I enjoy talking about the book and all your really thoughtful questions.
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