Googie Architecture

A recent Weststyle City Beach design and build took influence from the design styling more commonly seen on highway diners in America of the gambling strip in Las Vegas.

Googie architecture began in mid-century USA in coffee shops and gas stations, it was intentionally crafted as an accessible futuristic architecture movement. Vivid, bold, “spacey” and ultra-modern, it brightened up everyday life. As it infiltrated the residential sector the simplest way to explain the Googie elements was done visually via “The Jetsons” cartoon home. It was about elevating the home and welcoming in its’ surroundings, oversized organic forms and large openings sucking in natural light.

Our recently completed project in City Beach embraces all that is Googie architecture, it is an architecturally considered home of shaped and folded concrete forms reflecting the futuristic organic lines of the ultra modern movement. The main inspiration behind this home was the Elrod House that featured in the James Bond film “Diamonds are Forever”. Design elements shared include the circular form and raw concrete materiality, the Elrod House sits at 18m diameter, only 2m larger than the Weststyle City Beach home.

Popularity often comes about when people are wowed by something different and unique. We hadn’t seen anything quite as futuristic and bold as the Googie movement before its time and many embraced it because it was endorsed by big names such as John Lautner and Douglas Honnold. In this modern day, we are finding that clients are not always after a particular style of architecture but they want something unique from their neighbour. This usually results in an amalgamation of different styles to create someone’s dream home. Googie architecture and other particular architecture movements have become niche styles, if executed well with modern day details can be extremely successful.

Collaborative design

Designers and clients are always striving for that perfect balance between interior and exterior, we often hear about “bringing the outside in” and “blurring the lines between inside and outside”. Googie architecture takes that to the next level by creating a sense of infinite space, giving life to a limitless open living environment which assimilates seamlessly with its surroundings.

Modern Googie designs seem to have less permanent colour. When the movement was born in mid-century USA it embraced loud bold slices of colour, homes that we design are more focussed on texture and materiality. Colour and personality is introduced with furniture and soft furnishings, items that can be seasonally updated.

Committing to a particular style is about understanding it at its’ core, our clients were well-versed in Googie architecture and our team guided the design and build process with care and skill. The end result is successful and this was due to open communication and understanding of what it was we all wanted to achieve. Our advice would be to make sure you are comfortable that client and architect are speaking the same language before embarking on the design journey. Research your designer, and builder, and always ask to view previous work so you can be sure of a quality result.

Schedule a consultation with Weststyle’s custom home design team and build your dream home today.