In response, a new generation of house designers is addressing not only critical architectural issues, but also the cultural parameters of the private home. As a preview of architecture in the next century, these houses can be viewed as signs of things to come. All 26 homes featured in the exhibition have been designed since 1988. Sixteen of the houses are already built, four are in stages of planning or construction, and six remain unbuilt. The completed homes are located in the United States, Japan, South America, and Europe.
Designs range from New York-style lofts to row houses and detached suburban residences.
The Un-Private House galleries are designed to evoke domestic spaces. Furniture Co. Schaefer also designed the chairs that furnish a reading area in the center of the gallery, where visitors may examine books on the architects. Hundreds of photographs and drawings of the featured homes are printed in large scale directly on custom-made wallpaper hung throughout the galleries. Two video presentations in the galleries allow visitors to imagine the homes as three-dimensional structures. The interactive environment of the exhibition is a collaboration between MoMA and the MIT Media Lab.