[323]

One question has been bothering me: why are rooms square?

Some say that it's more economical to build this way, and that it causes less problems with aligning furniture to the wall.

But that doesn't explain billionaire houses. They certainly love spending money on them, yet despite all kinds of extravaganza, the rooms are also mostly square.

So i think it's something deeper, I think it's just too suspicious that across most modern cultures rooms are square. My theory is that it's related to the fact that we have 4 sides, so it's kind of symmetrical that we prefer to live in 4-sided things too.

[pottertheotter]

You’re thinking too deep and already know the answer. It’s expensive to build non-square rooms. And it sucks for functionality.

[phphphphp]

High-end houses aren’t square in the same way that a normal house is square: often they’ll be open plan, where rooms join together through shared spaces that are all sorts of shapes. A better description of the consistency amongst property is “straight” walls.

If you spend much time looking at high-end real estate, you’ll encounter much more than just the standard square rooms you would see in the average house, but ultimately, they’re still square(ish) because straight walls are convenient and practical.

[bobthepanda]

I think the best description would be “right angles”.

Ultimately, not only is furniture designed for right angles, but so are all the construction materials and equipment. Doing anything else is custom and more expensive but also not usable because of the furniture limitations.

The best you can get without going into custom stuff il are those bay windows that pop out.

[dxbydt]

pg wrote about this a couple years back. big-boxy architecture of american suburbia vs all the diverse architectural styles in europe/asia etc. in many parts of costarica, panama & especially in upscale indian houses, the house looks more like an art project. i’ve been to houses with what would be called gaudy colors - blood red, bright yellow, parrot green walls. non-square rooms, oval spaces with arches and round pillars inside the house. in those places, people use their art skills not just on canvas but also in living spaces. it might not look conventionally pretty, but everybody gets a say - like in the kitchen, my mom had holes of different shapes in the wall, so bottles of different sizes fit into specific holes. no actual shelves! i wanted a table so i got a table built of concrete and cement! just put a tablecloth on top. no need to buy a table, table was an actual part of the house itself. i’ve been to bathrooms with a raised mound of cement to hold pots of water. you carry water from well and you can place the pot with water on the raised mound without bending down all the way to the floor. very thoughtful ideas.

[alex_young]

Furniture is pretty difficult to make for for rooms with odd wall configurations. You have to custom design every piece and wind up losing a bunch of space in a dresser or closet in most cases.

[stephc_int13]

The sense of space in a room is directly related to its shortest dimension.

Round and triangular rooms are not practical for obvious reasons.

Square or close to square is thus optimal.

[dwater]

What 4 sides do you have?

[twitexplore]

seahorses have 4 sided spines. parent poster is of the pipefish family, and their question is not about human housing, but frustratingly rectangular aquariums.

[lostlogin]

But that’s worse. You could leave the top off the aquarium, leaving 5 sides, but getting it down to 4 means the water falls out. M

[legulere]

You might like Friedensreich Hundertwasser, he designed buildings lacking straight lines, sometimes even undulating floors.