The sunken lounge- conversation pit’s roots run deep.
Let’s talk, for a moment, about a curious architectural feature of many mid-century homes: the sunken living room.
For a while, it was all the rage to step down into your living space, until, all of a sudden, it wasn’t. To what do we owe the rise and fall of the sunken living room?
Both Realtor.com and Houzz trace the origin of the sunken living room to Kansas-born architect Bruce Goff, who in 1927 designed a house for his teacher, Adah Robinson. The home, which was built in the Art Deco style, had a feature that had never been seen before: a sunken conversation pit.
The conversation pit served a social purpose, providing shelter for more private conclaves.
