The Conversation Pit: Everything You Need to Know About the Sunken Living Room
Photo: Naho Kubota
They say that trends come and go, but classics endure—and the conversation pit, yes, that staple of the 1960s living room, is slowly on its way toward becoming one of those classics. Described by a San Francisco newspaper in 1960 as “a sunken section of living room, something like a bathtub…only dry,” it was often U-shaped or circular and came “carpeted and padded and fitted out with oversize pillows,” the writer continues. And its purpose? “It is designed to talk in,” the writer announces.
While the idea of a seating area designed for people to talk in was certainly not new, conversation pits quickly became popular in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in hundreds, if not thousands of homes and other nonresidential spaces across the United States. Seen alternately as a tripping hazard or as a minimalist way to pack as many guests into a party as possible, they were controversial from nearly the moment they appeared on the design scene.
But it’s perhaps this uneasy balance of slightly dangerous and slightly entertaining that has caused the conversation pit to recently experience a resurgence in popularity. Here, we’ll delve into the long and international history of the conversation pit, its enduring appeal, and unpack some of the most commonly asked questions about them.
Conversation Pit History
Early History, From Ancient Rome to Historic China
The concept of a sunken area in a communal space for groups to sit around has a long history that has appeared in different cultures across the world. The Chinese kang, for example, was a typical fixture in traditional Chinese homes. Made of bricks or other forms of fired clay, it was a heated platform that people sat (and at night, slept) on; thanks to its connection to a heat source like a stove or fireplace through a flue system, it created a cozy living platform, particularly helpful in the chilly winter months in the northern part of China.
Traditional Japanese architecture too had its own form of a communal seating area with sunken elements. An irori, or sunken hearth, was typically a square, stone-lined pit in the floor of the main living space in a Japanese home. Historically, irori served both as the main source of residential heating and lighting as well as the primary space for communal gathering, where family and friends could sit together surrounded by cushions and blankets for extra comfort and warmth.
Tatami and sunken hearth
Old engraved illustration of the triclinium, a formal Roman dining room, found primarily in the houses and villas of the wealthy members of society
Across the globe in ancient Rome, the homes of the elite often featured continuous stone benches that lined the walls of dining rooms, or triclinia. The summer dining room in the House of Caro in Pompeii, for example, has a triclinium whose stone benches formed a U-shape around the room with a central open pit for a table and likely would have been softened with pillows and blankets.
Fast-forward a few several hundred years to medieval Islamic Spain, where the estrado was a common feature in the elite homes—especially as a woman’s intimate space, where she would entertain guests and perform daily tasks in her own private space. Typically, the estrado was covered with a carpet and furnished with cushions and low tables for comfort. Originally from North Africa—the idea of sitting on cushions was considered distinctly “Moorish”—it soon spread across the Iberian Peninsula and even reached colonial Spanish America, where it remained popular into the early 1800s.
The Conversation Pit’s 20th-Century Debut: Bruce Goff’s Adah Robinson House
The sunken living room as we know it today is most frequently traced back to a home that architect Bruce Goff designed for local artist (and mentor) Adah Robinson in 1927 Tulsa. With its dramatic double-height living room, the Art Deco house featured a semicircular sunken conversation pit around a dramatic geometric fireplace.
Though the home wasn’t published extensively at the time of its completion—none of the major architectural or design publications featured it—it was one of Goff’s earliest projects and is often cited as one of, if not the, earliest uses of a conversation pit in the United States. Over time, as Goff refined his eclectic, even flamboyant style, he continued to use the sunken feature in many other homes during his long career through the 1950s and 1960s.
Midcentury Popularity: Saarinen, Goff, Rudolph, and More
By the 1950s, the conversation pit had officially arrived. The renowned Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen’s collaboration with prolific designer Alexander Girard at the Miller House in Columbus, Indiana, in the mid-1950s is said to have launched the sunken living room into the limelight. At the time, Saarinen’s career as a designer and architect was in full swing with commissions ranging from corporate headquarters to university buildings, and Girard was already established as a multifaceted designer who became particularly well-known for his work for Herman Miller from 1952 through 1973.
Commissioned by American industrialist and architecture patron J. Irwin Miller and his wife Xenia Simons Miller, the project was envisioned as a place where they could entertain political leaders and corporate giants in one space. At the center of the home—both literally and figuratively—was a large, sunken seating area, square in shape and reached by a set of four open-tread steps. The “lounge pit,” as it was described when it was published in a 1958 issue of Architectural Forum, was punctuated by vividly colored pillows and a bold red carpet. The upholstery of the cushions would change depending on the season: a deep red for winter and a lighter color for summer.
The publication of the Miller House was just the tip of the iceberg for the architectural feature, and by the late 1950s, conversation pits took off. The New York Times started making regular mentions of conversation pits, and other publications soon followed suit. By the early 1960s, what was previously seen as an “avant-garde room” whose “built-ins create the newest look” instead became de rigeur from coast to coast.
Aided by the growing popularity of the sectional sofa, whose continuous seating allowed for chair-leg-free flexible seating, the sunken living area was seen as a way to encourage conversation and personal connections. “It is possible that the conversation pit could bring back the great days of talk,” mused one newspaper article in 1960. “Not just pre-radio, pre-television. The GREAT days of 18th-century Baroque, the rotund style of Doctor Johnson and his tavern mates,” the writer declared.
The Conversation Pit Spreads
Saarinen continued to use the sunken lounge in other projects, most famously at the iconic TWA Terminal in New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. Here, Saarinen enlarged the pit, giving it curves and cladding it in white penny tile accented with a fiery red carpet and upholstery on curved sofas and stools on his pedestal-like Tulip seat.
Bruce Goff, a longtime lover of the conversation pit since his design in the 1920s for the Adah Robinson home, continued to explore new shapes and materials for his recessed living spaces. His 1958 home for patron Joe Price, for example, incorporated a hexagonal conversation pit covered in shag carpet, and his 1967 Nicol House in Kansas City, Missouri, featured an octagonal conversation pit surrounded by octagonal bedrooms.
Vogue February 01, 1972 Architecture
Other architects like Paul Rudolph also began incorporating sunken living rooms into their designs, from individual homes to institutional spaces at universities and schools. Rudolph in particular was intrigued with the way conversation pits played with elevation changes in a space, and often incorporated minimalist detailing like built-in cushions (no mess or fuss with throw pillows or moveable couch cushions!) and angular forms.
Downfall of the Conversation Pit
By the late 1970s, conversation pits seemed to be everywhere. Countless homes included the architectural feature, it had appeared in hundreds of publications, and even public spaces like airports, restaurants, and hotels had their own recessed lounge areas created by some of the biggest names in architecture and design. Magazines published how-to articles so you could build your conversation pit, advocating that they could be created by just about anyone—and on a tight budget too.
But as early as the 1960s, people began to be vocal about the pitfalls—no pun intended—of the conversation pit. “Apparently, the charms of climbing out of and falling into a pit soon wore thin,” notes a personal finance publication in 1963. People were frequently concerned about unintentionally falling into the sunken living area as they stood at its edge during a party, and their sunken nature meant they weren’t easy to adapt or update as time went on. Indeed, by the late 1970s, the popularity of the sunken living room had, well, begun to sink. Homeowners often concluded that the best (or perhaps least dangerous) thing to do was to cover them up completely, creating a level floor.
Recent Rise in Popularity
Fast forward to the 2010s, and the popularity of the television show Mad Men put just about everyone into a frenzy for midcentury design, including the long-forgotten conversation pit. The show’s main character, Don Draper renovated his New York City apartment in 1966, complete with a sunken living room and outfitted with a built-in brown tweed L-shaped sofa. Suddenly, conversation pits were back on the design radar.
Since then, architects and designers have been on the quest to bring back the sunken living room, but with a contemporary take to bring it into the 21st century. Some find that it works better outside. Ralph Choeff, founding principal of architecture firm Choeff Levy Fischman, notes that a conversation pit is ideal for outdoor space. “Conversation pits provide a cozy zen-like environment that’s ideal for gathering and conversing outdoors,” he explains. In designs where the sunken living area is adjacent to pools, he notes that “the pool water is at shoulder level, creating a private and enchanting experience. We love the interaction these spaces have with the views.”
Other designers have updated the concept of a conversation pit by incorporating modern materials and color palettes (think less tweed brown and more ivory bouclé) or contemporary detailing (like minimalist concrete steps). While questions about safety still linger—the fear of falling off the edge is real—some have sought to make conversation pits that are accessible by everyone by adding access via ramps or stairs with railings.
Appeal of Conversation Pits
Aside from the renewed interest in retro design and architecture, what is it about conversation pits that makes them so appealing? The attraction stems from both practical and aesthetic standpoints.
Early on, conversation pits were seen as exciting because of their novelty; they were an unusual feature that could help distinguish a home from its neighbors—and at a relatively affordable price. While they aren’t for everyone, an architect explained in a 1973 article in the Chicago Tribune, “they are an intriguing feature that gives a home individuality and can be included at relatively little cost.”
Another benefit of conversation pits is their efficient use of space. “It’s a way of seating a crowd in a compact space,” a writer for the New York Herald Tribune explains in 1960. Unlike chairs that accommodate a specific number of people, the continuous seating of a conversation pit provides flexibility for guests who might want to lounge or squeeze, depending on the occasion.
And, as the clean lines and simple forms of modernism took hold, conversation pits also provided a fuss-free environment without what Eero Saarinen famously described as a “slum of legs” underneath tables and chairs. Sight lines in spaces also benefit from the pit’s sunken nature, with its lowered furniture permitting full views of an entire room without any obstructions and even making a small room look larger, some designers declared.
But that doesn’t mean that the recessed living room is cold and impersonal. On the contrary, part of its popularity has been the intimate space and warm environment it creates by forming an enclosed area around which people gather, and, it goes without saying, converse. Its recessed nature also enables connection. As Gifty Walker, director of merchandising and trade at midcentury-inspired furniture company Joybird explains, “a conversation pit forces you and your guests to get down on a whole different level—literally.”
What is a conversation pit?
“By definition, a conversation pit is a sunken area with intimate seating that facilitates, you guessed it, conversation,” Walker says. A conversation pit is a recessed or sunken living area with built-in seating, often surrounding a coffee table, fireplace, or fire pit. They are designed for both outdoors and indoors, and can range in size and shape.
When were conversation pits popular?
Sunken living rooms were most popular in the 1950s through the 1970s, with the height of their popularity in the late 1950s through the late 1960s. Although they fell out of style by the 1980s, in the past decade they have become increasingly popular.
Who invented the conversation pit?
Spaces similar to conversation pits appear in cultures across the world, from ancient Rome to China, Japan to medieval Spain. But in America, the earliest conversation pit is often credited to architect Bruce Goff, who designed a home in the 1920s for his mentor in the city of Tulsa with a semicircular conversation pit around an Art Deco fireplace.
Are conversation pits safe or accessible?
Safety and accessibility concerns are real considerations when it comes to recessed spaces in a home like a conversation pit, especially for young children or elderly individuals. Because they require stepping down into the recessed area, they are sometimes not accessible to everyone, and they can be a tripping hazard if there isn’t any way to protect the opening in the floor. Some homeowners with conversation pits install a railing or other protective barrier around the edge of the pit, while others might have their designer create seating whose backs are high enough to act as a fence.
Can a conversation pit be incorporated into modern homes?
Sunken living rooms can be incorporated into modern homes, both on the interior and the exterior. In the interior, they’re most frequently found in living spaces, where they act as the primary seating and entertaining area. Outside, they’re most often in backyards and as part of a larger landscape design that might incorporate a fire pit, pool, or other outdoor hardscapes.
What are some famous examples of conversation pits?
Famous examples of conversation pits include the Adah Robinson House in Tulsa by Bruce Goff; the Miller House by Eero Saarinen and Alexander Girard in Columbus, Indiana; TWA Terminal at JFK Airport in New York; and the Milam residence in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, by Paul Rudolph.
What are the dimensions of a typical conversation pit?
There are no typical dimensions for a conversation pit. They can vary in size and shape, but they are usually not smaller than about 8 to 10 feet wide in any direction for smaller, more intimate pits, and 12 to 15 feet and up for larger ones with more generous proportions.
How do you furnish a conversation pit?
Sunken seating areas are most frequently outfitted with built-in seating like sectional sofas and cushions; they might be accented with throw pillows and a coffee table, or might have a fireplace or other special feature at the center. In the 1950s through the 1970s, their floors were often covered with wall-to-wall carpeting that might have covered the seats too.
What are the drawbacks of having a conversation pit?
One disadvantage of recessed living areas is their inflexible use of space. Because much of the furniture in a conversation pit is built in, it isn’t possible to easily rearrange furniture, and seating arrangements are more or less static. They also can take up more room than a traditional living room sofa or other seating arrangements. From a safety perspective, sunken seating areas can be a potential safety or tripping hazard; without a totally level floor and with an area that is accessible down several steps, it’s possible to trip down the stairs or even fall over the edge of the pit.
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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