Houses like spaceships, spaceships like houses

Bathroom futurism! Excellent circular spaceship thing going on here. I’m not sure about shag rugs in the bathroom, but will boldly go where no one has gone before. Still, how on earth would you clean this room? The answer is that in space, flokatis are self-cleaning. With microbots or whatever those things in the Neil Stephenson trilogy are called. Anyway, it’s bold. The photo is from The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement, Greystone Press, 1970. Note the word “Practical” in the title!

The caption reads:

The sumptuous luxury of this modern bathroom owes much to the clever lighting which helps to create a mood of splendor. A softly glowing circle of light at one end of the sculptured oval tub sets the circular theme of the room. The cool light provides ample illumination, but has a softness which is flattering and in keeping with the lush white pile of the rug. Spotlights from the horizontal bands at either side of the room supplement the halo of light and the lights set into each of the multi-purpose niches. Lighting under the fat hassock is a safety factor; it can be used as a night light.

By way of contrast, here’s the mod but comfortably domestic living area on the spaceship “Serenity” of Firefly and Serenity fame. The ship’s curved lounge contains some kind of amalgam of midcentury modern and 60s/70s mod furniture. Look at the rya rugs and that brass wall sculpture thing! And does anyone recognize that fantastic yellow lounge set? It’s interesting to see decor from the 60s cropping up in a movie that describes itself as a “space western.” Obvious mix of frontiers, I guess. Apologies for the fuzzy screenshots. PS this midcentury modern stuff looks pretty good 560 years on.