The Home Crowd

I stumbled upon a scan earlier today from the May 1962 issue of Playboy magazine of the “Playboy Townhouse” for the affluent, on-the-go, bachelor.  It’s a beautiful rendering done by Humen Tan (I really hope that’s not his/her real name) of a design commissioned to designer R. Donald Jaye by playboy to highlight the swingin’ bachelor lifestyle.  This great example of 60’s modern life is captured in this article with furnishings and furniture for which some have remained stylish and modern decades later.

The section of the townhouse highlights the spatial and elemental qualities of the townhouse…the central pool, the open air under a retractable skylight, the teak wood paneling, and lots and lots of concrete.  This rendering also explains the space usage by it’s contents, most of which were specified in the townhouse article.

Note that the servants quarters at the bottom right are not furnished, seeing as how no bachelor outside of Bruce Wayne should be living in the city with a butler anyhow.  Also, a modern design feature that would be scrubbed first after the first estimate is the concrete waffle slab used for the floors.  They might as well have put the garage on the roof as strong, overbuilt and expensive as that would be.  But they’re dreaming out loud, so we’ll side with artistic license on that one.

And what better bachelor bed that the rotating playboy bed, highlighted in an earlier article of the magazine.  Great spot for entertaining ‘guests’, it rotates 360 degrees to face the fireplace or the television with built in conveniences such as telephone, refrigerator and bar.  And who wouldn’t want to watch some TV on that mammoth 21-inch screen.  They didn’t specify what kind of TV it was, but I do vaguely recall George Jetson calling Mr. Spacely over it from time to time.

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This is great for those who just can’t get a good night’s sleep without that chlorine smell in the air. Then again, that probably wouldn’t be good either, probably like sleeping in a garage full of paint supplies.

Well, I guess it’s aimed at those who need more beer pong but don’t want to lug around a collapsible table, ping pong table, or declare eminent domain on the kitchen table. Preferably, I’d like to toss it out in the pool like these good people below. That looks like a great time, but you’ll have to clear out the kids as they splash and make waves, and beer pong is tough enough without more simulated drunkenness. But from what it looks like on their site they’re aiming at the tailgate/ family reunion crowd. Not really sure that they’re going for the family reunion crowd, but wouldn’t that just make everything much more interesting? Think you could also use it as a bed for the winner/loser (all depends on who’s rules you’re goin’ by)? 50 bucks seems a little steep for a floatie with many extra cupholders though. But if you’re having a pool party, it’s worth it for happy/inebriated guests.

Here’s the PortOPong site, loaded with some more fun pics.