The modern American house
Subtitle: spaciousness and middle class identity
By: Sandy Isenstadt.
Series: Modern architecture and cultural identity
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2006
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 327
ISBN-13: 9780521770132
Subjects: Small houses -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Space (Architecture) -- United States.; Architecture and society -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Visual perception.
Description: "In The Modern American House, Sandy Isenstadt examines how architects, interior designers, and landscape designers worked to visually enhance spatial perception in middle-class houses. The desire for spaciousness reached its highest pitch where it was most lacking, in the small, single-family houses that came to be the cornerstone of middle-class life in the nineteenth century. In direct conflict with actual dimensions, spaciousness was linked to a tension unique to the middle-class: between spatial aspirations and financial limitations. Although rarely addressed in a sustained fashion by theorists and practitioners: Isenstadt argues that spaciousness was central to the development of modern American domestic architecture, with explicit strategies for perceiving space being pivotal to modern house design. Through professional endorsement, concern for visual space found its way into discussion on the course of a century of real estate taste and law. This book documents how visual space came to be internalized as a cultural value."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.