Book

The modern American house : spaciousness and middle-class identity

Isenstadt, Sandy, 1957- author

Overview

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.

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Subject: 1900 - 1999 / Small houses United States History 20th century. / Space (Architecture) United States. / Architecture and society United States History 20th century. / Visual perception. / Architecture and society. / Small houses. / Space (Architecture) / United States.
• ISBN: 9781107675063, 1107675065

Item info:

1 item available

1 item total in all locations

Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
NA7208.I84 2014	1	BOOK	ARTS