Ranches, Rowhouses, and Railroad Flats: American Homes : How They Shape Our Landscapes and Neighborhoods (Norton Book for Architects & Designers)

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Summary: A compact review of the evolution of American housing
Review: Much as John MacPhee has offered a new way of appreciating canoes, Alaska, and U.S. geology, Christine Hunter offers a new way of appreciating U.S. dwellings. He deals with our natural environment; she deals with our man-made environment. Combining description with evaluation, she provides a compact review of the evolution of housing since colonial times, seen through the eyes of a trained architect employing a social scientist¹s critical detachment. Her study will be useful for a wide variety of general readers as well as those in the fields of history, city planning, design, and government. The book is easy to read, with dozens of clear sketches showing the changing forms and anatomy of houses and rooms under discussion. Technical detail is relieved by occasional gentle humor. After a chapter on fundamental requirements for human dwellings (³what we all need to survive²), she tells how minimum standards for urban and rural housing have evolved as the population grew and spread across the continent, taking advantage of abundant resources and new technology, while confronting political and economic complications. A central chapter spells out the necessary components of a modern dwelling (plumbing, lighting, heating, connections with the world outside, etc.), giving these familiar aspects of our surroundings a fresh and revealing specificity. Three chapters discuss freestanding houses, attached houses, and apartments. An incisive final chapter on neighborhoods comments on the problems and prospects surrounding our homes today.