The Modern American House: Spaciousness and Middle Class Identity

by Sandy Isenstadt

• ISBN13: 9780521770132
• ISBN10: 0521770130
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-09-11
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Sandy Isenstadt examines how architects, interior designers, and landscape designers worked to enhance spatial perception in middle class houses visually. 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, and the inhabitants of houses themselves, 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 of real estate and law.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
Introduction. Spaciousness, History of a Visual Effect	1	(13)
The Small House Era	14	(45)
The Production of Spaciousness	59	(25)
Spacious Interiors	84	(29)
Looking at Landscape	113	(33)
Glass Horizons	146	(33)
``The View It Frames'': A History of the Picture Window	179	(36)
Cultivated Vistas	215	(36)
The Ruler and the Eye: The Compensations of Spaciousness	251	(16)
Conclusion: This Excellent Dumb Discourse	267	(6)
Notes	273	(44)
Selected Bibliography	317	(6)
Index	323