Ranches, Rowhouses, and Railroad Flats: American Homes : How They Shape Our Landscapes and Neighborhoods

by Hunter, Christine

• ISBN13: 9780393730258
• ISBN10: 0393730255
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-03-01
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

An introduction to housing in the United States: its characteristic forms and its environmental implications. What are the basic requirements for a home? Christine Hunter looks at how legal, cultural, and technological standards have developed, and examines current criteria for a "minimum standard" family home, in three possible forms: freestanding house, attached house, and apartment. She discusses interior spaces, connections to the immediate outdoors, mechanical and plumbing connections, and connections to society. She emphasizes the varied and often conflicting environmental concerns, and examines how homes are grouped and combined with other building types and open spaces into neighborhoods.

Table of Contents

Introduction	7	(16)
CHAPTER 1 What We All Need to Survive: Fundamental Requirements for Human Dwellings	23	(16)
CHAPTER 2 Toward Minimum Standards for American Homes	39	(21)
CHAPTER 3 A Basic Home Today	60	(46)
CHAPTER 4 Freestanding Houses	106	(68)
CHAPTER 5 Attached Houses	174	(35)
CHAPTER 6 Apartments	209	(75)
CHAPTER 7 Grouping Homes Together: What Makes a Neighborhood	284	(34)
Notes	318	(6)
Illustration Credits	324	(3)
Acknowledgments	327	(2)
Index	329