Main entry:

Isenstadt, Sandy, 1957-

Title & Author:

The modern American house : spaciousness and middle-class identity / Sandy Isenstadt.

Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Description:

xvi, 327 pages : illustrations ; 27 cm.

Series:

Modern architecture and cultural identity

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-321) and index.
Introduction : Spaciousness, history of a visual effect -- 1. The small house era -- 2. The production of spacious -- 3. Spacious interiors -- 4. Looking at landscape -- 5. Glass horizons -- 6. "The view it frames": a history of the picture window -- 7. Cultivated vistas -- 8. The ruler and the eye: the compensations of spaciousness -- 9. Conclusion: this excellent dumb discourse.

Summary:

"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."--BOOK JACKET.

Resources:
Table of contents
Publisher description
Table of contents only
Publisher description
Table of contents only
Publisher description

ISBN:

0521770130 (hardback)
9780521770132 (hardback)

Subject:

Small houses United States History 20th century.
Space (Architecture) United States.
Architecture and society United States History 20th century.
Visual perception.
Espace (Architecture) États-Unis.
Architecture et société États-Unis Histoire 20e siècle.
Perception visuelle.
visual perception.
Architecture and society.
Small houses.
Space (Architecture)
Architecture and society United States 20th century.
United States.

Form/genre:

History.

Added entries:

Modern architecture and cultural identity.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 252072
Call No.: BIB 181080
Status: Available