​THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: SUBURBAN RHETORIC AND REALITY AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Ellen Avıtts

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: SUBURBAN RHETORIC AND REALITY AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Abstract

My study is about presentations of lifestyle in house merchandising and the extent of human agency in shaping home. It seeks to answer a significant, but not often addressed, question: To what degree and in what ways does the home-dweller conform to or move away from prescribed ways of living? My focus is late twentieth and early twenty-first century middle-class, single-family housing built by speculative developers, the most common form of dwelling in the United States. Between 1998 and 2004 I conducted field-work analysis of the walk-through model home and its accompanying literature. I explored house marketing techniques to clarify how these spaces and the objects placed in them are used as symbols of social identity and the ways in which artifacts shape, and are shaped by, communally driven perceptions of middle-class values. I also examined the hierarchical division of domestic space and the gendering of spaces in the constructed spectacle of the walk-through furnished model home. My study was also a consideration of ways in which these staged spaces support culturally perceived norms while denying actual social, cultural, and economic realities.This paper builds on my earlier work by considering the ways families negotiate the space in which they live. Based on ethnographic field-work and oral histories of persons now living in the homes analyzed in my initial research, I have constructed a comparative analysis of the house as commodity and the house as lived experience that reveals how home-dwellers utilize space in their practices of everyday living and how these practices ascribe to or challenge overarching ideas of domesticity and ideas of life in the home as presented in house merchandising material. Through case studies, this paper explores the relationship between ideal and real lives as articulated in middle-class, single-family dwellings of the United States at the turn of the twenty-first century

Keywords

Architecture,housing,suburbs,merchandising,domestic spaceword count - 7985

References

Anonymous Families One, Two and Three. (2012). Interviewed by Ellen Avitts. September.
Anonymous Judd Developers Salesperson. (1998). Interviewed by Ellen Avitts. March.
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. Translated from French by R. Nice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Original, Bourdieu, P. (1972) Esquisse d’une théorie de la pratique. Paris: Éditions Points.
Downing, A. J. (1850) The Architecture of Country Houses; including designs for cottages, and farmhouses, and villas, with remarks on interiors, furniture, and the best modes of warming and ventilating. New York: De. Appleton & Co.
Graham, K. (1999). ‘Where Are Your Customers Headed: Merchandising to Trends.’ The Best of Sales & Marketing Ideas. Washington, DC: The Home Builder Press, pp. 48-50.
Hanley Woodbuilder, Inc. Builder Online [online], (January 1997). Available at: http://BUILDEROnline.com.
Kron, J. (1983). Home-Psych: The Social Psychology of Home and Decoration. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc.
Judd Builders and Developers. Advertising Packet, 1998.

Lowenthal, D. (1985). The Past is a Foreign County. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Mitchell, J. and Buzby, B. (1999). ‘Top 10 Merchandising Trends.’ The Best of Sales & Marketing Ideas. Washington DC: The Home Builder Press, pp. 45-47.
Parker, D. and Clark, C. R. (1999). Marketing New Homes. Washington, DC: The Home Builders Press.
Stewart, S. (1993). On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Trupp, B. (1981). Color it Home: A Builder’s Guide to Interior Design and Merchandising. Boston: CBI Publishing Company, Inc.
Tuan, Y. (1982). Segmented Worlds and Self: Group Life and Individual Consciousness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Weber, C. (2002). “Show and Sell,” Builder Online [online], (9 January 2002). Available at: http://BUILDEROnline. com.
Captions of Visual Material (All photos by author)
Figure 1. Williamsburg Grand Model Home
Figure 2. Judd Builders/Developers Promotional Brochure (two images)
Figure 3. Floorplan, Williamsburg Grand Figure 4. Formal Living Room, Williamsburg Grand
Figure 5. Dining Room, Williamsburg Grand, from Formal Living Room (two images)
Figure 6. Informal Spaces, Williamsburg Grand (two images)
Figure 7. Sunroom, Williamsburg Grand (three images)
Figure 8. Formal Dining Room, Family Two Figure 9. Formal Living Room, Family Two Figure 10. Formal Living Room, Family One
Figure 11. Family Room, Family One
Figure 12. Home Office, Family One and Model Home Office (two images)

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

-

Journal Section

-

Authors

Ellen Avıtts This is me

Publication Date

April 1, 2019

Submission Date

-

Acceptance Date

-

Published in Issue

Year 2019 Volume: 4 Number: 1

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA92LG93SG

Cite

RIS / Bibtex

APA

Avıtts, E. (2019). THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: SUBURBAN RHETORIC AND REALITY AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. International Journal of Architecture and Urban Studies, 4(1), 63-76. https://izlik.org/JA92LG93SG

AMA

1.Avıtts E. THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: SUBURBAN RHETORIC AND REALITY AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. International Journal of Architecture and Urban Studies. 2019;4(1):63-76. https://izlik.org/JA92LG93SG

Chicago

Avıtts, Ellen. 2019. “THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: SUBURBAN RHETORIC AND REALITY AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY”. International Journal of Architecture and Urban Studies 4 (1): 63-76. https://izlik.org/JA92LG93SG.

EndNote

Avıtts E (April 1, 2019) THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: SUBURBAN RHETORIC AND REALITY AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. International Journal of Architecture and Urban Studies 4 1 63–76.

IEEE

[1]E. Avıtts, “THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: SUBURBAN RHETORIC AND REALITY AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY”, International Journal of Architecture and Urban Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 63–76, Apr. 2019, [Online]. Available: https://izlik.org/JA92LG93SG

ISNAD

Avıtts, Ellen. “THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: SUBURBAN RHETORIC AND REALITY AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY”. International Journal of Architecture and Urban Studies 4/1 (April 1, 2019): 63-76. https://izlik.org/JA92LG93SG.

JAMA

1.Avıtts E. THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: SUBURBAN RHETORIC AND REALITY AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. International Journal of Architecture and Urban Studies. 2019;4:63–76.

MLA

Avıtts, Ellen. “THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: SUBURBAN RHETORIC AND REALITY AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY”. International Journal of Architecture and Urban Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, Apr. 2019, pp. 63-76, https://izlik.org/JA92LG93SG.

Vancouver

1.Ellen Avıtts. THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: SUBURBAN RHETORIC AND REALITY AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. International Journal of Architecture and Urban Studies [Internet]. 2019 Apr. 1;4(1):63-76. Available from: https://izlik.org/JA92LG93SG