Home: Domestic Architecture and Social Space

Why do we live the way we do in the homes we do? In this class we will examine the development of housing types in both America and Europe. Beyond the single-family home as a symbol of the “American dream” is "the home" as a focal point for cooperative movements, feminism, municipal socialism, benevolent (and not so benevolent) capitalism and government interventions. Home has also been subject to improvement schemes by religious and secular authorities. In this course we will draw on the writings and renderings of architectural, landscape, art, and urban historians, as well as anthropologists, geographers, and scholars of ethnic and cultural studies to decipher "the home" and what it means in these and other contexts.

(This course is part of a collaborative cluster of First Year Seminars focused on home and belonging. Students who complete this FY seminar may not enroll in HARC0339.)