Home: A Short History of An Idea

Judging by all the traffic around books on this site, there are some real readers in the AT community. We were a little surprised to find that one of our favorite books hasn't received too much attention.

Home: A Short History of an Idea gives you a soup to nuts history of the idea of the home beginning with the manor halls of the Middle Ages to contemporary Ralph Lauren-designed environments. The book explores the connections between wall-hung religious tapestries and wall-to-wall carpeting and reveals how some of our most welcome luxuries were born of architectural necessity, and much more.

We have to admit, it's a little nerdy, but it really is fascinating read into why we feel the way we do about our homes. We'd love to hear about your favorite home-related reads.

Other Book-Related Posts on AT
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Collecting Books
Store Your Books in the Rafters

Coffee Table Books

painting by Emmanuel de Witte

Comments (6)

This book is more of an essay really - it's a short and easy read.

I enjoyed it very much when it was first published several years ago, as well other books he's written such as "The Most Beautiful House in the World" and "The Look of Architecture"

That's one of my favorite books! I don't think it's nerdy at all, or maybe I'm a nerd. A related book, and another one of my favorites, is The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard.

How is this nerdy? What kind of reaction is AT expecting? If you really want to have a discussion about books about domestic spaces, let's have a forum for AT commenters.

Thanks for reminding me that I need to pick this up. I always enjoy Rybczynski's articles for Slate.

It was mandatory reading in my first year of architecture school and a real eye-opener.

If you like that one, I'd also recommend Michael Pollan's "A Place of My Own", which he wrote before he got into food. It's even a bit nerdier, with more references to architectural theory, but written in Pollan's narrative and easy-to-digest style.

A consistent area of interest of his has been affordable housing (he was required reading in environmental design school). Along with another McGill professor, he developed The Grow Home.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE0DE153AF937A25755C0A966958260

http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/inpr/afhoce/tore/afhoid/cohode/buhoin/buhoin_005.cfm

http://www.dianaswednesday.com/2007/10/the-grow-home/

But here is a recent article of his that AT should be discussing in a forum:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-rybczynski_05edi.d8338fb3.html

Witold Rybczynski is someone AT should have been focussing on all along...