Building small houses in postwar Canada: Architects, homeowners and bureaucratic ideals, 1947-1974
Notice bibliographique
Résumé
The Canadian urban landscape is filled with single-detached houses built in the post-World War II period. Whether one-storey, one-and-a-half-storey, two-storey or split-level, they were built by families across the country from efficient plans featuring minimal square footage. Many plans were designed by Canadian architects and included in catalogues published by the Central (now Canada) Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) during the first two decades after the Second World War. In setting up a Small House Design Scheme for the particular purpose of urbanizing communities smaller than those in the big cities, the corporation acted as mediator between architects and homeowners who could not afford professional services. This endeavour was inscribed in a larger effort made by CMHC to educate Canadian homeowners and builders in architectural matters. This dissertation argues that the postwar houses, despite their small size, are a major arena for the expression of modernism defined as it were by ideals of an egalitarian democracy and by scientific rationalism embraced by Canadian leaders at the time and projected unto the Canadian society. In this respect, the CMHC catalogues were vehicles to educate and convince ordinary Canadians of the values of modernism. While these plan books are the principal primary sources in this study, a rich collection of written documents and architectural drawings, as well as numerous oral histories collected from CMHC employees, architects and homeowners complete the picture. CMHC followed the model of the United States Federal Housing Administration, yet architects working for the corporation brought in distinctly British architectural and urban planning ideals. American and British models thus highly influenced the views which CMHC imposed on Canadians and which were underlined by concepts such as those of 'modern space' and 'modern family'. In looking at prescribed models for family ideals in the era and by means of interviews with people who purchased postwar houses (and/or their children), this study addresses how the transformations which occurred in the house plan are connected with social changes in postwar Canada. In terms of the architectural models which were circulated in the postwar years, this study looks at the roles of federal and provincial agencies, as well as professionals like architects and builders. It systematically explores the designs in the CMHC catalogues to uncover when and why changes occurred in the postwar house plan; it engages the role of the media - such as popular magazines, television shows and film documentaries – as a milieu liaising between the ideals and realities of the era in promoting modern life-styles based on traditional values. Lastly, it considers the opinions of the original inhabitants in an attempt to locate the intersection of real and ideal lives within these houses. With its focus on Canadian sources, this analysis is inscribed in a larger assessment of the North American architectural profession, postwar material culture and house design. It provides critical points to understand the impact of federal mandates such as CMHC's Small House Design Scheme in Canadian society beyond the immediate scope of this project, as houses built in Canada today are directly derived from the trail of thought and implementation of this Scheme.
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Comment cette classification a été obtenuedéplier
Prédiction distillée sur la base complète
Imitation des enseignantsNi prévalence calibrée, ni vérité terrain. Validation humaine à venir. Apprise à partir de 10 348 étiquettes directes de Codex et de 10 348 étiquettes directes de Gemma. Le mode candidate est l'union des têtes enseignantes seuillées; le consensus est leur intersection. Ces sorties portent le statut machine_predicted_unvalidated et ne sont ni des étiquettes humaines ni des étiquettes directes de modèles de pointe.
Scores Codex et Gemma par catégorie
| Catégorie | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Métarecherche | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens strict) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens large) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Bibliométrie | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Études des sciences et des technologies | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Communication savante | 0,001 | 0,000 |
| Science ouverte | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Intégrité de la recherche | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Charge utile insuffisante (le modèle a refusé de juger) | 0,001 | 0,000 |
Scores machine (provisoires)
Les deux têtes enseignantes du modèle étudiant, lues sur ce travail. Un score ordonne la base pour la relecture; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie, et le statut de validation accompagne chaque rangée tel quel.
Scores de référence d'un modèle non mature (critères de maturité non atteints, 7 itérations). Un score ordonne; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · tel quel depuis la passe de notation : score_only signifie que le nombre peut ordonner les travaux, et qu'aucune étiquette de catégorie n'en découleClassification
machine, non validéePrédiction automatique; un appel candidat d’une seule tête enseignante, pas un consensus.
Le détail, modèle par modèle et score par score, se trouve en fin de page sous « Comment cette classification a été obtenue ».