A History of Domestic Space

Privacy and the Canadian Home

By Peter Ward
Categories: History, Urban Studies, Planning & Architecture, Architecture, Canadian History
Publisher: UBC Press
Hardcover : 9780774806848, 192 pages, October 1999
Paperback : 9780774806855, 192 pages, July 2009
Ebook (PDF) : 9780774852258, 192 pages, November 2007

Table of contents

1: Housing and Privacy

2: Interiors

Little House, Big House

The Question of Crowding

The Organization of Household Space

Domestic Technology and Interior Spaces

The Bathroom

The Parlour

The Kitchen

The Bedroom

The Apartment

3: The House in Its Setting

The Farmhouse

The Villa

The Home in City and Suburb

The Front of the House

Porches, Verandahs, Patios, Decks Gardens and Yards

4: Privacy and the Canadian Home

Notes

Suggested Reading

Illustration Credits

Index

Description

This is a history of domestic space in Canada. Peter Ward looks at how spaces in the Canadian home have changed over the last three centuries, and how family and social relationships have shaped – and been shaped by – these changing spaces. A fundamental element of daily life for individuals and families is domestic privacy, that of individuals and that of the family or household.

Awards

  • Winner, Alcuin Citation for excellence in book design in Canada, Alcuin Society 1999

Reviews

... readers will enjoy this humanized view of Canadian architecture. Ward’s book is a welcome complement to the recently published Homeplace by Peter Ennals and Deryck Holdsworth.

- Laurie Stanley-Blackwell

Throughout, in direct, simple prose, Ward offers stimulating observations on and excellent documentation of the domestic landscape. The photographs and other illustrations are, likewise, highly informative ... highly recommended for all architecture, interior design, and material culture collections.

- Paul Glassman, New York School of Interior Design Library

... packed with wonderful historic details about real Canadian homes and families ... both of these books provide fascinating nuggets of information ... about topics that have been obscured by our myth-making American neighbour. And they bring to life the unique texture of daily Canadian life that was buried in our mothers’, fathers’, and grandparents’ journals, letters, pictures and stories.

- Frances Bula