Home: A Short History of an Idea

by Witold Rybczynski

Overview

Walk through five centuries of homes both great and small—from the smoke-filled manor halls of the Middle Ages to today's Ralph Lauren-designed environments—on a house tour like no other, one that delightfully explicates the very idea of "home."

You'll see how social and cultural changes influenced styles of decoration and furnishing, learn the connection between wall-hung religious tapestries and wall-to-wall carpeting, discover how some of our most welcome luxuries were born of architectural necessity, and much more. Most of all, Home opens a rare window into our private lives—and how we really want to live.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140102314
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/07/1987
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	428,505
Product dimensions:	5.09(w) x 7.73(h) x 0.72(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Witold Rybczynski of Polish parentage, was born in Edinburgh in 1943, raised in Surrey, and attended Jesuit schools in England and Canada. He received Bachelor of Architecture (1960) and Master of Architecture (1972) degrees from McGill University in Montreal. He has written for the Atlantic, New Yorker, New York Review of Books, and the New York Times, and has been architecture critic for Saturday Night, Wigwag, and Slate. His book include Taming the Tiger, Paper Heroes, The Most Beautiful House in the World, Waiting for the Weekend, and Looking Around: A Journey Through Architecture, City Life and Charleston Fancy. He lives with his wife, Shirley Hallam, in Philadelphia and is Emeritus Professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Home Foreword
Chapter One: Nostalgia
*Two: Intimacy and Privacy
*Three: Domesticity
*Four: Commodity and Delight
*Five: Ease
*Six: Light and Air
*Seven: Efficiency
*Eight: Style and Substance
*Nine: Austerity
*Ten: Comfort and Well-Being
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Here is a book that will change thew ay you look at your house or apartment—for the better."
—People

"Rybczynski's style is as loose and, yes, as comfortable as a down-filled comforter."
—The Christian Science Monitor

"Sensible and stylish"
—Newsweek

"It's a bracing, irreverent, worldly wise book."
—Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Home is serious, historically minded, and exquisitely readable. It is a triumph of intelligence."
—The New Yorker

From the Publisher

In a loosely configured essay, Rybczynski (Architecture, McGill Univ.) discusses the idea of comfort and the Western cultural attitudes that have shaped it since the end of the middle ages. Rather than dealing with the technical aspects of architecture, he reviews such cultural variables as intimacy and privacy, domesticity, ease, and ideas about light, air, and efficiency as they have changed over time. Essentially Rybczynski makes a plea for the primacy of cultural ideals as a basis for creating psychologically comfortable homes. Though he is selective in his history and examples, this is a worthwhile counterweight to the all-too-common technical practices of modern architects. Recommended. Jack Perry Brown, Ryerson & Burnham Libs., Art Inst. of Chicago

Library Journal