Abstract

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, fire disasters and health-safety issues led to the widespread adoption of building codes. While the National Board of Fire Underwriters published the National Building Code in 1905, the code did not maintain regulatory consistency across the nation. This lack of consistency across the nation and socio-economic factors contributed to a nation-wide housing shortage of a million units by 1919. During World War I, the government addressed the housing crisis through the United States Housing Corporation and Emergency Fleet Corporation, building public housing based on the ideals of the Garden City Movement.[1] Following the war, these corporations were shut down, but the housing crisis persisted. In 1923, under Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, the Department of Commerce released the Recommended Minimum Standard Requirements of Small Dwelling Construction (BH1) to standardize and economize single-family housing construction nationwide. In addition to this, the government encouraged and popularized the lifestyle of single-family living through the Better Homes of America association. Linking these two directly is the involvement of architect Edwin H. Brown, who both helped write BH1 and ran the Architects Small House Service Bureau, which designed homes that fit the ideals of Better Homes. These two factors would impact the landscape of American domestic life and residential architecture into the modern day.

[1] Robert A. M. Stern, Paradise Planned: The Garden Suburb, (The Monacelli Press, 2013), pg. 863.

Committee Chair

Robert Moore

Committee Members

Eric Mumford, Matthew Allen, Michelle L. Hauk, Mónica Rivera, Don Koster

Degree

MS in Architectural Studies

Author's Department

Graduate School of Architecture

Author's School

Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

Fall 12-18-2024

Language

English (en)

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