Housing the Family

The suburban, detached single-family home is a major legacy of the Fordist decades of the twentieth century. In 2011, two-thirds of German households occupied such single-family houses. These buildings have embodied the political support for a way of life and type of living arrangement since the 1950s, and continue to symbolise dreams of home, prosperity, and social status. West German suburbs today consist mainly of single-family homes built between the fifties and eighties. However, municipal administrations and politics at the local level are now faced with the emptying of single-family housing areas at the edges of villages and small towns. At the same time, young families in particular are calling for building plots in the countryside. Whilst remaining aware of critiques of the single-family home in urban planning and architecture, this interdisciplinary volume offers fresh insights into these dwellings - from their place in everyday life and popular culture, to changing welfare regimes and demographic change, and to the implementation of ecological frameworks in the construction industry.