Attention house nerds
April 25, 2022 4:39 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for smart/scholarly resources about the construction of single-family homes -- less about architectural styles and more about how trends in materials and construction techniques have changed over time.
Like if anyone has written a scholarly history of drywall, I would LOVE to hear about that. Mostly 20th/21st century, mostly U.S., but other relevant info still appreciated.
Like if anyone has written a scholarly history of drywall, I would LOVE to hear about that. Mostly 20th/21st century, mostly U.S., but other relevant info still appreciated.
sorry forgot to add: most of BSC content is freely available - a lot of Green Building Advisor content at least requires an account if not a paid membership.
posted by The_Vegetables at 5:07 PM on April 25, 2022
posted by The_Vegetables at 5:07 PM on April 25, 2022
The Walls Around Us by David Owen is the book you are looking for. Only issue is that it was published in 1991 so not exactly up to date. But if you want to learn about the changes over the years in materials and construction techniques of, like, wallboard and plaster, it's all here. There's also a certain amount of Dave-Barry-like foibles of the author as he tries to maintain his antique house.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 5:48 PM on April 25, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 5:48 PM on April 25, 2022 [4 favorites]
Welcome house nerd! You won't be shocked to discover scholarship about building materials, and, especially, their conservation, is a huge field, in architectural history and conservation/heritage. Materials And Skills for Historic Building Conservation is a great textbook, for instance, or Donald Friedman's Historical Building Construction, or the technical notes in the NSW Heritage Manual (which are Australia-focused, but not so much to be alien to the rest of the world).
If you're interested in drywall, so has been this author in The Atlantic. The field being what it is though, the more scholarly the work the more localised it will be, and it will be really hard to find a properly scholarly universal-drywall history, let alone one for bricks or masonry or timber: materials really do get used in fundamentally different ways in different countries and regions. For Australia (my own country) it's Pat Troy's History of European Housing in Australia and Robert Irving's History and Design of the Australian House, and Identifying Australian Architecture—but even within the United States you're obviously going to find drastic distinctions in materials use and design between, say, California, New York, the Midwest, and the South.
(Beware of Wrath of Gnon, by the way—he's one of those surprisingly cryptic posters who slips hard-right Trad stuff under the radar of walkability, urbanism, and architecture-appreciation; if he's not fashy, he's fashy-adjacent.)
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 6:03 PM on April 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
If you're interested in drywall, so has been this author in The Atlantic. The field being what it is though, the more scholarly the work the more localised it will be, and it will be really hard to find a properly scholarly universal-drywall history, let alone one for bricks or masonry or timber: materials really do get used in fundamentally different ways in different countries and regions. For Australia (my own country) it's Pat Troy's History of European Housing in Australia and Robert Irving's History and Design of the Australian House, and Identifying Australian Architecture—but even within the United States you're obviously going to find drastic distinctions in materials use and design between, say, California, New York, the Midwest, and the South.
(Beware of Wrath of Gnon, by the way—he's one of those surprisingly cryptic posters who slips hard-right Trad stuff under the radar of walkability, urbanism, and architecture-appreciation; if he's not fashy, he's fashy-adjacent.)
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 6:03 PM on April 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
For recent stuff, there may be trade journals that apply. That is, I know there were before The Internetting; I still remember a special issue on the failures of roof-wall ties over the 1970s-1990s of hurricanes and code changes in the US SE. Very specific about how building techniques had changed, with casual reference to how building styles had been affected. Also, amazing pictures of exploded houses.
Can’t remember what the journal name was. The regional really good tool store had a little used magazine/book section and I was just flipping through.
posted by clew at 9:39 AM on April 26, 2022
Can’t remember what the journal name was. The regional really good tool store had a little used magazine/book section and I was just flipping through.
posted by clew at 9:39 AM on April 26, 2022
You might enjoy the Vernacular Architecture Forum, "the premier organization in North America studying ordinary buildings and landscapes."
posted by sepviva at 10:03 AM on April 26, 2022
posted by sepviva at 10:03 AM on April 26, 2022
Just came across this Building Technology Heritage Library from the Association for Preservation Technology, Int.
More primary source than analysis though.
posted by sepviva at 10:39 AM on April 27, 2022
More primary source than analysis though.
posted by sepviva at 10:39 AM on April 27, 2022
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building science corporation scholarly articles about residential construction techniques. they often compare modern techniques to older ones. They don't necessarily have a bias for newer techniques (whereas by older - I still mean 1920 and later), but they generally were not terribly energy efficient so they don't compare favorably.
Green Building advisor uses techniques described by BSC to build homes.
Twitter: Wrath of Gnon covers historical building techniques (straw and mud) contrasted with modern techniques (drywall). He's got a real bias for older stuff.
posted by The_Vegetables at 5:05 PM on April 25, 2022 [1 favorite]