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Book Review
Canada and the United States
Peter Ennals and Deryck W. Holdsworth. Homeplace: The Making of the Canadian Dwelling over Three Centuries. Buffalo: University of Toronto Press. 1998. Pp. xvi, 305. Cloth $65.00, paper $24.95.
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Architectural history, because of its close association with the study of fine art, is usually a stylistic appraisal of architect-designed structures, with reflections upon the cultural significance of their form and decoration. The shortcoming of this aesthetic approach is its indifference to technology and its focus on institutional buildings and the grand homes of the social elite. Such homes were made to impress the viewer with the client's wealth, taste, and, in Canada, attachment to Britain. Peter Ennals and Deryck W. Holdsworth are historical geographers who see themselves as "laying out a different and productive way of evaluating Canada's housing history, in which the artefact is set squarely amid the social and economic forces that energized the settlement experience and geography of the country" (p. xii). In addition to the high-style "polite houses," they consider the more numerous vernacular dwellings, "folk houses," and company housing for workers that were all erected by builders without formal architectural training. Climate and local resources were more important than style in these humbler structures. The writers' inclusion of rough, improvised, and, sometimes, temporary shelters for resource-industry workers, such as loggers, is original. The disposition of space within dwellings is noted, as is its social significance. Building methods and new technology, such as the iron stove, are discussed, but in a more cursory way. Ennals's line drawings of exteriors and floor-plans complement the text nicely. |
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