A History of Domestic Space: Privacy and the Canadian Home

Homes are our most personal, private places, at the heart of how we conceive of life outside the public sphere. A History of Domestic Space explores how domestic architecture has shaped and been shaped by family and social relationships over the past three centuries. The changing form, setting, and technology of the home have profoundly affected our opportunities for individual privacy within a family and family privacy within a community.

The earliest Canadian house form consisted of a single room. We've added and moved rooms and their functions according to the needs and wants of the changing Canadian family. In the eighteenth century, for example, most people would expect neither bed nor bedroom to themselves. When bedrooms did appear, they first opened directly off the main room, only later moving upstairs or down a corridor to the most private part of the home. The bathroom, which now often takes the form of a spacious en suite, began life as the humble outdoor privy. Among the most revolutionary domestic technologies, indoor plumbing has changed the interior of the home forever. Peter Ward examines the evolution of each room in turn - its placement, priority, and purpose - before turning to the exterior of the house and its meaning.

How have today's big houses and small families affected the bond between parents and children? Does the occupant of a high-rise apartment have more or less privacy than the occupant of a farmhouse? What did Canadians consider to be enough domestic space for one person in the eighteenth century? What do they think in the present? These are just some of the questions that Peter Ward considers in this beautifully rendered exploration of the Canadian home. Its unique perspective breathes life into the homes of the past and throws the door open to the homes of the present.