I thought I should find out how a standard McMansion style house is put together – having been an architect and noticing that they seemed to be really badly built. I did some reading up.
The standard construction materials are essentially: timber of the same grade used for temporary hoardings (structure); expensive garbage bags (DPMs); bubble pack grade plastic (siding, soffits, sills); staples; Tyvec envelopes and fly paper (weather proofing).
The principal American domestic architecture of the last 20 years consists of a building type based on ascetic Protestant architecture designed to minimize flamboyance or display of wealth, which is then blown up to a large scale to do just that, complete with neo-baroque trimmings (ironically from catholic architecture) which are made out of plastic.
This same building form spans an entire sub-continent with a climate that ranges from tundra to tropical and culture that varies from Appalachian to Amerindian. It is constructed using materials that are of lower quality that the packaging in most consumer goods. It is an architectural tragedy, whose only saving grace is that, unlike concrete brutalism, it is bio-degradable.
Bio-degradable? Mmmm, I don’t think so. Recyclable, yes, for the most part, but bio-degradable, no.
Woe is us David! I love the post, but why did it happen? Growing up in Northern Virginia, I am always confused seeing massive house-farms supplant their food-based predecessors, and sprout the abominations you describe here.
My question is – WHY? Because it’s cheap? But surely there are passive-heat, solar-powered, albeit smaller-scaled, houses for the same (or less) money.
Do the builders make more money off of disposable housing than they would by building houses made to last?
I’m confused!
The “why” to this question is simple… The vast majority of people don’t care about architecture. They don’t even really care about “nice” spaces or high-quality materials. They mostly just want a big room to watch their big TV’s in, a big bedroom to sleep in their big beds in, with big closets to keep their big wardrobes in. Square footage is king. And don’t forget the big, multi-car garages…