WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.220 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are going 00:00:03.220 --> 00:00:06.860 to do something a little bit, well, a little 00:00:06.860 --> 00:00:08.980 bit different. A little closer to home, you might 00:00:08.980 --> 00:00:12.019 say. Literally. Yeah, usually we're looking at, 00:00:12.019 --> 00:00:14.400 you know, these big abstract concepts or tech 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:16.859 trends, but today we're zooming in on something 00:00:16.859 --> 00:00:20.379 so physical, so omnipresent, that I think most 00:00:20.379 --> 00:00:22.460 of us have just stopped actually seeing it. Right. 00:00:22.910 --> 00:00:24.949 It's the background radiation of modern life. 00:00:25.089 --> 00:00:28.010 It is. It's arguably the most common back of 00:00:28.010 --> 00:00:31.469 the American dream. It's the set for, what, 90 00:00:31.469 --> 00:00:33.750 % of the sitcoms you grew up watching? Oh, at 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:36.829 least. And there's a statistically very high 00:00:36.829 --> 00:00:38.689 probability that you were sitting inside one 00:00:38.689 --> 00:00:40.030 of these things right now while you listen to 00:00:40.030 --> 00:00:42.170 this. Yeah. We're talking about the single family 00:00:42.170 --> 00:00:45.469 detached home. The ubiquitous box. I know on 00:00:45.469 --> 00:00:48.210 the surface that sounds, well, a little mundane, 00:00:48.329 --> 00:00:50.049 doesn't it? It's just a house. It's four walls, 00:00:50.250 --> 00:00:52.700 a roof. Maybe a driveway. Yeah, what's there 00:00:52.700 --> 00:00:54.840 to talk about for an hour? But when you actually 00:00:54.840 --> 00:00:57.600 dig into the source material we have today, which 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:00.500 is this really fascinating stack covering sociology, 00:01:01.020 --> 00:01:04.780 architectural history, linguistics, and a frankly 00:01:04.780 --> 00:01:09.939 exhausting catalog of room types. It just reveals 00:01:09.939 --> 00:01:12.579 a much more complex story. It really does. I 00:01:12.579 --> 00:01:14.019 went into this thinking, you know, we were just 00:01:14.019 --> 00:01:15.579 going to talk about drywall, maybe some property 00:01:15.579 --> 00:01:17.879 taxes, mortgage rates. But this is really a history 00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:20.060 of privacy, isn't it? It's not about construction. 00:01:20.260 --> 00:01:22.599 It's about psychology. It is. It's about a fundamental 00:01:22.599 --> 00:01:25.120 shift in how humans organize themselves socially. 00:01:25.799 --> 00:01:28.980 It's about how we decided, as a species, to stop 00:01:28.980 --> 00:01:31.319 living on top of each other and start building 00:01:31.319 --> 00:01:33.159 these little moats of air around our families. 00:01:33.480 --> 00:01:35.680 So our mission today is to look past the curb 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:38.019 appeal. We want to understand why we live this 00:01:38.019 --> 00:01:40.980 way. And why the terminology, the words we use, 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:43.359 create such massive confusion if you try to talk 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:45.280 about real estate across the Atlantic. Oh, the 00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:47.620 U .S. versus U .K. thing is a minefield. Right. 00:01:47.700 --> 00:01:50.620 And also what the future holds for this specific 00:01:50.620 --> 00:01:53.099 structure, because as we're going to see, the 00:01:53.099 --> 00:01:55.340 single family detached home isn't just a pile 00:01:55.340 --> 00:01:57.540 of bricks. It's a statement. It's a statement 00:01:57.540 --> 00:02:00.379 that says, I am separate. I mean, you take the 00:02:00.379 --> 00:02:02.700 high level view. For the vast majority of human 00:02:02.700 --> 00:02:05.400 history, living in a detached box with just your 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:09.490 immediate biological family was... Weird. It 00:02:09.490 --> 00:02:11.449 was an anomaly. It wasn't the default setting. 00:02:11.650 --> 00:02:13.889 Not at all. We moved from communal survival, 00:02:14.129 --> 00:02:17.849 living in clans, tribes, multi -generational 00:02:17.849 --> 00:02:22.430 clusters, to this intense, almost obsessive focus 00:02:22.430 --> 00:02:24.949 on individual privacy. And what's fascinating 00:02:24.949 --> 00:02:27.530 now is that we're at a point in the 21st century 00:02:27.530 --> 00:02:29.990 where that whole shift is being challenged again. 00:02:30.250 --> 00:02:32.330 It feels like a full circle moment. But before 00:02:32.330 --> 00:02:34.289 we get to the future, we have to look at the 00:02:34.289 --> 00:02:36.110 source stack we've got. It's pretty comprehensive. 00:02:36.370 --> 00:02:37.990 We've got a breakdown of definitions. The legal 00:02:37.990 --> 00:02:40.509 stuff, the zoning stuff. Yeah. Then the regional 00:02:40.509 --> 00:02:42.830 terminologies, specifically that U .S. versus 00:02:42.830 --> 00:02:44.590 U .K. and Commonwealth divide you mentioned. 00:02:44.789 --> 00:02:47.189 And a historical evolution that takes us from 00:02:47.189 --> 00:02:50.189 like pre -industrial times right up to the post 00:02:50.189 --> 00:02:52.289 -World War II boom. And we also have an architectural 00:02:52.289 --> 00:02:53.669 breakdown. We're going to look at everything 00:02:53.669 --> 00:02:56.009 from a humble cottage all the way up to a palace. 00:02:56.270 --> 00:02:59.530 And we have this list of rooms that is honestly... 00:02:59.560 --> 00:03:02.300 mind -boggling. That list is my favorite part. 00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:04.919 I'm not kidding. There are rooms in there I didn't 00:03:04.919 --> 00:03:07.139 even know had names and some that I have definitely 00:03:07.139 --> 00:03:09.819 decided I need to add to my dream house. I think 00:03:09.819 --> 00:03:11.639 I know which ones you mean. But before we get 00:03:11.639 --> 00:03:13.280 lost in the blueprints, I want to tease something 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:15.620 that just jumped out at me immediately. There 00:03:15.620 --> 00:03:18.379 is a term in the sources for a specific type 00:03:18.379 --> 00:03:21.360 of house design that sounds absolutely ridiculous. 00:03:21.800 --> 00:03:24.759 It's called the snout house. The Snout House, 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:28.060 yes. It sounds funny, almost like a cartoon character's 00:03:28.060 --> 00:03:31.500 house, but it describes a very real and often 00:03:31.500 --> 00:03:34.400 criticized phenomenon in modern suburban design. 00:03:34.919 --> 00:03:37.099 It's a perfect example of how our priorities 00:03:37.099 --> 00:03:39.659 have shifted over the last, what, 50 or 60 years. 00:03:39.740 --> 00:03:42.020 I can't wait to unpack that. And on your end, 00:03:42.039 --> 00:03:43.919 you found some stuff about why living with your 00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:47.039 in -laws used to be basically the only way to 00:03:47.039 --> 00:03:49.750 survive. That's right. We tend to think of the 00:03:49.750 --> 00:03:53.310 nuclear family, mom, dad, kids, as the traditional 00:03:53.310 --> 00:03:56.629 family, right? But historically speaking, that's 00:03:56.629 --> 00:03:59.330 not it. Living with your parents and your spouse's 00:03:59.330 --> 00:04:01.370 parents was the default setting for centuries. 00:04:01.569 --> 00:04:03.949 The fact that we stopped doing that is actually 00:04:03.949 --> 00:04:06.169 the strange part of the timeline. Okay, let's 00:04:06.169 --> 00:04:07.930 dive in. Let's start with the basics. Section 00:04:07.930 --> 00:04:12.629 one, defining the box. What actually is a single 00:04:12.629 --> 00:04:15.770 family detached home? Because I feel like I know 00:04:15.770 --> 00:04:19.170 it when I see it, but the legal definitions are 00:04:19.170 --> 00:04:22.829 surprisingly rigid. They are. So if we look at 00:04:22.829 --> 00:04:24.750 the technical definition that's in our material, 00:04:24.870 --> 00:04:27.410 specifically citing folks like Statistics Canada 00:04:27.410 --> 00:04:30.629 and general zoning usage, it's a freestanding 00:04:30.629 --> 00:04:33.329 residential building. But there are these two 00:04:33.329 --> 00:04:36.740 key criteria that make it single family. And 00:04:36.740 --> 00:04:39.319 detached. Right. So single family seems obvious. 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:42.300 But let's just clarify. It means it's occupied 00:04:42.300 --> 00:04:44.680 by one household. Correct. So it excludes hotels, 00:04:45.100 --> 00:04:47.220 rooming houses, boarding houses, or anything 00:04:47.220 --> 00:04:49.220 designed for transit accommodation. It's for 00:04:49.220 --> 00:04:51.360 a family or, you know, a single household unit 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:53.699 to inhabit terminally. But there's a little wiggle 00:04:53.699 --> 00:04:55.800 room there, isn't there? There is. And it depends 00:04:55.800 --> 00:04:58.279 on where you live. Some jurisdictions will allow 00:04:58.279 --> 00:05:00.620 for a basement suite or what they call an accessory 00:05:00.620 --> 00:05:03.100 dwelling unit. You know, like a granny flat over 00:05:03.100 --> 00:05:05.899 the garage. Ah, carriage house. Exactly. And 00:05:05.899 --> 00:05:07.860 that doesn't necessarily strip the house of its 00:05:07.860 --> 00:05:10.839 single family label. Yeah. But broadly, the design 00:05:10.839 --> 00:05:12.839 intent is for one unit to control the entire 00:05:12.839 --> 00:05:15.180 structure. Okay. And then we have the detached 00:05:15.180 --> 00:05:17.319 part. This seems like the critical distinction. 00:05:17.720 --> 00:05:20.300 This is where your mode of error comes in. This 00:05:20.300 --> 00:05:23.339 is the deal breaker. To be detached, you cannot 00:05:23.339 --> 00:05:27.220 share walls. Period. You must be completely separated 00:05:27.220 --> 00:05:30.480 by open space on all four sides from any other 00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:32.560 structure. So if you're touching the neighbor's 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:35.220 house. Even just by a garage wall or maybe a 00:05:35.220 --> 00:05:37.199 shared roofline. Then you are not in a detached 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:40.540 home. You might be in a semi -detached, a duplex, 00:05:40.779 --> 00:05:43.860 a townhouse, or a terrace house. But detached 00:05:43.860 --> 00:05:46.220 implies that you can walk all the way around 00:05:46.220 --> 00:05:48.860 your property without bumping into another building. 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:50.839 And that distinction is vital because it implies 00:05:50.839 --> 00:05:53.000 something else, right? It implies land. That's 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:55.180 a great point. The source notes that most single 00:05:55.180 --> 00:05:57.259 -family homes are built on lots that are larger 00:05:57.259 --> 00:05:59.279 than the structure itself. You aren't just buying 00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:01.360 the building. You are buying the empty space 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:05.009 around it. Which creates the yard in North American 00:06:05.009 --> 00:06:08.449 English. Or the garden in British English. And 00:06:08.449 --> 00:06:11.430 that open space is just as much a part of the 00:06:11.430 --> 00:06:14.529 definition as the walls are. It's a buffer zone. 00:06:14.750 --> 00:06:17.329 It's a way of ensuring that your noise doesn't 00:06:17.329 --> 00:06:19.389 bleed into your neighbor's life. And their cooking 00:06:19.389 --> 00:06:21.569 smells don't bleed into yours. Exactly. It's 00:06:21.569 --> 00:06:24.509 architectural social distancing. It's so interesting 00:06:24.509 --> 00:06:27.129 because that buffer zone is really inefficient. 00:06:27.230 --> 00:06:30.329 If you think about it purely from like a resource 00:06:30.329 --> 00:06:34.259 perspective. We are heating four exposed walls 00:06:34.259 --> 00:06:36.439 instead of sharing two with a neighbor and saving 00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:39.120 energy. Oh, massively inefficient. But culturally, 00:06:39.300 --> 00:06:41.899 we place a huge premium on that inefficiency. 00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:44.800 We pay extra for the air gap. We do. We pay for 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:46.980 the autonomy. When you share a wall, you share 00:06:46.980 --> 00:06:49.560 a fate, to some degree. You know? If your neighbor 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:52.240 has a leak, you might get a leak. If their kid 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:54.300 takes up the drums. You're listening to drum 00:06:54.300 --> 00:06:56.920 solos. You're listening to the drums. The Detached 00:06:56.920 --> 00:06:59.000 Home is the architectural version of Mind Your 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:01.259 Own Business. Okay, so speaking of the structure 00:07:01.259 --> 00:07:03.600 sitting on the lot, we have to talk about the 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:07.180 snout house. This term is hilarious to me, but 00:07:07.180 --> 00:07:09.480 the definition when you visualize it is actually 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:12.660 kind of sad. It is a derogatory term. It's used 00:07:12.660 --> 00:07:15.939 by architects and urban planners. A snout house 00:07:15.939 --> 00:07:19.240 is a specific layout where the attached garage 00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:23.100 creates this protruding snout. So the garage 00:07:23.100 --> 00:07:26.100 is the nose of the house. Essentially. The definition 00:07:26.100 --> 00:07:28.720 is a house where the attached front entry garage 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:31.860 sits closer to the street than the living quarters 00:07:31.860 --> 00:07:34.699 or the front door. So imagine walking down the 00:07:34.699 --> 00:07:37.060 street. You look at a house. What is the first 00:07:37.060 --> 00:07:38.620 thing you see? What's the dominant architectural 00:07:38.620 --> 00:07:41.459 feature? In a snout house, it's the garage door, 00:07:41.540 --> 00:07:44.600 a big blank garage door. Exactly. It's the door 00:07:44.600 --> 00:07:47.220 for the car, not the door for the humans. The 00:07:47.220 --> 00:07:49.220 human entrance is usually set back. Maybe it's 00:07:49.220 --> 00:07:51.660 in shadow or off to the side. An afterthought. 00:07:51.779 --> 00:07:54.180 It's like the house is saying the car lives here 00:07:54.180 --> 00:07:57.480 and the people are just guests of the car. It 00:07:57.480 --> 00:07:59.839 really emphasizes how the automobile shaped the 00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:02.000 single family home, particularly in North America 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:04.779 post 1950s. I mean, before the car became dominant, 00:08:04.860 --> 00:08:07.220 homes had front porches. The face of the house 00:08:07.220 --> 00:08:09.879 was designed to interact with the street, with 00:08:09.879 --> 00:08:11.939 pedestrians, with neighbors walking by. It was 00:08:11.939 --> 00:08:14.949 social. It was. As the car became the primary 00:08:14.949 --> 00:08:17.730 mode of transit, the garage became the primary 00:08:17.730 --> 00:08:20.170 entrance, both usually and functionally. That's 00:08:20.170 --> 00:08:22.250 such a good point. If you drive into your garage, 00:08:22.449 --> 00:08:24.629 close the door behind you with a remote and walk 00:08:24.629 --> 00:08:27.110 straight into your kitchen or your mudroom, you 00:08:27.110 --> 00:08:29.009 never actually interact with the outside world. 00:08:29.170 --> 00:08:31.870 You don't. And the snout house is the physical 00:08:31.870 --> 00:08:35.450 manifestation of that isolation. It dominates 00:08:35.450 --> 00:08:38.350 the lot in many ways. The Snout House is the 00:08:38.350 --> 00:08:41.370 ultimate expression of mid -century suburban 00:08:41.370 --> 00:08:44.889 design priorities. Privacy and mobility over, 00:08:44.950 --> 00:08:48.529 say, curb appeal or social connection. It turns 00:08:48.529 --> 00:08:50.769 the neighborhood into a storage facility for 00:08:50.769 --> 00:08:52.909 vehicles rather than a community for people. 00:08:53.070 --> 00:08:54.669 That's what the critics would say, yes. It's 00:08:54.669 --> 00:08:56.889 a fascinating evolution. We went from big front 00:08:56.889 --> 00:08:58.590 porches where you'd sit and talk to neighbors 00:08:58.590 --> 00:09:01.950 to big garage doors that just shut the world 00:09:01.950 --> 00:09:04.889 out. Now, this brings us to a bit of a language 00:09:04.889 --> 00:09:07.070 barrier, because while we're throwing around 00:09:07.070 --> 00:09:09.690 the term single family home, if we were recording 00:09:09.690 --> 00:09:11.990 this in London or Manchester, people might be 00:09:11.990 --> 00:09:14.610 looking at us funny. They absolutely would. The 00:09:14.610 --> 00:09:17.889 source explicitly states that the term single 00:09:17.889 --> 00:09:21.230 family home is almost unknown in the United Kingdom, 00:09:21.330 --> 00:09:24.629 except maybe through Internet exposure to U .S. 00:09:24.629 --> 00:09:27.889 media. Really? So if I walk into a real estate 00:09:27.889 --> 00:09:30.429 office in London and say, hi, I'd like to see 00:09:30.429 --> 00:09:32.669 your available single family homes. Do they just 00:09:32.669 --> 00:09:35.269 stare at me blankly? They might be confused for 00:09:35.269 --> 00:09:36.750 a sec. They'd figure it out. Of course, people 00:09:36.750 --> 00:09:38.950 live in houses there, too. But the terminology 00:09:38.950 --> 00:09:41.169 and the mental classification are completely 00:09:41.169 --> 00:09:43.649 different. In the U .S., the real estate market 00:09:43.649 --> 00:09:47.250 classifies housing into single family, multifamily, 00:09:47.389 --> 00:09:50.509 condo and so on. It classifies based on the occupant 00:09:50.509 --> 00:09:53.190 unit. OK, so it's about who lives there and in 00:09:53.190 --> 00:09:56.230 the U .K. In the U .K., the primary mental division 00:09:56.230 --> 00:09:59.889 is simply between houses. And flats. Flats being 00:09:59.889 --> 00:10:01.929 apartments. Right. So in the UK, if you live 00:10:01.929 --> 00:10:03.450 in a structure that goes from the ground to the 00:10:03.450 --> 00:10:05.450 roof, you live in a house. It doesn't matter 00:10:05.450 --> 00:10:07.190 if it's attached to neighbors on both sides or 00:10:07.190 --> 00:10:09.970 not. A row home, what they call a terraced house, 00:10:10.049 --> 00:10:13.289 is a house. A semi -detached is a house. So house 00:10:13.289 --> 00:10:16.110 is the big category. Exactly. Within that house 00:10:16.110 --> 00:10:19.730 category, they then specify detached, semi -detached, 00:10:19.750 --> 00:10:22.210 or terraced. But they wouldn't say, I'm looking 00:10:22.210 --> 00:10:24.990 to buy a single family home. They'd say, I'm 00:10:24.990 --> 00:10:27.399 looking for a detached house. That's a subtle 00:10:27.399 --> 00:10:30.340 but really important difference. The U .S. term 00:10:30.340 --> 00:10:32.960 emphasizes the family, the social unit inside. 00:10:33.179 --> 00:10:36.259 Right. But the UK term emphasizes the structure, 00:10:36.419 --> 00:10:39.419 the brick and mortar separation. That's a really 00:10:39.419 --> 00:10:41.740 astute observation. Yeah. And I think it speaks 00:10:41.740 --> 00:10:45.399 to how rare detached housing can be in denser 00:10:45.399 --> 00:10:47.720 European countries compared to the U .S. or Canada. 00:10:48.120 --> 00:10:51.019 In America, the single -family home is the default 00:10:51.019 --> 00:10:53.700 mental image of a house. If you ask a child to 00:10:53.700 --> 00:10:55.899 draw a house, they draw a box with a triangle 00:10:55.899 --> 00:10:57.960 roof standing all by itself in a yard. With a 00:10:57.960 --> 00:10:59.620 sun in the corner. With a sun in the corner. 00:10:59.720 --> 00:11:02.379 In the UK, a child drawing a house could very 00:11:02.379 --> 00:11:04.500 likely draw one that's connected to another house. 00:11:04.899 --> 00:11:07.279 The sources also list some other global variations 00:11:07.279 --> 00:11:09.519 that I found interesting. Canada seems to be 00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:11.779 a bridge between the two, which is usually the 00:11:11.779 --> 00:11:13.899 case with Canada. Canada's interesting because 00:11:13.899 --> 00:11:17.299 it uses both. You'll hear single -family home. 00:11:17.789 --> 00:11:20.429 in casual conversation but the official census 00:11:20.429 --> 00:11:22.950 term and you see this in legal and real estate 00:11:22.950 --> 00:11:27.470 documents is single detached dwelling so it's 00:11:27.470 --> 00:11:30.529 very precise very it combines the american focus 00:11:30.529 --> 00:11:32.990 on the single unit with the british focus on 00:11:32.990 --> 00:11:35.879 the detached structure it leaves no room for 00:11:35.879 --> 00:11:37.840 error. And what about New Zealand? The source 00:11:37.840 --> 00:11:39.600 mentioned something there too. Separate house. 00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:41.700 Separate house. I like that. It's so literal. 00:11:41.860 --> 00:11:43.919 I am separate from you. It cuts right to the 00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:46.220 chase, doesn't it? No ambiguity there. It reflects 00:11:46.220 --> 00:11:48.539 that colonial history of land abundance again, 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:51.580 the cultural expectation of separation. Okay, 00:11:51.659 --> 00:11:53.399 so we've defined the box and we know what to 00:11:53.399 --> 00:11:55.519 call it depending on where we are. But how did 00:11:55.519 --> 00:11:57.759 we get here? You mentioned earlier that this 00:11:57.759 --> 00:12:00.059 wasn't always the norm. Let's go back in time. 00:12:00.279 --> 00:12:03.120 Section three, from the village to the suburb. 00:12:03.220 --> 00:12:05.690 Right. To understand the single -family home, 00:12:05.889 --> 00:12:08.230 you really have to understand what it replaced. 00:12:08.850 --> 00:12:11.789 In pre -industrial societies, and we're talking 00:12:11.789 --> 00:12:14.309 about most of human history here, right up until 00:12:14.909 --> 00:12:17.029 Just a couple of hundred years ago, most people 00:12:17.029 --> 00:12:19.649 lived in multifamily dwellings. So were they 00:12:19.649 --> 00:12:22.690 like apartment buildings or? Not necessarily 00:12:22.690 --> 00:12:24.750 vertical apartments like we had today. Think 00:12:24.750 --> 00:12:28.049 more of shared compounds or longhouses or cottages 00:12:28.049 --> 00:12:30.669 that were just packed with multiple generations 00:12:30.669 --> 00:12:33.649 of the same family. The source describes a very 00:12:33.649 --> 00:12:36.250 specific life cycle that was the norm for centuries. 00:12:36.509 --> 00:12:39.090 A child lived with their parents from birth until 00:12:39.090 --> 00:12:41.250 marriage. OK, that sounds normal enough so far. 00:12:41.429 --> 00:12:43.850 But then. When they got married, they didn't 00:12:43.850 --> 00:12:45.870 go out and, you know, get a mortgage on a starter 00:12:45.870 --> 00:12:48.190 home. They generally moved in with the parents 00:12:48.190 --> 00:12:51.289 of the husband. That's called a petrilocal system. 00:12:51.870 --> 00:12:55.490 Or, less commonly, the parents of the wife, a 00:12:55.490 --> 00:12:57.750 matrilocal system. Wait, so you get married and 00:12:57.750 --> 00:13:00.090 you immediately move in with your in -laws? Yes. 00:13:00.269 --> 00:13:02.169 Right. And you stay there. You raise your kids 00:13:02.169 --> 00:13:04.990 there. You likely die there. The house is a continuous 00:13:04.990 --> 00:13:08.590 entity. Wow. I mean... I love my in -laws. They're 00:13:08.590 --> 00:13:10.629 great people. But the idea of never having your 00:13:10.629 --> 00:13:13.289 own space, that sounds absolutely exhausting 00:13:13.289 --> 00:13:15.490 to the modern ear. What was the logic behind 00:13:15.490 --> 00:13:17.409 it? It was all about survival and efficiency. 00:13:17.669 --> 00:13:20.509 The source outlines the logic perfectly. First, 00:13:20.669 --> 00:13:22.330 the grandparents were there to help raise the 00:13:22.330 --> 00:13:24.710 young children. You have built in free child 00:13:24.710 --> 00:13:26.950 care. That makes a lot of sense. Then the middle 00:13:26.950 --> 00:13:29.730 generation. the ones in their prime working years, 00:13:29.950 --> 00:13:33.090 could care for their own aging parents. It was 00:13:33.090 --> 00:13:36.330 this perfect closed loop of care, the young care 00:13:36.330 --> 00:13:38.509 for the old and the old care for the very young. 00:13:38.570 --> 00:13:41.110 Right. There was no Social Security, no nursing 00:13:41.110 --> 00:13:43.490 homes, no daycares. The house was the social 00:13:43.490 --> 00:13:46.649 safety net. Exactly. And then there are the practicalities. 00:13:46.669 --> 00:13:48.549 Building a house is hard work. It takes a huge 00:13:48.549 --> 00:13:51.289 amount of resources and labor. Why build two 00:13:51.289 --> 00:13:54.330 when you can just add a room to one? Sure. And 00:13:54.330 --> 00:13:56.860 think about heating. In colder climates, heating 00:13:56.860 --> 00:13:59.840 is a massive resource drain. If you have to chop 00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:02.759 wood by hand to survive the winter, one central 00:14:02.759 --> 00:14:06.120 fire heating 12 people is far more efficient 00:14:06.120 --> 00:14:09.419 than three separate fires heating four people 00:14:09.419 --> 00:14:12.039 each. So the idea of the nuclear family living 00:14:12.039 --> 00:14:14.679 alone, isolated in their own little box, that's 00:14:14.679 --> 00:14:16.919 the historical outlier. It is the great historical 00:14:16.919 --> 00:14:19.080 outlier. It's a relatively recent invention, 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:21.860 and it's tied directly to rising living standards, 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:24.039 particularly in North America and the New World. 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:26.940 The New World shift. Exactly. When settlers came 00:14:26.940 --> 00:14:29.460 to North America, the math just completely changed. 00:14:30.139 --> 00:14:34.659 Land was, for them, effectively limitless. In 00:14:34.659 --> 00:14:36.860 Europe, you had these close -knit villages because 00:14:36.860 --> 00:14:39.179 land was scarce and you needed to be near the 00:14:39.179 --> 00:14:42.289 fields you worked. In the New World... Settlement 00:14:42.289 --> 00:14:44.789 patterns often involved large farms that were 00:14:44.789 --> 00:14:46.870 separated from neighbors by miles of wilderness. 00:14:47.190 --> 00:14:49.730 So isolation was baked into the geography from 00:14:49.730 --> 00:14:52.570 the start. Right. And the source suggests this 00:14:52.570 --> 00:14:54.990 produced a really deep -seated cultural preference 00:14:54.990 --> 00:14:58.090 for privacy in space. If you grew up in a homestead 00:14:58.090 --> 00:14:59.669 where your nearest neighbor was a mile away, 00:14:59.909 --> 00:15:02.409 the idea of sharing a wall with someone in a 00:15:02.409 --> 00:15:05.559 crowded city feels... Well, it feels claustrophobic. 00:15:05.580 --> 00:15:07.379 It feels like a downgrade. But then we had the 00:15:07.379 --> 00:15:09.340 Industrial Revolution, right? I mean, didn't 00:15:09.340 --> 00:15:11.200 that push everyone back together into cities? 00:15:11.379 --> 00:15:14.279 It did, initially. Industrialization and urbanization 00:15:14.279 --> 00:15:16.679 forced people into multi -story apartment blocks 00:15:16.679 --> 00:15:19.399 near the factories. We saw massive densification. 00:15:19.440 --> 00:15:21.419 Think of the tenements in New York or London 00:15:21.419 --> 00:15:24.159 in the 1800s. Horrible conditions everyone packed 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:26.980 in. So it was a step back, in a way. In many 00:15:26.980 --> 00:15:30.919 ways. But, and here is the big twist, in the 00:15:30.919 --> 00:15:33.799 New World. That trend of densification eventually 00:15:33.799 --> 00:15:36.700 halted and then dramatically reversed. When did 00:15:36.700 --> 00:15:39.100 that happen? Post -World War II. The baby boom, 00:15:39.179 --> 00:15:43.799 of course. The boom. And two specific technologies 00:15:43.799 --> 00:15:46.740 drove it, according to our text. The automobile 00:15:46.740 --> 00:15:50.480 and cheaper building and heating costs. The car 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:53.139 allowed you to leave the city for work, and cheap 00:15:53.139 --> 00:15:55.039 energy meant you could finally afford to heat 00:15:55.039 --> 00:15:58.159 a whole stand -alone box all by yourself. Precisely. 00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:00.700 This combination led to mass suburbanization. 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:03.659 We built millions and millions of single -family 00:16:03.659 --> 00:16:06.139 detached homes because, for the first time in 00:16:06.139 --> 00:16:08.659 history, the average family could afford to break 00:16:08.659 --> 00:16:11.269 that multi -generational pact. We could afford 00:16:11.269 --> 00:16:13.570 privacy. And we outsourced all the functions 00:16:13.570 --> 00:16:16.129 of the multigenerational home. We did. We outsourced 00:16:16.129 --> 00:16:18.289 child care to schools and daycares. We outsourced 00:16:18.289 --> 00:16:20.830 elder care to nursing homes. And we bought the 00:16:20.830 --> 00:16:22.850 box. It's interesting to look at the stats on 00:16:22.850 --> 00:16:24.970 this because it's not evenly distributed, even 00:16:24.970 --> 00:16:27.610 within a single country. The source mentions 00:16:27.610 --> 00:16:30.870 a Canadian example from the 2006 census that 00:16:30.870 --> 00:16:32.730 really illustrates the difference between an 00:16:32.730 --> 00:16:36.029 old city and a new sprawl city. It's a stark 00:16:36.029 --> 00:16:39.649 contrast. In Montreal, which is an older, denser, 00:16:39.669 --> 00:16:42.690 more European -style city in its layout. Lots 00:16:42.690 --> 00:16:45.169 of walk -ups, right? Exactly. Lots of duplexes 00:16:45.169 --> 00:16:48.970 and triplexes. In Montreal, only 7 .5 % of the 00:16:48.970 --> 00:16:51.330 population living within the city limits lived 00:16:51.330 --> 00:16:54.490 in single detached homes. 7 .5%. That's tiny. 00:16:54.750 --> 00:16:57.909 It is. Most people are in attached housing of 00:16:57.909 --> 00:17:00.740 some kind. Now, compare that to Calgary. which 00:17:00.740 --> 00:17:02.879 is a much newer city built largely in the age 00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:05.680 of the automobile, a classic sprawling North 00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:07.480 American city. Okay, what's the number there? 00:17:07.799 --> 00:17:12.740 57 .8%. Whoa, so nearly 60 % versus less than 00:17:12.740 --> 00:17:15.059 8. That's a massive difference. It shows that 00:17:15.059 --> 00:17:17.220 the single -family home isn't just a preference. 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:20.160 It's a direct result of when and how a city was 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:22.880 built. If the city grew up before the call was 00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:25.500 king, it's dense. If it grew up after the car, 00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:27.859 it's detached. And culturally, this became tied 00:17:27.859 --> 00:17:30.380 to the American dream. The source explicitly 00:17:30.380 --> 00:17:32.900 links the image of the house with the white picket 00:17:32.900 --> 00:17:35.900 fence in the yard to this ideal. It became the 00:17:35.900 --> 00:17:38.430 ultimate symbol of success. If you made it, you 00:17:38.430 --> 00:17:40.329 got the detached box. You got your piece of land. 00:17:40.529 --> 00:17:42.849 But not all boxes are created equal, are they? 00:17:43.569 --> 00:17:46.109 This brings us to section four, the architecture 00:17:46.109 --> 00:17:49.869 of status. The source lists a whole hierarchy 00:17:49.869 --> 00:17:52.390 of house types, and honestly, the definitions 00:17:52.390 --> 00:17:55.049 are a lot messier than I expected. They are. 00:17:55.210 --> 00:17:57.529 Language is tricky, and it changes from place 00:17:57.529 --> 00:18:00.589 to place. Let's start at the smaller scale, the 00:18:00.589 --> 00:18:03.210 cottage. Now, when I hear cottage, I think of 00:18:03.210 --> 00:18:06.599 a vacation home. You know, a cottage on the lake. 00:18:07.660 --> 00:18:10.460 Or maybe cheese. In the U .S., the definition 00:18:10.460 --> 00:18:12.940 provided is actually quite specific. It typically 00:18:12.940 --> 00:18:15.740 refers to a house with four main rooms, two on 00:18:15.740 --> 00:18:18.160 either side of a central corridor. Ah, very symmetrical. 00:18:18.539 --> 00:18:20.839 Very. And commonly, there's a lean -to added 00:18:20.839 --> 00:18:23.200 to the back for the kitchen and laundry. It's 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:26.049 a humble, functional design. Classic Americana. 00:18:26.170 --> 00:18:28.329 But if you go to Australia? The nuance shifts. 00:18:28.470 --> 00:18:30.710 In Australia, a cottage almost always implies 00:18:30.710 --> 00:18:32.950 a veranda across the front. It's all about that 00:18:32.950 --> 00:18:34.849 outdoor living space. It's a response to the 00:18:34.849 --> 00:18:36.890 heat. And in the UK, what's a cottage there? 00:18:37.170 --> 00:18:40.170 In the UK and Ireland, cottage is almost entirely 00:18:40.170 --> 00:18:43.990 about age and location. It refers to any small, 00:18:44.230 --> 00:18:48.089 old, specifically pre -World War I house in a 00:18:48.089 --> 00:18:51.529 rural or formerly rural location. The floor plan 00:18:51.529 --> 00:18:54.369 doesn't matter. If it's old, small, and in the 00:18:54.369 --> 00:18:56.910 country, it's a cottage. So a new build in the 00:18:56.910 --> 00:18:59.250 countryside, even if it's small, is not a cottage. 00:18:59.309 --> 00:19:01.289 Not a cottage. It's just a small house. Okay, 00:19:01.369 --> 00:19:03.190 let's move to the one that confuses me the most. 00:19:03.390 --> 00:19:06.589 The bungalow. Oh, the bungalow. This is a classic 00:19:06.589 --> 00:19:08.789 cross -Atlantic point of confusion. In the U 00:19:08.789 --> 00:19:11.670 .S., a bungalow is. What exactly? In American 00:19:11.670 --> 00:19:14.250 English, the source describes it as a medium 00:19:14.250 --> 00:19:17.470 to large freestanding house, usually on a generous 00:19:17.470 --> 00:19:20.279 block in the suburbs. It has a less formal floor 00:19:20.279 --> 00:19:23.259 plan than, say, a Victorian villa. It doesn't 00:19:23.259 --> 00:19:25.279 necessarily dictate the number of stories, though 00:19:25.279 --> 00:19:27.400 they're often low slung, maybe one and a half 00:19:27.400 --> 00:19:30.359 stories. Think Urson Craft style. Right. But 00:19:30.359 --> 00:19:32.740 in the UK. In British English, bungalow has a 00:19:32.740 --> 00:19:35.220 very, very strict definition. It is a single 00:19:35.220 --> 00:19:37.940 story house, period. If it has a second floor, 00:19:38.059 --> 00:19:40.799 it is not a bungalow. No stairs. No stairs to 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:43.950 a second floor. And because land is so precious 00:19:43.950 --> 00:19:46.329 in the UK, single -story houses are actually 00:19:46.329 --> 00:19:48.710 quite rare and often sought after, especially 00:19:48.710 --> 00:19:52.490 by retirees. So a bungalow there is a very specific, 00:19:52.690 --> 00:19:55.549 somewhat unusual thing. That's wild. I've definitely 00:19:55.549 --> 00:19:57.789 heard Americans refer to two -story houses as 00:19:57.789 --> 00:19:59.849 bungalows if they have that specific architectural 00:19:59.849 --> 00:20:03.029 style. Exactly. The style defines it here. The 00:20:03.029 --> 00:20:06.250 height defines it there. Total disconnect. All 00:20:06.250 --> 00:20:08.069 right, let's scale up. Let's get fancy. The villa. 00:20:08.210 --> 00:20:12.130 Villa is a term with serious pedigree. It originates 00:20:12.130 --> 00:20:14.430 from Roman times, where it referred to a large 00:20:14.430 --> 00:20:16.710 country retreat for the wealthy. Like a vacation 00:20:16.710 --> 00:20:19.690 home for a senator. Precisely. Moving up to the 00:20:19.690 --> 00:20:23.089 Victorian era, a villa was a status signal. The 00:20:23.089 --> 00:20:24.910 source says it meant a house that was larger 00:20:24.910 --> 00:20:28.269 than the average bylaw terraced house. It often 00:20:28.269 --> 00:20:30.589 had a double street frontage. It was a way of 00:20:30.589 --> 00:20:33.049 saying, I have money, and I don't live in a row 00:20:33.049 --> 00:20:35.970 house like the common folk. And then we hit the 00:20:35.970 --> 00:20:38.950 top of the food chain, the mansion. The mansion. 00:20:39.589 --> 00:20:42.069 The definition here isn't just big. It's about 00:20:42.069 --> 00:20:45.049 exceptional wealth, multiple stories, grand proportions. 00:20:45.569 --> 00:20:48.250 But the key differentiator mentioned in the source 00:20:48.250 --> 00:20:52.829 is really interesting. Staff. Staff. Yes. A true 00:20:52.829 --> 00:20:56.410 mansion is defined by being too large to be maintained 00:20:56.410 --> 00:20:59.569 by the owner alone. It implies the presence of 00:20:59.569 --> 00:21:02.170 servant quarters. You don't just live there. 00:21:02.470 --> 00:21:04.829 You manage a team there. That makes a lot of 00:21:04.829 --> 00:21:07.190 sense. If you have 20 rooms, you're not vacuuming 00:21:07.190 --> 00:21:09.690 them yourself. Or dusting the chandeliers. And 00:21:09.690 --> 00:21:13.009 speaking of rooms, the source... lists some specific 00:21:13.009 --> 00:21:15.490 specialty rooms found in mansions that really 00:21:15.490 --> 00:21:17.769 paint a picture of how the other half lives oh 00:21:17.769 --> 00:21:20.809 i saw this list it's fantastic it lists library 00:21:20.809 --> 00:21:23.349 conservatory theater greenhouse infinity pool 00:21:23.349 --> 00:21:25.529 bowling alley don't forget the last one and a 00:21:25.529 --> 00:21:27.670 server room tell me my tracks too it's such a 00:21:27.670 --> 00:21:29.849 modern jarring addition to that list you have 00:21:29.849 --> 00:21:32.890 the bowling alley which feels very like mid -century 00:21:32.890 --> 00:21:35.630 gilded age rich and then the server room which 00:21:35.630 --> 00:21:39.299 is very 21st century tech billionaire rich. It 00:21:39.299 --> 00:21:41.960 shows how the definition of luxury evolves, doesn't 00:21:41.960 --> 00:21:44.559 it? It used to be about having a special room 00:21:44.559 --> 00:21:48.240 to grow exotic plants, the conservatory. Now 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:50.660 it's about having a climate controlled room to 00:21:50.660 --> 00:21:52.940 house your digital infrastructure. And just to 00:21:52.940 --> 00:21:55.339 round out the top tier above the mansion, we 00:21:55.339 --> 00:21:58.059 have the palace and the castle. Which are pretty 00:21:58.059 --> 00:22:00.720 straightforward. Palaces are official residences 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:03.750 for rulers or heads of state. And castles are 00:22:03.750 --> 00:22:06.549 defined by fortification, either real medieval 00:22:06.549 --> 00:22:08.970 ones or, you know, architectural imitations of 00:22:08.970 --> 00:22:10.930 them. Okay, I want to open the door and go inside. 00:22:11.369 --> 00:22:15.150 Section 5. Inside the walls. The source material 00:22:15.150 --> 00:22:18.329 provides an exhaustive list of rooms and spaces. 00:22:18.589 --> 00:22:21.029 And when I say exhaustive, I mean they listed 00:22:21.029 --> 00:22:23.910 everything from attic to wiring closet. It's 00:22:23.910 --> 00:22:25.910 a tour of human domesticity over the centuries. 00:22:25.990 --> 00:22:27.859 It's fascinating. I want to highlight some of 00:22:27.859 --> 00:22:29.799 the weirder or more interesting ones. Let's start 00:22:29.799 --> 00:22:32.359 with gender, because the list actually categorizes 00:22:32.359 --> 00:22:35.000 some spaces in a way that suggests a long history 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:36.980 of separating men and women within the home. 00:22:37.099 --> 00:22:39.359 It does. Under the category of living room variants, 00:22:39.680 --> 00:22:42.740 it lists the man cave. Which we all know. The 00:22:42.740 --> 00:22:45.099 basement sanctuary with the leather couch and 00:22:45.099 --> 00:22:47.900 the neon beer sign. The modern male retreat. 00:22:48.569 --> 00:22:50.549 But if you look at the historical counterparts 00:22:50.549 --> 00:22:52.849 listed right next to it, it gets really interesting. 00:22:53.029 --> 00:22:56.289 The list includes the gynesium. The gynesium. 00:22:56.349 --> 00:22:58.650 I've never heard of that. It's defined as a harem 00:22:58.650 --> 00:23:01.130 or the women's quarters in ancient Greek or Roman 00:23:01.130 --> 00:23:03.430 houses. The part of the house where the women 00:23:03.430 --> 00:23:06.029 lived, separate from the men. And right next 00:23:06.029 --> 00:23:08.910 to that, it lists the andron, which was the men's 00:23:08.910 --> 00:23:11.849 quarters. So the man cave isn't a new idea. It's 00:23:11.849 --> 00:23:13.940 an ancient one. We've just rebranded it. It's 00:23:13.940 --> 00:23:16.819 a very old idea. The separation of domestic space 00:23:16.819 --> 00:23:20.299 by gender has incredibly deep roots. And even 00:23:20.299 --> 00:23:22.680 in more recent history, if you look at the private 00:23:22.680 --> 00:23:26.579 rooms list, we see the boudoir. Which is traditionally 00:23:26.579 --> 00:23:29.279 a woman's private sitting room or dressing room. 00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:31.539 And the cabinet, which was often a man's private 00:23:31.539 --> 00:23:33.940 study or retreat, a room for his collections 00:23:33.940 --> 00:23:36.859 or his work. We've always tried to carve out 00:23:36.859 --> 00:23:39.400 these gendered niches within the single family 00:23:39.400 --> 00:23:41.980 box. Let's talk about food. The list of kitchen 00:23:41.980 --> 00:23:44.769 -related rooms is a trip. It's not just kitchen 00:23:44.769 --> 00:23:48.210 and pantry. No, it's a glimpse into the complexity 00:23:48.210 --> 00:23:51.410 of historical service in a large house. Today, 00:23:51.470 --> 00:23:54.029 we have a kitchen, maybe a walk -in pantry, if 00:23:54.029 --> 00:23:56.990 we're lucky. But the list includes dirty kitchen 00:23:56.990 --> 00:23:59.529 versus kitchenette. A dirty kitchen is interesting. 00:23:59.690 --> 00:24:01.750 It's usually a secondary kitchen where the messy, 00:24:01.829 --> 00:24:04.170 smelly cooking happens, often found in parts 00:24:04.170 --> 00:24:07.049 of Asia or in older grand estates, to keep the 00:24:07.049 --> 00:24:10.069 main kitchen pristine and ready for show. Okay, 00:24:10.150 --> 00:24:11.990 that makes sense. But then we get to the really 00:24:11.990 --> 00:24:15.289 archaic service rooms, the buttery. Which has 00:24:15.289 --> 00:24:17.450 nothing to do with butter. It was for restoring 00:24:17.450 --> 00:24:20.650 butts of liquor, or casks, the domain of the 00:24:20.650 --> 00:24:23.009 butler. Okay, then the scullery. The scullery 00:24:23.009 --> 00:24:25.690 was for washing dishes and doing the dirty prep 00:24:25.690 --> 00:24:27.970 work, like gutting fish or peeling potatoes. 00:24:28.250 --> 00:24:30.690 The place for the scullery made. And then these 00:24:30.690 --> 00:24:32.950 two, which are my absolute favorites, the saucery 00:24:32.950 --> 00:24:36.099 and the spicery. They're fantastic, aren't they? 00:24:36.180 --> 00:24:38.180 I just love the idea that you needed a whole 00:24:38.180 --> 00:24:41.180 room dedicated to sauces. What even happens in 00:24:41.180 --> 00:24:43.660 a saucery? Well, in a great medieval or Victorian 00:24:43.660 --> 00:24:47.279 house, you might need one. The saucery was specifically 00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:50.359 for the preparation of sauces and gravies. And 00:24:50.359 --> 00:24:53.619 the spicery was for storing spices, which, remember, 00:24:53.799 --> 00:24:56.619 were incredibly valuable. You wouldn't just leave 00:24:56.619 --> 00:24:58.740 saffron and cloves lying around in the scullery. 00:24:58.900 --> 00:25:02.579 They needed their own secure, dry room. It really 00:25:02.579 --> 00:25:05.279 emphasizes the sheer scale of these operations. 00:25:05.599 --> 00:25:08.039 It wasn't just a home. It was a factory for feeding 00:25:08.039 --> 00:25:10.339 people. And we've compressed all of that. In 00:25:10.339 --> 00:25:12.619 a modern single -family home, the refrigerator 00:25:12.619 --> 00:25:15.599 replaces the larder, the buttery, and the spicery. 00:25:15.680 --> 00:25:18.539 The dishwasher replaces the scullery. We've collapsed 00:25:18.539 --> 00:25:21.200 the architecture into appliances. That's a deep 00:25:21.200 --> 00:25:23.160 thought, but it's true. We replace rooms with 00:25:23.160 --> 00:25:25.619 machines. There are also some really specific 00:25:25.619 --> 00:25:28.079 unusual spaces listed that I had to look up. 00:25:28.180 --> 00:25:30.759 We have the keeping room versus the great room. 00:25:30.920 --> 00:25:33.299 A keeping room is an older term. It's usually 00:25:33.299 --> 00:25:35.859 a room right next to the kitchen where the family 00:25:35.859 --> 00:25:38.140 would sleep or hang out during the winter because 00:25:38.140 --> 00:25:39.660 it was the warmest place in the house near the 00:25:39.660 --> 00:25:42.759 hearth. A great room is the modern version of 00:25:42.759 --> 00:25:45.680 that, a large open -plan space combining the 00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:48.529 living room, dining room, and kitchen. and under 00:25:48.529 --> 00:25:51.569 the general category of spaces it lists the conversation 00:25:51.569 --> 00:25:56.670 pit a classic 1970s architectural feature a sunken 00:25:56.670 --> 00:25:58.650 section of the living room lined with cushions 00:25:58.650 --> 00:26:01.730 designed for conversation i guess theoretically 00:26:01.730 --> 00:26:04.609 mostly for spilling drinks and tripping over 00:26:04.609 --> 00:26:07.029 and the source mentions three types of sellers 00:26:07.549 --> 00:26:10.890 Root cellar, storm cellar, and wine cellar. All 00:26:10.890 --> 00:26:13.210 underground storage, but for very different things. 00:26:13.730 --> 00:26:16.150 Potatoes, tornadoes, and Bordeaux. You don't 00:26:16.150 --> 00:26:18.049 want to mix those up. And finally, under spaces. 00:26:19.329 --> 00:26:21.910 Explicitly listed, which made me so happy. Secret 00:26:21.910 --> 00:26:24.309 passage. I love that this made the list. It's 00:26:24.309 --> 00:26:27.250 not just a trope from a mystery novel. It validates 00:26:27.250 --> 00:26:29.269 every childhood dream I've ever had. If it's 00:26:29.269 --> 00:26:31.769 on the list, it's a legitimate room type. I can 00:26:31.769 --> 00:26:33.670 officially put it in my house plans. It counts. 00:26:33.990 --> 00:26:36.450 So we've toured the history, the structure, and 00:26:36.450 --> 00:26:38.980 the rooms, but we have to look forward. Section 00:26:38.980 --> 00:26:42.200 6, the 21st century challenge. The source material 00:26:42.200 --> 00:26:44.599 ends with a section on modern trends, and it 00:26:44.599 --> 00:26:46.299 suggests that the reign of the single -family 00:26:46.299 --> 00:26:48.640 home might be facing some serious headwinds. 00:26:49.099 --> 00:26:51.539 Significant headwinds. The source identifies 00:26:51.539 --> 00:26:53.900 three main conflicts that are challenging the 00:26:53.900 --> 00:26:56.279 dominance of this housing type, especially in 00:26:56.279 --> 00:26:58.019 North America. Okay, what's conflict number one? 00:26:58.700 --> 00:27:01.440 A lack of affordable housing. It's a simple supply 00:27:01.440 --> 00:27:03.940 and demand problem, right? Pretty much. We ran 00:27:03.940 --> 00:27:06.500 out of cheap land near where the jobs are. The 00:27:06.500 --> 00:27:09.460 model of everyone gets a detached box on a big 00:27:09.460 --> 00:27:12.480 lot creates artificial scarcity. It drives up 00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:15.079 land costs, which drives up housing prices. Conflict 00:27:15.079 --> 00:27:18.299 number two. Climate change. specifically the 00:27:18.299 --> 00:27:20.880 impacts of urban sprawl and our dependency on 00:27:20.880 --> 00:27:23.220 cars. The snout house problem coming home to 00:27:23.220 --> 00:27:25.779 roost. Exactly. Low -density housing requires 00:27:25.779 --> 00:27:28.539 more driving, which means more emissions. It 00:27:28.539 --> 00:27:30.500 requires more infrastructure per person, more 00:27:30.500 --> 00:27:33.279 roads, more pipes, and it uses more energy to 00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:36.220 heat and cool per person compared to denser housing. 00:27:36.539 --> 00:27:39.940 It is, from a climate perspective, very inefficient. 00:27:40.279 --> 00:27:42.579 And the third conflict. Concerns about racial 00:27:42.579 --> 00:27:45.420 and economic inequality. The source notes that 00:27:45.420 --> 00:27:48.279 single -family zoning has, in many cases, been 00:27:48.279 --> 00:27:50.500 used historically as a tool to exclude certain 00:27:50.500 --> 00:27:53.940 demographics. By keeping housing costs artificially 00:27:53.940 --> 00:27:57.160 high and preventing the construction of multifamily 00:27:57.160 --> 00:27:59.359 units like apartment buildings, which are often 00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:02.119 more affordable from being built in certain neighborhoods, 00:28:02.380 --> 00:28:05.920 it can create and perpetuate segregation. So 00:28:05.920 --> 00:28:08.720 what is the response to all this? What are cities 00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:11.480 doing? Well, according to the source, the policy 00:28:11.480 --> 00:28:14.720 response is a significant shift. It reports a 00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:17.099 trend towards cities increasingly abandoning 00:28:17.099 --> 00:28:19.579 single -family zoning. Abandoning it entirely? 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:22.880 Yes, in some places. They are rezoning areas 00:28:22.880 --> 00:28:25.259 that were exclusively for single -family homes 00:28:25.259 --> 00:28:28.400 to allow for higher density. The source specifically 00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:31.259 cites California and Minneapolis in the reference 00:28:31.259 --> 00:28:33.700 titles as places that have made statewide or 00:28:33.700 --> 00:28:36.250 citywide changes. They're moving towards allowing 00:28:36.250 --> 00:28:39.309 duplexes, triplexes, or fourplexes on what used 00:28:39.309 --> 00:28:41.890 to be single -family lots. So the very legal 00:28:41.890 --> 00:28:43.910 definition of the single -family lot is changing 00:28:43.910 --> 00:28:46.230 under our feet. It's becoming a multifamily lot, 00:28:46.329 --> 00:28:47.990 whether the neighbors who bought into the old 00:28:47.990 --> 00:28:50.230 idea like it or not. That is the trend being 00:28:50.230 --> 00:28:52.869 reported. It's a direct reversal of that post 00:28:52.869 --> 00:28:55.170 -World War II suburban boom we talked about earlier. 00:28:55.750 --> 00:28:59.210 We are, by necessity, swinging back towards density. 00:28:59.660 --> 00:29:01.380 It's so interesting. We started in the communal 00:29:01.380 --> 00:29:04.480 village, moved to the isolated suburb, and now, 00:29:04.599 --> 00:29:07.160 out of necessity, we might be turning the suburb 00:29:07.160 --> 00:29:09.619 back into a kind of village. That is the cycle, 00:29:09.720 --> 00:29:12.240 yeah, a new kind of density. So let's wrap this 00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:14.640 up. Let's try to synthesize this whole deep dive. 00:29:15.019 --> 00:29:18.339 We started with a simple definition, a box surrounded 00:29:18.339 --> 00:29:22.079 by air for one family. We saw that this simple 00:29:22.079 --> 00:29:25.400 idea is actually a huge historical anomaly made 00:29:25.400 --> 00:29:28.420 possible by a very specific moment in time when 00:29:28.420 --> 00:29:31.279 land was cheap and energy was abundant. We learned 00:29:31.279 --> 00:29:34.079 that even the name is confusing. What's a single 00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:36.900 family home here is just a detached house in 00:29:36.900 --> 00:29:39.160 the UK. And that small difference says a lot. 00:29:39.440 --> 00:29:42.960 We toured the snout house and the mansion. We 00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:45.319 saw that as those core variables, the cost of 00:29:45.319 --> 00:29:47.319 land, the cost of energy, our social priorities, 00:29:47.380 --> 00:29:50.660 as those things change. The house itself is changing. 00:29:51.140 --> 00:29:53.900 The single -family detached home is an architectural 00:29:53.900 --> 00:29:57.299 expression of an era, and that era might be closing 00:29:57.299 --> 00:29:59.299 or at least evolving into something denser and 00:29:59.299 --> 00:30:01.180 more complex. It really makes you look at your 00:30:01.180 --> 00:30:03.039 own walls differently, doesn't it? It absolutely 00:30:03.039 --> 00:30:05.460 does. So I want to leave you with a final thought 00:30:05.460 --> 00:30:08.140 today, something for you to mull over. We talked 00:30:08.140 --> 00:30:10.700 about that incredible list of rooms you can find 00:30:10.700 --> 00:30:14.009 in a house, particularly a mansion. The source 00:30:14.009 --> 00:30:17.829 lists server room right alongside bowling alley. 00:30:18.009 --> 00:30:21.470 It lists secret passage right alongside stairs. 00:30:21.710 --> 00:30:25.109 It lists saucery alongside kitchen. Right. The 00:30:25.109 --> 00:30:27.869 old and the new all jumbled together. Exactly. 00:30:28.109 --> 00:30:30.690 So here's my question for you listening. If our 00:30:30.690 --> 00:30:33.130 homes are defined by the rooms we choose to build 00:30:33.130 --> 00:30:35.829 in them, what does the inclusion of a server 00:30:35.829 --> 00:30:38.900 room? A room dedicated entirely to connecting 00:30:38.900 --> 00:30:41.779 us to the digital world and the near total disappearance 00:30:41.779 --> 00:30:44.799 of the parlor. A room that was dedicated to sitting 00:30:44.799 --> 00:30:47.119 and talking with other people face to face. What 00:30:47.119 --> 00:30:48.880 does that say about the current state of the 00:30:48.880 --> 00:30:51.119 family unit? That is the question, isn't it? 00:30:51.140 --> 00:30:54.000 We're trading physical connection space for digital 00:30:54.000 --> 00:30:56.559 connection space right inside our own homes. 00:30:56.740 --> 00:30:58.539 Something to think about the next time you walk 00:30:58.539 --> 00:31:00.700 past your router. Thanks for joining us on the 00:31:00.700 --> 00:31:01.700 Deep Dive. See you next time.