The bungalow : a southwestern, vernacular perspective

Certainly the bungalow was not an event that took us back or plummetted us insensate into Bauhausian design. It is less directly the staging than the scenery of the "modern movement". Nonetheless, it is unequivocally part of our immediate architectural heritage and its story is a fascinating one. It is a story of history and architectural development, the profession emerging into a new age, new intentions, materials, and programs. It is a story of people, changing times and economies made manifest in a particular type of house. And finally, it is the story of an architectural form humble in stature yet powerful in image and fertile in its variety. This then is my thesis, the bungalow as a vernacular phenomenon, a social expression and an architectural fashion. It is exciting to me, not for its event, but for its historical and social involvement, and for the vigor of its style. The destiny of our modern architectural achievements can be seen through this window and the revolution of our profession, the denigration of academic eclecticism in the first half of this century, cannot be a question of appropriateness or fit, because many of its ideals and attitudes lay pregnant in the popularity of the bungalow twenty years earlierArchitectur