Modern Housing
Originally published in 1934, Modern Housing is widely acknowledged as one of the most important books on housing of the twentieth century, introducing the latest developments in European modernist housing to an American audience. In light of today’s affordable housing emergency, Catherine Bauer’s prescriptions for how to achieve humane and dignified modern housing remain as instructive and urgent as ever.
In discussing Modern Housing, which deals largely with European achievements of the last fifteen years, it is difficult to exercise restraint and to avoid fulsome praise.
Lee M. Brooks, University of North Carolina (1935)
Originally published in 1934, Modern Housing is widely acknowledged as one of the most important books on housing of the twentieth century, introducing the latest developments in European modernist housing to an American audience. It is also a manifesto: America needs to draw on Europe’s example to solve its housing crisis. Only when housing is transformed into a planned, public amenity will it truly be modern.
Modern Housing’s sharp message catalyzed an intense period of housing activism in the United States, resulting in the Housing Act of 1937, which Catherine Bauer coauthored. But these reforms never went far enough: so long as housing remained the subject of capitalist speculation, Bauer knew the housing problem would remain. In light of today’s affordable housing emergency, her prescriptions for how to achieve humane and dignified modern housing remain as instructive and urgent as ever.
Modern Housing has special interest for Americans, not because of what we have done but because of what we have not done.
The New York Book Review (1934, R. L. Duffus)
It should not be thought that this book is intended only, or even mainly, for technicians; on the contrary, it is entirely suitable both in manner and matter for anyone interested in its subject.
The Spectator (1935)
Catherine Bauer’s Modern Housing shows how we lag behind Europe in good homes for all.
The Washington Post (1934, Theodore Hall)
In discussing Modern Housing, which deals largely with European achievements of the last fifteen years, it is difficult to exercise restraint and to avoid fulsome praise.
Lee M. Brooks, University of North Carolina (1935)
Planners, architects, and builders today should be equally interested in this book.
Daphne Spain, University of Virginia
A masterful yet accessible overview of the housing situation, a systematic discussion of options, and a roadmap for reform.
Barbara Penner, from the Foreword
My deepest thanks to Barbara Penner and the University of Minnesota Press for making possible a new generation’s discovery of Catherine Bauer’s too-long-hidden treasure of a book. Although Modern Housing was originally published in the depths of the Great Depression, it remains shockingly relevant today. The crisis of affordable housing that drove Bauer persists, the nation’s dependence on the private sector for shelter has only intensified, and inspiration for better solutions are still best found abroad.
Lizabeth Cohen, author of Saving America’s Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age*
Catherine Bauer’s Modern Housing, long out of print, has lost none of its historical authority or contemporary urgency. No less authoritative is Barbara Penner’s scholarly and engaging introduction, which brings to the fore Bauer’s complex and multi-faceted political engagement as one of the key ‘housers’ of the 1930s. This book is essential for anyone interested in the housing movement.
Barry Bergdoll, author of European Architecture 1750–1890
Contents
Foreword
Barbara Penner
Modern Housing
Acknowledgments
An Introductory Note
Part I. Nineteenth-Century Cities: A Record of Failure
1. The Period of Black Congestion
2. The Era of Wasteful Expansion
3. Victorian Mind and Matter
Part II. Gathering Forces
4. An Advance Guard of Ideas
5. The Heyday of Paternal Reform
6. Changes in the Social Structure
7. Toward a New Physical World
Part III. Post-War Housing: Facts and Figures
8. The Situation
9. The Houses Built
10. The Means
11. The Outlook
Part IV. Elements of Modern Housing
12. Minimum Standards in Practice
13. A New Method: The Community Unit
14. Location: Housing and Cities
15. Layout and Building Arrangement
16. Building Types and Dwelling Plans
17. Construction
18. Architecture
19. Economics and Economies
20. Modern Housing for America?
Appendix to Part III: National Housing Measures, 1850–1934
I. England
II. Germany
III. Holland
IV. Belgium
V. France
VI. Austria
VII. The Scandinavian Countries
VIII. Switzerland
Bibliography
Index
