Homes are our most personal, private places. They are at the heart of how we conceive life outside the public sphere. In "A History of Domestic Space", Peter Ward explores how domestic space 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 as well as family privacy within a community. What did Canadians consider to be enough domestic space for one person in the 18th century? What do they think in the 20th? How have today's big houses and small families affected the bond between parents and children? Does the occupant of a high-rise appartment have more or less privacy than the occupant of a farmhouse? These are just some of the questions that Peter Ward considers in this exploration of the Canadian home. The earliest Canadian house consisted of a single room. Rooms have been added and moved and their functions altered according to the needs and wants of the changing family. In the 18th century, for example, most people would expect neither a bed nor a 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. 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. Generously illustrated with architectural sketches, paintings and historical and contemporary photographs, this book seeks to breathe life into the homes of the past and throws the door open to the homes of the present.