In 1919, the federal government initiated a housing scheme to finance and construct war
veterans' and low-cost homes during a period of severe housing shortages and economic
recession immediately following the First World War. The Province of British Columbia
participated extensively in the program under the auspices of the Better Housing Scheme
Act. In Vancouver, the majority of the one hundred and fifty-three houses built under this
initiative were modestly priced examples of the Craftsman bungalow. Although the
federal housing guidelines defined the scheme's objectives as providing housing to those in
greatest need, the choice of the Craftsman bungalow typology for the Vancouver model
suggests otherwise. The Craftsman bungalow was appropriated for the Vancouver Better
Housing Scheme for economic and ideological purposes, wedding economy and aesthetics
with the government's desire to bring morality and family values to all classes through
domestic architecture. The Scheme solicited the Arts and Crafts bungalow as its primary
model in part because of its adaptability of materials: the Craftsman aesthetic emphasizing
natural wood fit well into British Columbia's thriving lumber economy. Moreover, the
modest, detached home set on a single lot interspersed in one of Vancouver's existing
neighbourhoods bolstered the sagging real estate market, which had stagnated during the
First World War, and ensured economic renewal. The Arts and Crafts inspired bungalow
addressed notions of the traditional nuclear family with the husband and father as sole
wage earner and the wife and mother as housekeeper. Through its plan and design and
through its comprehensive marketing strategy, the bungalow reaffirmed the accepted roles
of family members during the post-war period of economic recession, instability, and
uncertainty with the past and the future. Through the Vancouver Better Housing Scheme,
its proponents attempted to establish the detached, single family home as a national goal
for everyone which would promote long term social stability and economic growth and
recovery from the post-war depression.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/4061 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Tyner, Janna Nadine |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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