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21. My house is a very fine house.

By D.J. Waldie
January 19, 2009
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On the other hand, my house is as unarchitectural as it gets.

In deference to Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brownand their notion of a "decorated shed" "? their term for the "ugly and ordinary" in vernacular architecture "? mass produced houses like mine are almost undecorated sheds, virtually free of architecture, and unencumbered by any historical memory. This, nonetheless, did not deter eager buyers from wanting one of these pragmatic solutions to the problem of shelter. Prospective buyers waited in very long lines in the early 1950s to buy one.

They are not beautiful houses. They are not sentimental. They do not appear to be consoling.

It is only their humility that makes them seem ironic.

The photograph on this page is from the author's collection.

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