Ossified Homes

Ossify - to become rigid or inflexible in habits, attitudes, opinions, etc.

Housing Types in North America:

Rural:
One Room House - average square 16'6"x16'6"
Stack House - extended one room up (double storey)
Saddlebag House - two rooms with chimney in the middle
Dogtrot House - two rooms separated by an open-air hallway
"I" Type House - two rooms with filled in hallway and extended up
Plantation - multi-roomed with open galleries

Urban:
Bandbox House - slightly smaller than one room extended up three storeys
Shotgun House - smaller single rooms extended horizontally
Semi-detached House - two houses with a shared party wall
Row Houses - more than two houses with shared walls

"...the basic configuration of the North American house has changed very little. In other words, we still live and sleep in square or rectangular rooms..." (Friedman, pg. 85)

The "acceptable" house has more square and rectangular rooms with the notion that "bigger is better". Average household today is 2,000 square feet compared to the 300 square feet of the one room house. To achieve these big houses, one has to escape the high density of the city and move to the suburbs.

*insert lyrics to ossified homes by The Lovely Feathers*