Another Modernism: Home Economics and the Conception of Domestic Space in the United States, 1900-1960

Abstract

Focusing on the homemaker as the primary user of domestic interior, the Home Economics movement formulated a spatial model that differed from the dominant spatial ideal of architectural modernism in the first half of the twentieth century. Whereas the home economists' model was intended to protect the user from overexertion, assuming the engagement of the user's whole body, the dominant modernist model's intention was mainly to reward the spirit via the aesthetic experience transmitted by optic data.