At home in postwar France: The design and construction of domestic space, 1945--1975

"At Home in Postwar France: The Design and Construction of Domestic Space, 1945--1975," examines the development of the modern home within the larger context of France's explicit national project of modernization. Taking as its basis the productions of and interactions between key groups of actors such as Modernist architects and state elites at the Ministere de la Reconstruction et de l'Urbanisme, this study seeks to answer two questions: (1) What can the debates and choices about how the French should dwell (as well as the reactions to these) tell us about what was felt to be at stake in a changing France? (2) What can they tell us about the ways in which France actually changed? The thesis argues, first, that the design and construction of the domestic space in the postwar period corresponded to the transformations in gender roles, family structure and class relations that were perceived to be taking place or imminent. Second, the dissertation proposes that the postwar designers and popularizers of the modern home, in their steadfast insistence that new homes be equipped with modern conveniences like central heating and indoor plumbing, contributed significantly to the democratization of French society.