Home: A Short History of An Idea is a book published in 1986 by Canadian architect, professor and writer Witold Rybczynski.
- ISBN 978-0-14-010231-4 (paperback)
- ISBN 978-0-670-81147-2 (hard cover)
Home won the 1986 Governor General's Award for non-fiction.
The book is an extended essay on the evolution of domestic living; rather than providing a technical treatise on architecture, Rybczynski recounts the history of the material and cultural influences (such as intimacy and privacy, domesticity, ease) as well as and ideas about light, air, and efficiency, all of which have helped shape the thoroughly modern idea that we call comfort.
Throughout the work, Rybczynski probes emphasizing cultural ideals as a basis for creating comfortable homes.
Famous quotes containing the words short, history and/or idea:
“He had long before indulged most unfavourable sentiments of our fellow-subjects in America. For, as early as 1769,... he had said of them, “Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for any thing we allow them short of hanging.””
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“The whole history of civilisation is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“It’s very good for an idea to be commonplace. The important thing is that a new idea should develop out of what is already there so that it soon becomes an old acquaintance. Old acquaintances aren’t by any means always welcome, but at least one can’t be mistaken as to who or what they are.”
—Penelope Fitzgerald (b. 1916)