Adams, Annmarie.

Ville St-Laurent revisited : wartime housing and architectural change, 1942-1992 / by Annmarie Adams, Jennifer Beardsley & Pieter Sijpkes.

[Ottawa] : CMHC, 1997.

151 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.

This is a study of architectural changes made to houses over a fifty year period in Ville St-Laurent, Quebec. These relatively modest units - most 25X25 - were originally constructed as temporary housing for workers in 1942 by Wartime Housing Limited, a company established by the Canadian government in 1941 to contract out the construction of emergency housing across the country. After the war, however, nearly all 400 houses in this Montreal neighbourhood were sold, rather than demounted, and most were renovated and enlarged. The study shows several basic patterns in the ways people changed their spaces over time. In-depth interviews with longtime occupants and a comprehensive photographic survey of the area show that architectural change is tied closely to changes in the family structure, the availability of credit, and evolving trends in the use of building materials. The study also found that it was their wartime work experience which encouraged most households to undertake renovations themselves; thadt the employment of professionals for difficult jobs followed a kind of copy-cat phenomenon which can be mapped throughout the neighbourhood; that many materials were recycled and that many women, both living alone and in partnerships, supervised the alterations made to their houses. In a concluding chapter the study outlines valuable lessons of wartime housing developers, designers, governments and homeowners. This study, by focusing on a small sample (25 case studies) in more depth, attempts to explain why architectural change has occurred, rather than how it was done. In this way, this work contributes to the understanding of how all spaces may change through time.

Housing, Single family Remodeling Quebec (Province) Saint-Laurent (Communauté urbaine de Montréal)
Architecture, Domestic Quebec (Province) Saint-Laurent (Communauté urbaine de Montréal)
Architecture, Domestic Quebec (Province) Saint-Laurent (Communauté urbaine de Montréal) Designs and plans.
Wartime housing Québec (Province) Montreal.
Flexible housing Québec (Province) Montreal.
Maisons individuelles Québec (Province) Saint-Laurent (Communauté urbaine de Montréal) Réfection.
Architecture domestique 20e siècle Québec (Province) Saint-Laurent (Communauté urbaine de Montréal)
Architecture domestique 20e siècle Québec (Province) Saint-Laurent (Communauté urbaine de Montréal) Dessins et plans.
Architecture, Domestic

Architectural drawings

Beardsley, Jennifer.
Sijpkes, Pieter.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Wartime housing and architectural change, 1942-1992

Location: Library main montreal 246384
Call No.: NA7243.S3 A3 1997
Status: Available