Tract housing’s design deficiencies directly generated residential energy demand
Evidence
In a variety of ways, therefore, the homebuilding industry produced a vast new demand for energy. The nation’s builders constructed millions of homes ill-equipped to provide relief from intemperate weather. The typical subdivision had no mature trees, and the typical tract house was a hotbox. Indirectly, then, the industry increased the market for the air conditioner: The new room units made tract housing more habitable. The boom in room-unit sales then encouraged the homebuilding industry to push central air conditioning. To make central cooling more affordable, builders also eliminated traditional devices for providing shade and ventilation. Of course, the use of air conditioning allowed homeowners to enjoy a new degree of comfort, but a goodly portion of the residential air-conditioning load simply replaced the comfort once provided – at little environmental cost – by good design. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 264
Categorization
- XREF: By analogy to the tamarisk/tree piece: design-with-climate eliminated (overhangs, shade trees, porches) is infrastructure the reader has written about in the trees article. — connects to: Mass-production homebuilding homogenized house design and spiked energy use nationwide — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 34; Cheap energy and mortgage pressure defeated energy-efficient postwar housing design — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 214; Postwar building techniques raised household energy demand by design choices — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 243 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Electric heat’s cheaper installation drew builders into energy-wasteful design.
#expands(0.85) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 274 - Mortgage restrictions forced wasteful duplication of carport and garage onto suburban homes
#corroborates(0.82) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 197 - Suburbanization restructured space to make car and oil consumption a necessity
#expands(0.78) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 577 - Control-room design choices rest on engineer preference without validated translation to homes.
#expands(0.75)