Regulation, architecture and modernism in the United States, 1890-1920

This dissertation examines the modernization of the United States through a group of regulatory techniques and institutions that emerged in the early twentieth century. In this period, conceptions of power based on laissez-faire capitalism were giving way to systems of governance that aimed to control the economies of the home, market, nature and labor. Methods of avoiding, delaying, and constraining the uncertainties resulting from the massive economic development of the nation established a new approach to securing its future through the regulation of risk. While predictability and efficiency are often invoked as core principles of modernism, these were in fact ideologies that gained their force through these earlier attempts to manage and forestall risk. The dissertation identifies four cases in which technology and architecture served as critical instruments for the implementation of regulation in the modern interior. The application of thermostatic control of heat for domestic architecture established a norm for room temperature that, through the home economics movement, became a hygienic standard for the modern American home. In cold storage facilities, mechanical refrigeration technologies were employed to regulate the longevity of perishable food. By extending the life of produce, these warehouses served as control centers for distributing the nation's food supply and regulating the futures market that determined their prices.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Osman, Michael

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mark Jarzombek.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/45939

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/45939