ABSTRACT
Despite significant shifts in patterns of household formation and household composition, the concepts of 'house' and 'home' continue to carry enormous symbolic and, indeed, ideological significance. In this chapter we wish to explore ways in which the physical design of housing reflects dominant conventions about both the conduct of relationships within the household and the relationship of the household to the outside world. These conventions, in turn, reflect idealised notions of 'family' and 'class' which have only a partial relevance to the way in which people actually conduct their lives, and yet representations of these ideas become embedded in the physical design of the house (Ravetz 1995).
