ABSTRACT
The evolution of the house is not, as the well known phrase suggests, synonymous with the evolution of the home – even though the two work in close counterpoint, as the preceding chapters have been at pains to show. The story must be completed, therefore, by some attempt to determine how houses and dwellings of all kinds are turned into homes and what changes of significance have taken place in this transformation during our period of concern. The range of dwellings available at any time is the product of past choices and actions: land development, finance, building construction and governmental policy-making, with architectural design and various technologies making an essential contribution. The process is cumulative and, while yearly additions to the stock are small, they are directed to certain targeted groups who get, as it were, privileged access to the most up-do-date and therefore supposedly the ‘best’ dwellings.
