ABSTRACT
The modern, speculatively built house needs to sell. Therefore it is image-driven. In California this might mean it is ranch or haçienda style, in New England, Cape Cod and in old England, Georgian. Yet behind these façades a very similar constructional system often exists which surely proves that it is form rather than function, product rather than process, which is the determining factor in modern commercial house design. Yet although these houses are fashion-conscious consumer commodities they are at the same time permanent, intransigent statements which, unlike a car or coat, are not readily discarded when they are worn or out of style. Only when they no longer serve a purpose, being too small, perhaps, or too remote, are they then traded in for another.
