What Americans Build and Why
Psychological Perspectives

Examines five areas of Americans' built environment and looks at the relationships of size and scale to the way Americans live their lives.

Ann Sloan Devlin (Author)

9780521516570, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 May 2010

316 pages, 25 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.9 x 2 cm, 0.54 kg

"....In What Americans Build and Why: Psychological Perspectives, Ann Sloan Devlin brings the metaphor of thinking outside the box alive by describing first the box, then the contents of the box.... thought-provoking.... The essence of this book is appropriately captured in the title What Americans Build and Why. This book is well researched, providing social scientific research from many different scholarly outlets, including empirical research, expert opinions, and mainstream media articles.... Devlin provides a thorough history of the debates relevant to design in America, and any reader will view the constructed world much differently after reading What Americans Build and Why. This book will be of interest to any scholar, academic or other, with an inquisitive mind and a fascination for learning how things come to be the things they are in front of us.
--Robert D. Mather, PsycCRITIQUES

What Americans Build and Why examines five areas of Americans' built environment: houses, healthcare facilities, schools, workplaces, and shopping environments. Synthesizing information from both academic journals and the popular press, the book looks at the relationships of size and scale to the way Americans live their lives and how their way of life is fundamentally shaped by the highway system, cheap land, and incentives. This book is timely because although Americans say they crave community, they continue to construct buildings, such as McMansions and big box stores, that make creating community a challenge. Furthermore, in many ways the movement toward teleworking, discussed in the chapter on office environments, also challenges the traditional place-based formation of community. Although focused on the United States, the book also includes reference to other parts of the world, especially regarding the retail environment.

1. The landscape of housing: suburbia, new urbanism, and McMansions
2. The landscape of health care: high tech and humanistic
3. The landscape of schools: big schools, small schools
4. The landscape of work: visible or virtual?
5. The landscape of retail: big box and main street
Closing comments.

Subject Areas: Psychology [JM], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], History of the Americas [HBJK], Architecture [AM]