The Study
This study conducted on the Duff house analyzes the factors that influenced the layout of the spaces. The explanations for decisions Duff made while designing his home may be of interest to others who are attempting to design practical as well as enjoyable spaces. It should be noted that the influences to which Duff responds are not primarily cultural as was made evident by the study.
The Designer
Peter C. Duff, an African American man, was one of many black migrants who moved from the south to Illinois after the Civil War. Duff became part of a small but growing African American community, centered on social and religious organizations in which he took active roles. The house that he designed and built in Normal, IL, in 1870, represents two generations of African American inhabitants, ending in 1984.
Duff’s house is defined as “Folk Victorian,” but is more correctly described as “a composite cottage with irregular massing,” by Koos and Young. They also state that, “[Duff’s] home is clearly an expression of middle-class concerns for fashionable, comfortable and aesthetically pleasing housing.”
The Layout
Duff thought it important to create two parlors, a formal dining room,
and a properly segregated kitchen.
The front parlor demonstrated the family’s good taste, with its bay
window, which represented a typical Victorian love of nature.
The second parlor doubled as a bedroom and a place for family gatherings.
The dining room stood separate from the kitchen as a form of privacy as well as a division of the more refined dining customs from the chores of food preparation and laundry. This arrangement was said to be common among middle class Americans. Two openings accommodated service needs between the dining room and the kitchen. One was a connecting door, the other a “pass-through” sized specifically to pass serving dishes through.
Duff desired to introduce domestic improvements, such as built-in cabinets, to create a “fashionable, convenient, and modern home for his family.”
Most of the culturally influenced features of Duff’s house were not seen in the floor plan, but rather were evident in the decorative nature of the house.
One of the conclusions Koos and Young drew from their study of Duff's work was that “like his counterparts in Normal’s white middle class, [Duff] too was seeking privacy, fashionable furnishings, comfort, convenience, social status and rationally designed living spaces—in short, all the features of the modern home”(Koos and Young, 1993).
Index | Intro
| Terms | History |
Vernacular
Architecture | Harlem Renaissance |
User Needs | Racial Segregation | Stats
| Front Yard Design | References
| Summary
