Gregory Ain and the social politics of housing design

The buildings and designs of Gregory Ain (1908-88) demonstrate, with remarkable clarity, the difficult tension between the progressive social program of avant-garde modern architecture and the conservatism of American consumer culture. Throughout his professional career, with extraordinary episodes of success and defeat, Ain designed buildings that sought to restructure living patterns within the single-family house, while at the same time he sought to offer alternatives to the housing patterns of suburbia. These reforms were motivated by Ain's interest in "the common problems of common people," problems he believed he could solve through architecture.; This project is a comprehensive historical reconstruction and critical examination of Ain's works and ideas, based on original archival research and fieldwork. It fills a crucial void in the historiography of modern architecture because Ain was generally recognized as one of the leading figures in this movement and yet, more than fifty years after its peak, his career has never been subject to a concentrated critical inquiry.; Ain's architectural projects were historically significant because they were motivated by a vigorous cultural criticism. "Most contemporary work," he wrote, "is done in a fever of ruthless money-making. That attitude must be replaced by an entirely different set of values." In dozens of projects he explored new forms and construction methods in order to build new social relationships. Many of the techniques he developed for organizing space were later emulated and adopted on a much wider scale.; This project also contributes to the scholarship on modern architecture by revealing important new information about its relationship to issues of politics, race, class, and gender. More forcefully than any of his peers, Ain pursued a progressive position on these issues, and he found collaborators and clients who were interested in challenging social norms through architecture. Later as a teacher and theorist, he encouraged students of the next generation to see architecture as a form of political activism.; This study also situates Ain's works and ideas within a larger analytical context, recognizing that historical events are invariably shaped by contingencies that constrain and stimulate human agency.