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THE FUTURE OF HOUSES: WHAT REAL-ESTATE ADS TELL ABOUT THEEVOLUTION OF SINGLE-FAMILY DWELLINGS

Gabriel Rod riguez and Daniel Siret

Archn et-IJAR, Interna tiona l Journa l of Architec tural Research

Co pyright 2009 Archne t-IJAR, Volum e 3 - Issue 1 -Ma rch 2009- (92-100)

92

AbstractThis resea rch q uestions the e volution o f peop le s

preferences by analyzing 6750 real-estate ads

pub lished at three d ifferent d ec ad es (1985, 1995 and

2005) and in three distinct g eog raphic area s of France

(North, West a nd South). Our p urpose is to estab lish

the importance, at each time frame and location,

of the different elements that compose the house in

order to elaborate on the e volution and future o f the

house. The results show tha t the evo lution of this typ eof dwelling is twofold: changes in the use of space

and cha nges in the notion of c omfort.

Keywords:Domestic architecture; ho use; e volution; rea l-estate

ads.

Introduction

The house is a c om plex architec tural entity. It

is at the same time a functional object that

must respond to the needs of a family, it is a

c onsumer prod uc t c onsidered a s an investme nt

and an ob ject of p ersona l and soc ial expression

with strong symbolic meaning. Cultural values,

technological innovations, political decisionsand ec onomic forc es influence its developm ent.

In Franc e, more tha n ha lf of the househo lds live

in a sing le-family house. This typ e o f reside nc e

represents the ideal for a vast majority of the

pop ulation. But the isolated single-fam ily house

considered as ideal home questions the

future of dwelling and its impact on sustainable

de velopm ent and urban spraw l. Cha nge s in

uses, comfort needs, relationship with its urbanenvironment and building techniques prompt

the e volution o f the ho use.

The elem ents that a re pra ised in this kind of

dw elling a re in slow b ut c onstant muta tion. In the

last c entury we ha ve seen how c hang es in soc ial

and family structure as well as technological

improvements have affected the way we

c onc eive, build a nd use our houses. Eac h new

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The Future of Houses: Wha t Real-Esta te Ad s Tell Ab out the Evo lution o f Single-Family Dwellings

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dwelling project takes the evolution one stepbe yond . The q uestions of how and we re w ill we

live a re a lmost a lways asked to e xperts tha t a reconcerned with the production of houses andrarely to the users. These a re co nside red a s no thaving a broad view o f the prob lem.

The resea rch in the e volution of d we llings ha sana lyzed ea c h of these sc ientific sub jec ts. Forexamp le, rec ent stud ies(SOFRES, 1994, Eleba t al, 1988, Bellanger, 2000) show tha t basicc omfort (ba throom , toilet a nd c entral heating)

is taken for granted a nd tha t the c onc ep tion ofcomfort has evolved in order to include othernotions as privacy, day-lighting and noise.Meanw hile, the C STB (CSTB, 1998) is interestedin how the evolution of building materials andtechniques can effect the construction ofhouses. However, it is interesting to see tha tmost the building systems that ware hailed asrevolutiona ry ha ve no t m ad e the re m arks while

other, mo re low key as for examp le drywa ll, arenow w ide ly used . Guy Tap ie bases his ana lysis onthe c onditions of c onsumption a nd produc tionof the single-family house and c onc lude s withan outline of the trends that have guided itsevolution (Tap ie, 2005). Our resea rch takes theprob lem o f the future of ho uses and que stionsthe evolution of pe op le s preference s. Wepropose to study the rarely exploited semantic

contents of real-estate ads as a source ofinformation o f the c harac teristics and qua litiesof the single de tac hed house.

Real-Estate Ads

Single-family ho uses ca n b e stud ied in seve ralways, as a built object but as well as the wayit is perce ived. Peo p les desc ription of theredwelling is an important source of information.

Nevertheless, to recover the discourse aboutthere hom e is not a n easy ta sk. Since our

research is interested in the evolution of thedescription of houses we are presented withseveral problems in order to find comparablesources of discourse that represent differenttime periods.

Real-estate ads constitute a particularlyinteresting type of discourse that is not biasedby the intervention o f the resea rc her and that isco nsidered to b e a sourc e o f typica l behavior

(Me tzeltin, 1983). It a llow s esta b lishing the deta ilsand characteristics of a consumer populationbased on information produced by a seller.Real-estate ads are a compact description ofthe characteristics and qualities that dwellersand rea l-estate ag ents give to a house in orderto m ake the b est sa le. Its limite d size suggeststhat only the most important elements areexposed since the pricing filter pushes sellers

to weight their words and use a particularvoc abu lary. Thus, the a ds c onstitute a kind o fidea lized desc ription of the house. The elem entsme ntioned and the qua lities attribute d to the mare d efined by the seller in func tion o f the ima gehe has of the po tent ial buyer. In other wo rds,the elements that form the description of ahouse in a rea l-estat e a d c an b e c onside red asthe e xpression of the rep resenta tion of wha t the

seller thinks is in dem and a nd , by conseq uenc e,as en ide alized ima ge of the house.

Rea l-esta te a ds a re also a mirror of a mo me nt intime. The histo rica l stud y of the a ds c an allow usto summarize the contextual characteristics ofthe m om ent o f their pub lic a tion (Kimbe rly, 2001).The d esc ription o f a ho use c an b e a nalyzed aposteriori with no tampering with the fidelityof the period . The te xts of the real esta te a ds

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c onstitutes a sourc e o f historic informa tionabout the dwelling that presents the state of

the stock, its characteristics and qualities at amo me nt in time. Therefore the d iac hronic studyof the a ds c an b e used to o utline the e volutionof the dwe llings.

This resea rch is based on a p revious experienc ewere we analyzed real-estate ads in order toidentify the sensitive parameters of the single-fa mily house (Rod riguez,, 2004). The purpo se ofou r resea rch is to a na lyze the single-fa mily housein Franc e d uring the last three d ec ad es in orde rto outline the evolution o f the rep resenta tions ofdwe lling mod es. We propose to esta b lish theimportance, at each time frame and location,of the different elements that compose thehouse in orde r to e labo rate on the evolution a ndfuture o f the house. This resea rc h w as funded bythe Plan Urbanisme Construction Architecure(PUCA) o f the Minist re d es Transports, de

lEquipem ent , du Tourisme et d e la M er.

Methodology

Our stud y a na lyses rea l-esta te ads pub lished atthree different decades (1985, 1995 and 2005)and in three d istinc t ge og rap hic area s of Franc e(North, West a nd South). A samp le of 6750 ad s(750 ads per decade and location) is studied

using sta tistica l and ling uistic ana lysis.

In order to g uarantee a rep resenta tive sam plewe c ollec ted rea l-estate ad s pub lished in majornew spap ers of three d ifferent reg ions of Franc e: Ouest-Franc e for the west a nd spe c ific ally thec ity of Na ntes, La Voix du Nord for the no rthand the city of Lille and La Dpche du Midifor the south and the c ity of Toulouse. The

ads were collected in newspapers published

at three different decades: 1985, 1995 and2005. This period of time , spanning twenty

years, encompasses a profound evolution inthe collective representations of the single-fam ily house w hile rep resenting a homo ge noussample.

The size o f the sam ples was ca lculated inorder to optimize transcription of the ads andthere ana lysis. We proc eed ed by studying thelexical characteristics of a sample of 1870 adsand systematically compared them to smaller

samples of random ads (from 50 to 1000 ads).The results show tha t a samp le o f 750 ad s isrepresentative (100% of significant terms and65% of total terms) for each time period andeach newspaper, resulting in a final sampleof 6750 real-esta te ads. The a ds abound ininformation, but only the d esc ription o f the rea l-esta te is ana lyzed . The informa tion ab out p ric e,geographical location and coordinates of the

seller are kept for future use.

The lexic al a na lysis c an give us an ima ge ofthe representations associated with an idealhouse a t a m om ent in time . The a na lysis of theevolution of these events also gives an imageof the evo lution of the rep resenta tions. Thesam ple wa s ana lyzed using lexic og rap hic too lsdeveloped in our laboratory since a survey of

existing tools showed that they were ill suitedto a na lyze non-literary text. The structure ofthe real-estate ads is complex and does notrespo nd to trad itional syntax. The ab unda nc eof ac ronyms also c om plic ate s the task. Ourpurpose is to shed a ligh t o n the lexis used , thefrequency of terms, the associations (qualitiesassigne d to t he o bjec ts) a nd the struct ure o f thead (de sc riptive m od es, order).

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The a na lysis is done based on the notion tha t thedescription of the house in the real-estate ads

c an b e d ec om po sed into tw o sorts of elements:the objects that compose the properties andthe qua lities assoc iated to these ob jec ts. Forexample, the text of the ad beautiful housewith 3 rooms, luminous living-room with privatega rden ca n be c haracterized as: the ob jec ts house , room , living-room and ga rde n towho m c orrespo nd the q ualities be autiful , 3, luminous and private .

Objec ts Qua lit ies

House Bea utiful

Rooms 3

Living Room Lumunious

Ga rd en Priva te

We propose several types of analysis: First westudy the lexis in order to sort the terms usedand there occurrence, second we analyzethe emergence and disappearance of termsas well as the highest rates of progression, thirdwe ana lyze the qua lities at tributed to the ma inobjects.

Variations Between 1985 and 2005

Figure 1 shows the strongest mean variation

(above 5%) of the objects of the real estateads betwee n 1985 and 2005. . It is interestingto see that room, total comfort and villaa re in dec line. These ob jec ts rep resent formsof e xpression tha t lose the ir impo rta nc e a ga instnew wa ys of desc ribing the ho use. For examp le villa , whic h is used mo stly in the south o f Franc e

Figure 1: The Strongest(ab ove 5%) Mea n Variationbe twee n 1985 and 2005of the Ob jects of theReal Estate Ads (Source:Authors).

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in 1985, is replaced by the more widely used house in 2005. The deno mination room ,

as a generic way of referring to the differentspa c es, is ab and oned in favo r of mo re spe c ificdenominations of the rooms (living room, playroo m, etc .). Tota l c om fort is a co mp lexexpression tha t w e w ill de ta il in the last sec tion.

Bedroom, kitchen and bathroom , whichare a mo ng t he o bjec ts with the largest p ositivemean variation between 1985 and 2005, gainin importance since the size of the house

inc reased d uring this period . The houses in2005 have more bedrooms and bathroomsthen those of 1985. The imp ortanc e of theeq uipme nt o f the house is a lso sugge sted in theprog ression of the ob jec ts kitc hen eq uipm ent , ga s heating a nd chimney. The evolution of terrace and garden c onfirm the c hange inthe use of the outside spac e o f the ho use, whilethe emergence of office responds to the

c hang es in work hab its and the a do ption of thehome offic e.

Qualification of the Rooms

The m a in roo ms a re the bed room , the livingroom , the kitchen a nd the ba throom . A numberalwa ys qua lifies the be droom, with a m ean o f 3or 4 bed room s pe r house. The other qua lities

a re insignific ant. Our results show no significantincrease in the number of rooms per housebetw ee n 1985 and 2005. Instea d , there is a 10%rise in number of 3 bedroom houses between1995 and 2005.

The living room is genera lly qua lified by its size(55,8%). It is rep resented in 43% of the c ases bya quantifiable d imension (m2) a nd in 12,8% as aqua litat ive d ime nsion (big, large , huge, et c ).

It is interesting to notice the e me rge nc e o f theluminous and sun light ing qua lities. They a ppea r

in 1995 and have a strong p rogression up to 3,9%in 2005. The referenc es to the o rienta tion of theliving room are very weak in 1985 but progressto a sta b le sta te above 3% in 1995 and 2005.

The kitc hen is ma inly qua lified (17,1%) as been eq uipp ed and by he r size (14,5%) with ma nyreferenc es to b ig surfac e (Figure 2). It is veryimportant to notice that the notion of openkitchen appears in 1995 (4% of the ads) andkeeps progressing in the year 2005 to attain 6%.This evolution is a d irec t influence of the NorthAmerica n mod el and is even c alled am erica nkitc hen . One could infer that the stea dyprogression of this typ e o f kitc hen d ispositionc ould evolve into a gene ralized mo de l. Butthe apparition, in the year 2005, of the quality c losed kitchen c ould me an that a moretraditional disposition is also well appreciated

by the users.

The b a throom is qua lified mostly by its number(43,2%). Our results show tha t a lmost ha lf thehouses have two or more b at hroo ms but thereis no indica tion of increa se be twe en 1985 and2005. The rise in the num ber of roo m d ed ica tedto personal hygiene is due to an in increase inrooms with other denominations as is the case

of half ba throo m that is explained in the nextsec tion. It is impo rta nt to rema rk tha t the extraba throom is private a nd a ttac hed to the ma sterbedroom.

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Positive Prog ression

We studied the objects that had the highestdeg ree of prog ression. This me aning the ob jec tsthat were present in 1985 in less then 0.5% of

the ads and that progressed the most in 2005(figure 3). We see the ap pa rition of objec ts

that refer to the urba n loca tion of the ho use likefacing (open) towards, blind ally, sectorand near conveniences, those that refer tonew typ es of roo m like g rea t roo m , pa rking

and half bath, as well as those that refer tothe architec tural element o f volume and thematerial parquet.

Figure 2: Evolution of theQua lit ies Attribute d to theKitch en (Sourc e: Authors).

Figu re 3: Strong estProgression of O bje c tsPresent in Less the 1% ofthe A ds in 1985. (Sourc e:Authors).

Th F t f H Wh t R l E t t Ad T ll Ab t th E l ti f Si l F il D lli

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The most impo rtant referenc es to the urbanlocation are facing (open) towards, blind

ally, sector and near conveniences.The c onside rat ion fac ing tow ards is alwa ysassociated with the word not in order toexacerbate the notion that the property issec luded fo rm the view of strang ers. Theloc a tion in a b lind a lly is mo stly assoc iatedwith c a lm in 40,1% of the c ases ( b lind a lly,assured c alm , in the c almness of a blind ally ),and w ith p riva te in 7,8%. The sec tor is a lsofreq uent ly (31,3%) assoc iated w ith c a lm . It isalso look after, in dema nd and de sired in21,7% of the c ases and p riva te in 7,8%. Thesenotions present tranquil and peaceful housesheltered from the nuisanc es and inc onvenienc eproduc ed b y the neighb ors. The house is a lso nea r c onvenienc es . This c ate go ry reg roup sall the urba n servic es like ed uc ation, c om merceand t ranspo rtation. It puts upfront that thehouse is conveniently located near key living

fac ilities. On top of the trad itiona l room s, the reare several spaces and functions that maketheir appearance like great room, parking

and half ba th.

The em ergenc e of grea t roo m is not theap pea rance of a new type of room b ut more ofa c hange in the wa y peop le use and co nceivethe living roo m. First o f all it is qua lified mostlyby its size and is bigger then the traditionalliving room . Sec ond , it is see n as a m uc h mo rerelaxed space were the family does severalac tivities that g o from entertaining to wa tc hingtelevision. The pa rking is an exterior spac e fo rthe car that always complements the closed

ga rag e. Its ap pe aranc e respo nds to theincrease in the number of cars per householdbut also to the trend identified by Bellanger(2000) tha t the g a rage is put to o ther uses otherthen to park the car (workshop, storage, etc).The eme rgenc e of half bath (a shower and asink) co nsolida tes the fac t tha t there a re m oreba throom s in the houses.

The a rc hitec tural reference to the volume o fthe house is interesting b ec ause it is a t the sametime an indication of a certain architectural

Figure 4: Evolution ofthe Elements of Co mfortand of Total Com fort(Sourc e: Autho rs).

The Future of Houses: Wha t Real Esta te Ad s Tell Ab out the Evo lution o f Single Family Dwellings

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culture and an evolution of the notion of morespac e. The Frenc h house has bee n stea d ily

ge tting b igge r, from 77 m2 in 1978 to 105 m2 in2004. Volume is p rima rily qua lified (72%) byis beauty (beautiful volume) and in a lesseramount by a qualitative appreciation of size(11%) (big, huge , large). It is a referenc e toan architectural quality that is not based ona particular style as well as a way to describea room that is larger than the mean house.Parquet is the only reference to a buildingmaterial that presents an important increase.

It is mainly associated with chimney in order toinc rea se the stand ing of the soc ial spa c e.

The Evolution of Com fort

In the 50s the government established by lawthat a ll new d we lling must have tota l c om fortthat consisted in an indoor WC and bathroomas we ll as c entra l heat ing. This not ion ap pea rs in

our resea rc h as in c onsta nt dec line a nd is boundto d isap pe ar (Figure 4). It has be en replac ed bya m uch mo re c omp lex notion of c omfort basedon equipments and installations that includeheating and chimney, security systems, spainsta lla tions, sp rinklers, air co nd itioning, e tc

Conclusions

The results of o ur stud y show tha t the re ha vebe en c hang es in the house. The evolution ofthis type of dwelling is twofold: changes in theuse of space and changes in the notion ofcomfort.

Our results show a rise in the number ofba throo ms but no t an increa se in the numb er ofbedrooms. This is the reflec tion of the suburba n

house m arket tha t prod uc es ma inly 3 be droomdwe llings. The nationa l sta tistica l da ta tha t

shows an increase in the size o f the houses is no tev ide nt in o ur results.

The em ergenc e o f the grand room with anop en kitc hen a nd the light d ec line in the formalliving room show a tendency towards a muchmore relaxed conception of the social spaceof the house. The trad itiona l d isposition ofsep arate living room , dining roo m a nd kitc hen istransformed into a big unified spa c e tha t serves

as a m ultip le use spac e fo r the fa mily.

The notion of c om fort evolves from tota lcomfort, designating central heating, abathroom and a toilet, to a much morec omp lex notion b ased on spec ific equipmentsand insta lla tions. The users ta ke for grantedthe basic elements of comfort and search forother installations and equipments that are

usua lly assoc iated with the not ion of luxury andindulgence.

Our results allow us to outline the ideal house:it is at the same time near everything but farfrom everybod y, it ha s a big be autiful luminousand sunlit living-room, a big outfit ted openkitchen, several bathrooms and 3 or 4 rooms,it is comfortable because it is technically welleq uipp ed and has big volumes and pa rquet

floors.

The ide al hom e is som ew here b etw een thecountry house, secluded from nuisances ofurbanization by a natural environment, anda city dwelling that is near all the basic needs(education, commerce and transportation).These va lues resem ble those a ttributed tothe suburba n house. Is this due to the w ide


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sprea d of the ide al of suburbia, the influence ofc om mercial jargo n in the real estate ad s or thatour sample could be composed of a majorityof sub urba n houses? This question opens newvenues for future resea rc h.

References

Bellanger, F. (2000). Habitat(s) Questions ethypothses sur lvolution de lhabitat. Editions delAube, Soc it et Territo ire, Paris, Franc e.

CSTB (1998), Le Bt iment d em a in et a prs-de ma in ,CSTB, P. 239, Paris, France.

Eleb , M., Cha telet , A.M. e t M andoul, T. (1988). Penserlha biter. Le log eme nt en que stion. Pierre Marda gaEd iteur. Paris, Franc e.

Kimb erly, P. (2001). The M ore We Know, the More WeSee : Co ntext and Culture in 1920s Print A dvertising,PhD Disserta tion, University o f Texa s at Austin, P. 342,University o f Texas Austin Libra ries, Texa s, UnitedStates.

Me tzeltin, M. (1983). Zur Typolo gie d es franzsischenImmobilienanzeige n , In Neo ph ilolog us, 67 (3), PP.341-352, Groningen, The Nethe rland s.

Rod riguez, G. (2004). Rep rsentat ions et enjeux d esam bianc es de la ma ison individue lle p riurbaine.PhD Disserta tion , Universit d e Na nte s, EcoledArchitecture de Nantes, P. 225, Nantes, France.

SOFRES (1994). TNS SOFRES, Sa tisfac tio n des Fran a is

ave c leur maison, w ww .sofres.com

Tapie, Guy (2005), Maison ind ividuelle, architec ture,urbanit , Ed itions de lAub e, P.253. Paris, Franc e.

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Gabriel RodriguezGa briel Rod rigue z, Architec t, PhD in Tec hnical Sc ienc efor Architecture, is a practicing architect and ateac her and researcher at the schoo l of Architec tureof Nantes, France. His research concerns mainly theperception of domestic architecture as well as itsam bient environme nt. These themes are app liedand developed in his architectural practice.He canbe c onta c ted at ga briel.rod rigue [email protected] rchi.fr

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Daniel SiretDan iel Siret, Arc hitec t, PhD in Tec hnica l Sc ienc esfor Architecture, is a full time researcher at schoolof architecture of Nantes, France. His work mainlyconcerns the role of lighting problems in designprocesses in architecture. He promotes historicalapproaches (solar theories in modern and post-modern architecture and urbanism), technicaldevelopments (direct and inverse simulation ofsunlighting) and design analysis (lighting as project).

He can be c onta c ted a t da [email protected] rchi.fr

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