Your vacation in a kit!
You can build it yourself wherever you want it!
A thousand vacations are waiting for you!
-Leisure House A-frame brochure, 1953
1950’s America was the era of the “second everything.” With postwar prosperity came second televisions, second bathrooms and second cars in the garage. For Middle-class Americans with more disposable income and more time for leisure, recreation was suddenly a hot commodity and the second home (one for the work week and one for pleasure!) became its most iconic visible manifestation.
A-FRAME (Princeton Architectural Press/June 7, 2004/$21.95/Hardcover) by Chad Randl is a fascinating look at an architectural phenomenon that became a national craze. Fueled by A-frame plans and kits with promises of easy construction, Americans in the 50’s and 60’s built tens of thousands of A-frame houses. Chad Randl traces the history of the “triangle” house from prehistoric Japan to its peak in the 1960’s. Randl documents every aspect of A-frame living using ads, cartoons, family snaphots and do-it-yourself examples. The A-frame’s continued cultural potency is confirmed by the inclusion of recent A-frame building construction. Architect Steven Izenour of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates chose the A-frame for his design of the Acadia Summer Arts Program’s Kamp Kippy on Mount Desert Island Maine.
Part architectural history and part cultural exploration, A-frame is the story of how an unusual little building caused such a big stir in postwar America. Chad Randl has included an appendix with a complete set of blueprints in case you want to build your own. So what are you waiting for?
Crack open the book and get to work!
CHAD RANDL is an architectural historian working at the National Parks Service. He resides in Takoma Park, Maryland. For further information or to arrange an interview with Chad Randl please contact: RUSSELL FERNANDEZ, PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL PRESS, (212) 995-9620 ext. 212 OR russell@papress.com
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