In the 1930s and 1940s, Montreal was subject to a housing crisis. There were too many people and not enough houses.
Architects, urbanists and the government were thinking of innovative ideas about housing that would answer the needs of the working class families.
The single-unit home model was promoted as a solution to the existing overcrowding and unsanitary households.
Together, they decided of rules on how to build the perfect houses. Here are the five criterias of the ideal home as stated in 1941.
First, it was vast and sanitary.
Second, it guarantees the intimacy of each member of the family.
Third, it ensures the stability of the family and protects its intimacy.
Fourth, according to the natural and innate need in men, it is property of the head of the household.
Finally, the fifth criteria of the ideal home is that it is integrated in a harmonious neighborhood.
Intimacy : as suitable to the telling of a secret. A space of privacy.
Privacy : the quality or condition of being secluded from the presence or view of others. The condition of being concealed or hidden.
Concealment : the protection from observation or surveillance. See also : camouflage, cover, screen.
Camouflage : protective colouring or other appearance that conceals an animal, a person, a building and enables it to blend into its surrounding.
To blend : to shade imperceptibly into each other. See also : disappearing.
To disappear : to pass out of sight, to vanish. To cease to be seen. To cease to exist.
