House & Home

The National Building Museum presents House & Home, a kaleidoscopic array of photographs, objects, models, and films that takes us on a tour of houses both familiar and surprising, through past and present, challenging our ideas about what it means to be at home in America. Remarkable transformations in technology, laws, and consumer culture have brought about enormous change in American domestic life. The breathtaking variety of stories about the American home will surprise, teach, and entertain.

The exhibition features "please-touch" walls made out of different materials used in residential construction over time, from adobe bricks to Structural Insulated Panel (SIP) systems. Intricate scale models present iconic residential architecture including Fallingwater and Chicago’s Hancock Center. Three sets of specially commissioned films featuring contemporary and historical images round out the experience.

House & Home's seven galleries tell a full range of stories about the history of the American home. Designed by the award-winning New York-based firm Ralph Appelbaum Associates, the exhibition is an immersive experience in which the galleries come alive with objects, photographs, and sound.

Living at Home: A dramatic display of hundreds of household goods used over the course of the past several centuries includes a butter churn; a poster of Farrah Fawcett; a fondue set; and a hand-painted screen door. Each item tells its own story of how a house becomes a home.

Building a House: Full-scale "please touch" walls made from materials used in residential construction from adobe bricks to structural insulated panels (SIPs) are on display. These hands-on cross-sections introduce ideas of construction and engineering as visitors are able to feel building materials and see different structural methods.

Buying a Home: A timeline introduces visitors to the origins of our modern mortgage system as well as other milestones in the history of home ownership. An 1860s homestead claim and a photograph of a 1930s couple signing a government mortgage with an "X" help tell this story and link the laws and regulations concerning home ownership to the current economic situation.

Models: The Museum commissioned scale models of 14 iconic American homes run down the center of the gallery space, delighting visitors who recognize such special buildings as Mount Vernon and the John Hancock Center. Photographs complementing the models show how Americans used ideas from these famous structures to design their own more modest homes.

Film: A series of six films use historical photographs to animate the daily tasks such as laundry and cooking that make a home work. In another gallery, a large-scale two-screen film presentation takes visitors inside a variety of contemporary architect-designed homes. In the final gallery, interviews with developers, contractors, residents, and real-estate agents give visitors a different kind of look at six communities.

Education Programs: School and youth education courses, lectures and workshops for adults, symposia for building professionals, and festivals for visitors of all ages will complement House & Home.