People did not always need privacy, they didn’t need libraries before Guttenberg, no one built picture galleries for just a couple of family paintings. The manner of lighting a house changed its floor plan, while fashion and weather influenced its situation.

This blog will trace and highlight the changes.

My focus will be mostly on the Georgian period, as my research stems from my interest in Jane Austen. However, I’ll cover both earlier and later developments in European architecture and landscape gardening in order to show how people were affected by them as well as how social and cultural ideas influenced the way people thought of their houses.