Text‐ured Brick: Speculations on the Cultural Production of Domestic Space

Why do over 80 per cent of Australians defy the many critics of suburban life and continue to flock to new houses on the fringes of our large cities? This question is explored using feminist poststructuralism and urban semiotics to read a Melbourne exhibition village. Using this method, a house, its floor plan and a promotional brochure can be seen as cultural artefacts onto which are inscribed oppressive social relations which are, nevertheless, actively engaged with. Herein lies one element in the powerful appeal of the suburban house. Copyright © 1993, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved