Morphology and Meaning of Residential Yard in the Northeast of the United States of America

Abstract

Morphology and meaning of residential yard in the Northeast of the United States are analyzed. Most houses face to road but not always to the south, and yards are divided into front, side, and back yards. Before the mortalization, front yards had been used frequently as a space for communication between passengers and residents, and back yards had been utility spaces like a storage and a clothes-drying space, and so on. But, after the mortalization many front yards have not been used as a communication area of neighbors, in spite of that, most residents have kept front yards clean to show themselves to neighbors as a participant of neighborhood. But, the scenery of front yards has become vacant and dull. On the contrary, many back yards have drastically changed to outdoor rooms with flowers and shrubs owing to the populalization of cloth-dryer and some other reasons. This kind of changes would be the reflection of decreasing neighborhood communication and of increasing individualism. One of the reasons why they have been able to keep front yards which are not so useful as before is the affluent land in the United States. Enclosures are quite rare in front and side yards, but not in back yards. One of the reasons for the openness would be a nature of American who dislike a stuffy atmosphere made by enclosures. Also, widely streched lawn may be the result of this nature of American, and more fundamental reason for this is some kind of inherent feeling for lawn which come from the pastoral agriculture. Foundation plantings are a character of American residential plantings, which distinctly show us the lack of viewpoint to enjoy a scenery staying indoor.