Description

 In 1971, architect Jack Fitzsimons self-published a book called Bungalow Bliss. His first edition contained 20 plans of what he considered to be affordable homes. Twelve subsequent editions of Bungalow Bliss were printed with more than a quarter of a million copies sold. Bungalow Bliss put buildable plans directly into the hands of the rising Irish middle class bringing a modern home within financial reach for many families. These simple one-story, three- or four-bedroom, rectangular houses can be seen all over the Irish countryside. To many, the bungalow can be seen as a descendent of the traditional Irish cottage. With a goal to improve housing in rural Ireland, Fitzsimons’s plans offered improved living standards, but his designs garnered a fair amount of criticism for their bland aesthetics and unnatural relationship to the landscape. A primary source for this course will be the book Little Republics: The Story of Bungalow Bliss by engineer, visual artist, and filmmaker, Adrian Duncan (2022, Lilliput Press). Through Duncan’s research we’ll take a look at examples from Fitzsimons Bungalow Bliss books. We’ll look at why they look the way they do, why they were so popular, and why they were so disliked.