My Friend Ward
After graduating from undergrad I started having weekly dinners with an 86 year old man named Ward. He was an architect and had previously taught at Clemson in the 90s. As we grew closer I discovered that Ward’s son was the Vice President of Mungo Homes in Columbia, SC and that he had studied CSM at Clemson in the late 80s.
Ward himself had practiced architecture for many years, specifically designing expensive retirement villages in Alabama. A product of modernism, Ward was a sophisticated architect who knew design. His designs were custom and boutique, providing people with top quality.
Fast forward 30 years to where Ward was living on the first level of his son’s large Mungo Home in Lexington, SC. Mungo Homes started as a few pop up neighborhood developments in the Midlands but quickly grew in popularity and became one of South Carolina’s largest home builders. They specialize in large, family focused neighborhood designs with pre designed floor plans that clients can select from depending on the neighborhood that you live in.
Needles to say, when Ward’s son was working in the AEC industry under a similar yet vastly dissimilar position than his father.
When Ward wanted to talk about the quality of homes or of the lack of quality of homes that his son was providing for people, he would kindly ask that I shut the door to his living suite.
This story is not to say that large suburbia communities are bad. In fact I grew up in one and am fond of those memories. Simply put it is a story that I always think about when discussing this topic, and one that makes me consider individual perception and opinion. To thousands of people living in Mungo neighborhoods, there is a lot to be excited about. Some are even living in their version of a dream home. It is easy for architects to overly scrutinize these developments, and while I too find there to be negatives associated with them, there is something valid to their existence that architects opposed to them should validate and learn from.
Mungo Homes vs Ward's favorite living room chair - the Seranan Womb Chair
While I respect the option that people have to live in any style home they wish (not just Mungo homes), I still find myself asking how this mass production of homes is still thriving. And I think you do a nice job of answering this: its because these house developers cater to peoples differences while still offering them something within their comfort zone.
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