Here is the full transcript of McMansionHell creator Kate Wagner’s TEDx Talk: What’s a McMansion – and How Can We Prevent More of Them? at TEDxMidAtlantic conference.
Kate Wagner – TRANSCRIPT
First of all, I’d like to apologize to anyone in the room who considers themselves to be architecturally sensitive. What you’re about to see may upset you.
So, the number one question I get in my inbox all the time is, so McMansion hell, what the hell is McMansion? So, it’s pretty easy. I’ve narrowed it down to a couple of factors. First of all, they are oversized. That means there’s over 3,000 square feet which is 500 feet more than the highest national housing average. So, AKA that space, as you can see here probably 26 children.
And the other thing is, if you look at this house, which is quite lovely, I’m sorry. This house probably has three media rooms, seven bathrooms with a garden tub, and a chandelier and whatever, but it doesn’t have a front porch and I cannot find the front door. Also there’s no lawn.
So, that leads to my second point, they are poorly designed. So, that means there’s no respect for form or scale or other things that people in the architecture would call ‘the basic rules of architecture.’ So, as you can see here, this house looks like it was designed by someone who maybe saw a house once in their life, but either had some sort of visual issues or was wearing kaleidoscope glasses that you get during Halloween.
Even worse these poorly designed houses are cheaply constructed. So, I will get to that in a second. But, I’d like to point out that this is an engineering marvel. This is a house that is a wood frame covered in different types of foam. So, and finally, they are disrespectful. So, you have to feel really bad for the poor folks in these little houses who on longer have any natural light in their homes. It is a dark time for them as it is for all of us.
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