The birth of the modern suburb

Above is a rather odd video, but it does have some good information in it. It uses the video game Fallout 4 as a starting point and moves on from there. If you don't know, the Fallout game series is set after a nuclear war and you run around fighting mutants, and raiders, and what-not, but that's not the topic of the video.

The aesthetics of the game world is a retro-1950s futurism with robots, atomic power and a sort of goofy old-timey Americana feel to it. Generally, you only see the post-war ruins of it, but Fallout 4 starts with a pre-war segment set in a suburban cul-de-sac. The Architectural Outcast uses that as a springboard to discuss how America's suburbs came to be.

WWII soldiers were not well paid, but as compensation they were promised certain post-war benefits via the GI Bill. One of these benefits was an affordable house with no down-payment. The problem was that during the war, and the Great Depression that proceeded it, not a lot of houses had been built and so there was a shortage of housing, and what houses that were available were old and rather worn out.  

The U.S. solved the problem by going on a massive housing boom. Much of it was via planned housing developments surrounding cities, which led to the modern suburbs. For efficiency's sake, different models in these developments were limited, and so we got the cookie-cutter feel the suburbs are known for.

There were also attempts at kit houses. Because it was featured in the Fallout neighborhood, he discusses the Lustron House, a prefabricated steel house that never gained traction and is nothing more than an oddity today. 

The Lustron Home