What is the meaning of a McMansion?

In suburban communities, McMansion is a pejorative term or slur for a large "mass-produced" dwelling.
An example of a McWord, "McMansion" associates the generic quality of these luxury houses with that of mass-produced fast food by evoking the McDonald's restaurant chain.

Who coined the term and when?

Virginia Savage McAlester, who also gave a first description of the common features which define this building style, coined the more neutral term Millennium Mansion
The neologism "McMansion" seems to have been coined sometime in the early 1980s.[3] It appeared in the Los Angeles Times in 1990 and the New York Times in 1998.

Why are McMansion’s so bad?

Think big columns plonked in the middle of rooms (that aren’t actually holding up anything), fake windows and balconies – and that’s just the beginning.
Then of course, there’s the mammoth size of some of these homes.

What are the characteristics of a McMansion?

McMansions have been popular in America, and to a lesser extent Australia, depending on what city, since the 1980s, and are typically mass produced and built with cheap materials.
But Kate Wagner, author of popular blog McMansion Hell, is quick to point out that there’s a difference between a traditionally-designed Victorian or Modernist architecture and an oversized McMansion.

While a Victorian mansion is elegant and restrained, she says McMansions are “bad craftsmanship, bad investment, bad for the environment, bad for the spirit”.

She says McMansions were “never designed to last forever” and were “built cheaply to get maximum items checked off list for the lowest cost”.

McMansion Hell explains that McMansions aren’t simply “ugly” – they’ve gotten many things wrong about basic design principles and can be a jumble of styles.
Successfully designed houses have a sense of balance, with equally weighted elements and an overall sense of aesthetic cohesion.

The homes featured on the blog lack balance and symmetry, with garages bigger than actual homes, and have too many ‘voids’ or blank spaces like windows and doors.

Does Australia have McMansions?

Yes, and McMansion Hell states, “Australia, however, is rather self-aware of their McMansion phenomenon - so much so, that earlier this year, they did a two-part TV show about the progression from Modernism to McMansions featuring comedian and fellow architecture buff Tim Ross.”

What locations are famous for McMansions?

McMansions have seen rising popularity in China, but are most prominent and originated in America.

Sarah Buckley

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