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What’s changed about where we live? In a new five-year exhibit unveiled today, the National Building Museum attempts to answer that question through films, photographs, objects, and interactive materials (go ahead, touch those adobe bricks). Scale models of 14 iconic homes—like Mount Vernon, that pinnacle of historic preservation—sit in the center of the exhibit’s seven galleries, which showcase nearly 200, often middlebrow household goods (butter churn, Easy Bake Oven) and a deconstruction of what it takes to build all types of living spaces, from the earthen to the glassy, modern variety. Then there’s the “Buying a Home” gallery, a timeline illustrating the progression of our modern mortgage system, and six films that delve into the nitty-gritty of housework. While “House & Home” mostly looks backwards, it could give anxious consumers a much bigger picture to look at, rather than the doom and gloom of the lingering mortgage crisis. “
House & Home” is on view 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays–Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays to May 1, 2017. $8 for adults. nbm.org. (202) 272-2448.