HOUSE FORM & CULTURE

Amos Rapaport
The form that housing takes is related
to the culture in which that housing is
built
We focus on the monumental while
much of the built environment is
housing, and most of this is done
without the benefit of architects.
Primitive housing produced by
societies defined as primitive
Vernacular housing involvement of
tradesmen . . .

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Vernacular:
the owner is a participant
lack of theoretical or aesthetic
pretensions
working with site and climate
respect for other people and their
environment
variations within an idiom
Limited range of expression but openended within that.
a culturally accepted model
few building types

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Tradition disappears:
complexity more building types
loss of shared values
originality a premium is placed on
being original

Production of built form changes:

primitive very few building types,

model with few variations, built by all

preindustrial vernacular greater
number of building types, more
individual variation, built by tradesmen
high-style/modern many specialized
building types, each an original
creation, designed and built by teams of
specialists.

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Differentiation of space:
Jung the lack of sharp boundaries between man and animals in the primitive world
Kabylie man and animal in same room
Switzerland under same roof but separate spaces
French farmhouse separated but close
Similarly In urban space
living/working/workshop spaces.
Then widely separated.

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ALTERNATIVE THEORIES OF HOUSE FORM

- a single cause for house form?
PHYSICAL
climate and the need for shelter
materials and technology
site
SOCIAL
economics
defense
religion

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CLIMATE
Climatic determinism
We build houses to keep in a consistent climate,
and to keep out predators. We grow, gather and
eat food to keep our metabolism on an even
keel. (p19)
the courtyard house is a southern form while
the hearth belongs to the north
but courtyard housing is found in the temperate
climate of Beijing as well as the desert climate of
north Africa.

Beijing courtyard housing

Many different forms of housing within limited

number of climatic zones.
Changing form based on economic activity the
Hidastsa in the Missouri valley (p20)

The hearth in Wrights Robie House

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Ceremonial & religious beliefs, prestige and

status will often override climatic
requirements
Iquitos (p21) solid walls instead of open
(for ventilation) because of status and privacy
Japan (p22) traditional house varies little
from Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu in the
south.
South Seas (p22) European houses are seen
as a mark of power and good fortune and so
are used despite their inappropriateness for
the climate.

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MATERIALS, CONSTRUCTION,
TECHNOLOGY
For thousands of years wood and stone have
determined the character of buildings. The
theory that forms develop as man learns to master
more complex building techniques. However
even within one culture housing may be primitive
while ceremonial buildings are elaborate with
sophisticated roof structures.
Sometimes technology may be available but not
used. the Egyptians knew the vault [but] they
rarely used it, and then only where it could not be
seen, since it was at odds with their image or idea
of the building. (p24-5)
Sometimes social values take precedence over
technological advances. Piped water vs well
water.(P25)
Of course wood and stone can be used to create
may different kinds of structures, the form of
which will be determined more by the culture than
the material.

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SITE
The theory that topography can be a form
determinant.
Eg the hill towns of Italy.
Feng shui considers many aspects of
geography in determining the orientation
and shape of a building. However this has
a cosmological basis. Siting can take on
mystical importance which can lead to
persistence of sites because of their
traditional nature.
The choice of a good site will depend on a
cultural definition.
Sometimes the form will not change even
though the topography has the Latin
American courtyard house.

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DEFENSE
this has been cited to account for
tight urban patterns more than to
explain the form of dwellings
themselves.
the compact towns in the Greek
islands have been attributed to the
needs of defense, lack of money (so
that the houses themselves had to
form the city wall), lack of arable
land and the need to conserve it, and
the need for shading for climatic
reasons. All of these undoubtedly
played a part, which means that no
single cause could be possible.
Defense is handled differently in the
Cameroons (see pg 32)

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ECONOMICS
scarcity of resources as a determining factor
in house form. However, even under
conditions of scarcity there are examples of
herders living among agricultural people
and continuing to refuse to accept that way
of life. Some will build beyond their means.
(34).
Even where collaboration is used it is often
not used for strictly economic reasons but
socio-cultural ones.
There is an economic need to store, but even
this will be done differently according to a
number of variables. (p36)
Even mobility, strongly motivated by
economic conditions (scarcity of resources),
does not result in similarity of house form.

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RELIGION
Some have taken the view that physical
determinants are not nearly as important as
symbolic and religious determinants. the
sacredness of the house.
The sacredness of the threshold and portal,
and hence the separation of the sacred and
profane realms, can be achieved through
the use of numerous and varied forms. Is a
stranger allowed in the house? Some
places yes, others no.
Shape of the house will vary according to
understanding of the cosmos. North-south
orientation, circular? (p41)

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PHYSICAL DETERMINISM
The physical environment provides possibilities, not imperatives.
Mumford suggests that man was a symbol-making animal before he was a tool-making
animal. (42).
More than the physical environment, it is our symbols and rituals that give form to that
environment.

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SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS
The house is an institution, not just a
structure.
In addition to physical influences on built
form (which are considered to be more
secondary or modifying), there is a whole
range of socio-cultural factors primary
forces a vision of the ideal life (p47).
Religion
Family Structure
Criticality

Culture- the total equipment of ideas

and institutions and conventionalized
activities of a people
Ethos the organized conception of
the Ought.
World View the way people
characteristically look out upon the
world.
National Character the personality
type of a people, the kind of human
being which, generally occurs in this
society (p48)

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RELIGION
The image of the cosmos in built form
The Dogon (p50) the whole landscape
reflects the cosmic order. Villages are
laid out in the way parts of the body lie
with respect to each other. Balinese
housing compounds have similar
features.
Solskifts in the Baltic (p51) reproduce the
daily path of the sun in the layout of their
villages.
Feng Shui as shown in the previous
lecture
Symbolic space inside the house

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FAMILY STRUCTURE
Monogamy husband still
separated from wife and children
Polygamy where the man has no
real house and visits his wives,
each of whom has her own house.

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Family structure
and the centre.

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CRITICALITY
There are many factors influencing the
form of the house. The more forceful the
physical constraints, and the more
limited the technology and command of
means, the less are nonmaterial aspects
able to act. But they never cease to
operate. There is a scale or set of scales
that we could use here. A climatic scale
ranging from very severe to very benign,
an economic scale from bare subsistence
to affluence, a technological scale from
the barest to the most sophisticated,
materials from a single local material to
unlimited choice. Even where the
constraints are the most severe, cultural
factors are still operating.
The degree of freedom in choice can be
understood through the concept of
criticality.

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Criticality eg. in flight, a

rocket has higher criticality
than an airplane because it is
more severely constrained by
technical requirements.
Slower airplanes have more
freedom in design (lower
criticality) than do jets. A
pedestrian path has more
freedom than an expressway.
The degree of choice
depends on the value system.

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BASIC NEEDS
The concept of basic needs is brought into
question since most basic needs involve
value judgments and therefore choice.
Those choices are based on peoples
attitudes towards their environment.
There are a number of factors that affect
built form:
Some basic needs
Family
Position of women
Privacy
Social intercourse

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Some Basic Needs

look at breathing as a basic need. This will have
an effect on house form. The need for fresh air or
the acceptance of smells (such as cooking) will
alter house form. The Eskimo accepts very high
smell concentrations, and the smell of the toilet is
accepted in the traditional Japanese house. In
some cultures smoke is sacred and therefore
encouraged in the house.
Even the concept of comfort seems highly variable.
The basic need of eating will vary in its rituals
from culture to culture and necessarily affect house
form.
Sitting (a basic need?) will affect house form too
depending on how one sits. On the floor, on a
chair, a mat? If you sit on a chair, this will affect
where and how you place openings.

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FAMILY
family structure will have a profound affect on house form. Extended
family/nuclear family. The choice of communal living (eg the Iroquois longhouse)
or separate living (the Western mingles apt).
Polygamy or monogamy, of course, will affect form.

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POSITION OF WOMEN
where women are cloistered in the house, the
need for privacy will increase, thus changing
the house form.
In Egypt men and women are always separated,
rich people having separate rooms and poor
ones using different corners of their house.

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Privacy As stated above privacy is partly affected by the

position of women. In some cultures privacy is achieved
through social convention. The place of the individual in
society may decide whether a communal house is left open
and unsubdivided or is divided. This relates to the separation
of domains. In India, Iran and Latin American buildings
traditionally face inwards. In Anglo-American houses they
face outwards.

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Privacy (p66) inward

facing and little concern for
what happens on the street
(is this an example of the
commons?). In traditional
settlements, however, the
narrow, shady streets
become full of life as they
serve some social
functions. Streets in the
Punjab, for example, link
the three elements of the
village house, temple,
and bazaar. Widenings in
the streets provide room for
a small tree or a well,
around which a storyteller
or small market will set up
shop and help the street
serve a social function.

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The transition between street and private domain of the house becomes very important in
this case. (SEE JACOBS ON THIS)
Western architects often think of privacy as a basic need, but it is a complex and varied
phenomenon that defies easy solutions. (FIG 2)

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SOCIAL
INTERCOURSE
the concern is where to meet
whether in the house, the cafe,
the bath, the street, the well.
All of these will affect the form
of the house. In many cultures
meeting in the house is not
done. Socializing takes place
elsewhere. This means that the
house cannot be seen in
isolation from the settlement.
Because the living pattern
always extends beyond the
house to some degree, the form
of the house is affected by the
extent to which one lives in it
and the range of activities that
take place in it.

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RELATION OF HOUSE AND SETTLEMENT

Dispersed and concentrated settlements.
Two traditions of concentrated settlements:
the whole settlement has been considered as the setting for life. The
dwelling is a more private enclosed part of that. E.g. the Latin,
Mediterranean village, vernacular
The dwelling is the total setting for life and the settlement is the connective
tissue and secondary in nature. E.g. the Anglo-American city, high style
This distinction between types may be due partly to written or unwritten
laws which limit the behavior patterns in the different domains public or
private by prohibiting some and allowing others. This is an expression of
world view and other attitudes, and is one way in which a culture is linked to
the way people use space. In the same way the distinction may be due partly
to the effect of religion on social attitudes and family, and hence on the
separation of domains. (p70)
How is the street viewed in different cultures? (Japan, p73)

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SETTLEMENTS AND SITING

The initial choice of a site for settlements will be based on many factors.
Among them are the physical factors access to food or water, exposure to
wind, defensive potential, land for agriculture, transportation potential, trade
potential. Some of these are social factors which may also include family or
clan structure and grouping.
How do we understand this relationship of man to his surroundings?
Religious and cosmological
Symbiotic
Exploitative (see page 75)
In the first two there is a personal relationship established an I-Thou
relationship. Nature is to be worked with. In the third there is an I-It
relationship where nature is worked on.
In the first two man is in nature. There is no difference between the two. The
whole landscape is sacred as is the house in it.

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CONSTANCY AND CHANGE

If we place too much importance on culturally linked aspects of form, form would become
meaningless outside the culture. Yet we know this is not true. Some things will change
with a change in culture, some things will remain constant. In physiology man has changed
little. Biological responses to the environment are essentially unchanged. Are perception
and behavior culturally linked or inborn (physiological) and unchanging? Both?
The need for sensory stimulation and satisfaction visual and social complexity in the
environment seems constant for both man and animals (79)
The need for security may be constant but how that is expressed may vary greatly. (This
notion takes on greater importance when we look at Defensible Space)
Symbols vary but the need for communication is constant.
The territorial instinct the need for identity and place is constant. How we define
territory and the ideal environment will vary. What elements are changeable and which are
constant will have a profound effect on the form of both the dwelling and the city.

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Distinctions are made between different types of space: physical, economic, social, etc.
Architects make a distinction between technological space (bathrooms, services spaces)
and symbolic spaces (living areas). The former will change according to changes in
equipment. The latter will tend to remain more constant (is this really true? Perhaps, but
only in the sense that it is space defined by furnishings which in themselves will change
form culture to culture rather than equipment specifications).
It is through the latter spaces that we define ethnic domains. So, for example, the
sanctity of the threshold remains constant from culture to culture but how that is
identified and defined will vary considerably. (FIG 3.15, p.80)

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