Cultural Aspects

Variety in House Forms

On the whole, housing is the most significant environment that individuals encounter each day. It is certainly the most omnipresent type of built environment, as it exists in some form or other in nearly all cultures around the world and provides a foundation for the existence of many millions of households. Whether permanent or temporary, composed of a single space or a group of highly complex and differentiated rooms, housing fulfills physiological needs for shelter from climatic elements and protection from harm. Houses mark territory and communicate identity and status. However, the extent of physical shelter, the degree to which physical means are employed to achieve privacy, the expectation for protection from harm, how territory is marked, and how status and identity are conveyed vary widely when housing is examined cross-culturally.

Beyond meeting basic human needs, housing can be understood as a container of human activity where its form relates to the cultural specifics of how activities are performed and to the meanings that are culturally ascribed to residential environments. Likewise, homes are a reflection of the communal or individualistic nature of a cultural group as well as its degree of social, economic, or political stratification. The form, size, and abundance of housing, as well as the degree of responsiveness to specific activity needs, can be linked to the degree of technological and political development and differentiation within a culture. The physical form, size, and condition of housing across a cultural group also reflect the degree to which safe, decent housing is understood as a basic human right. The great variety of housing forms can best be understood and interpreted through an examination of the interlinked system of people-culture-environment. The abstract definitions often applied to culture and environment make any study of this system difficult without first identifying ways to consider their relationship through their more tangible and specific components. Aside from its capacity to shelter, housing can also be understood as the representation of a framework of ideas, beliefs, and values that are guided by culture. It is by examining activities, systems of activities, frameworks of beliefs and values, and their manifestation in the physical environment that one can best grasp culture-housing relationships.

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