House Form And Culture

by Amos Rapoport

The extraordinary variety of forms of the dwellings of the world is the topic with which this book deals. House Form and Culture brings order to this complex field by concentrating on the forces that have shaped the dwelling, and by interpreting the ways in which people organized and used dwelling space.

In showing that house form is not merely a response to physical and technological constraints, the author stresses man's propensity to endow his existence with symbolic value and meaning, and interprets houses and settlements as an expression of such forces.

Numerous examples ranging widely over time and space are given - mostly primitive and vernacular - and these are charmingly illustrated by the author. This, combined with the insights from disciplines as diverse as architecture, cultural geography, ethnology, and anthropology, leads to a conceptual framework for looking at dwellings. An extensive bibliography of material in several languages supplements the examples given.

The insights into the meaning and nature of the dwelling of ordinary people, and the significance of this vernacular tradition, as well as the masterful summary of the technical elements of built form, will not only interest the specialist but will enable the general reader to understand architectural form better. This book relates the insights of the past to the buildings and environmental problems of the present day and is hence of interest to all those concerned with the habitat of man - the general public as well as architects, geographers, and social scientists.

Genres: Architecture, Design, Nonfiction, Anthropology

150 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

Reviews

[Barbara Hahijary · Rating 5 out of 5]

i took the ethno-architecture class given by Prof. Gunawan Tjahjono and he recommended this book. we used each point from the book to tell how Indonesian Architecture got the shape and some other points.
a useful one.

[mahatmanto · Rating 4 out of 5]

ini [pernah jadi] buku wajib buat mahasiswa arsitektur.
pada intinya adalah bahwa faktor-faktor kultural itu lebih berperan katimbang faktor-faktor natural, dalam memberi bentuk pada arsitektur vernakular.
jadi,
bentuk arsitektur vernakular itu tidak hanya merupakan respons statis terhadap iklim dan tersedianya bahan setempat saja, namun juga buah dari pola kegiatan, sistem-sistem kemasyarakatan, kepercayaan, perlambang dari penghuninya.

ada baiknya juga membandingkan buku ini dengan buku-bukunya paul oliver, gaudenz domenig atau nold egenter.

[Sara Hosseini · Rating 3 out of 5]

ترجمه و ادیت وحشتناک. متن اما بدیع و جالبه و مثال های فراوونش آدمو شگفت زده می کنه.

[Alejandro Jiménez]

Rapoport examina diversas características de las viviendas, como la disposición espacial, la organización interna, los materiales utilizados y los símbolos arquitectónicos presentes en diferentes culturas y períodos históricos. A través de estos análisis, busca identificar patrones y significados compartidos que se encuentran en las formas de las casas en diferentes contextos culturales.

El autor sostiene que las viviendas son más que simples estructuras físicas, ya que también reflejan aspectos sociales, económicos y simbólicos de una sociedad. Examina cómo la cultura influye en la forma en que se utilizan los espacios domésticos, cómo se establecen las relaciones familiares, cómo se transmiten las tradiciones y cómo se expresan las identidades culturales a través de la arquitectura del hogar.

[Au · Rating 5 out of 5]

My lecturer recomended this book in class and i loved that i took his advice to read it. Especially the perspective on how many levels there are on 'vernacular' houses that was explained on the first chapter.. this book leads my interest on primitive dwellings, which then became the topic that i planned write about for my thesis.

[Jalaj Agarwal · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a good book if you are new to the field or if you are just interested in house forms. The book takes a broader approach in defining the different forms of houses we have today.

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amos Rapoport posits that the house form is not physically determined but is a consequence of various social-cultural factors. Physical aspects such as climate, materials, and technologies serve as more of a modifying factors in the grand scheme of things. Fascinating and enlightening study of the vernacularity as a process in architecture and how it compares to the "high style" architecture. The values and wants and needs it represents, and its open endedness.

The book explores various examples of social cultural factors that shapes houses and settlements around the world, and its physical modifying factors. It also touches on the constancy and changeability of form determination.

It concludes with a reflection on "the present" (meaning 1969 in Rapoport's time), which proved to be quite prescient today. It reflects on the changes in architecture of developing countries whose societies were experiencing a breakdown of folk art and acceleration to the modern "future". It also reflects on the distinction between "high architecture" and "folk architecture" of the western world (here it largely means the anglo-american world).

Published in 1969, it's a relatively old text. But, as with vernacularity explained by Rapoport in the book, it has a rather open-ended conclusion. It provides a good framework for us to dissect the modern vernacular house form.

[DIVYA]

good book