A Hut of One's Own: Life Outside the Circle of Architecture

by Ann Cline

An exploration of the smallest and simplest of dwellings offers answers to some of the largest and oldest questions about architecture. This small book on small dwellings explores some of the largest questions that can be posed about architecture. What begins where architecture ends? What was before architecture? The ostensible subject of Ann Cline's inquiry is the primitive hut, a one-room structure built of common or rustic materials. Does the proliferation of these structures in recent times represent escapist architectural fantasy, or deeper cultural impulses? As she addresses this question, Cline gracefully weaves together two one of primitive huts in times of cultural transition, and the other of diminutive structures in our own time of architectural transition. From these narrative strands emerges a deeper what are the limits of architecture? What ghosts inhabit its edges? What does it mean to dwell outside it? Cline's project began twenty-five years ago, when she set out to translate the Japanese tea ritual into an American idiom. First researching the traditional tea practices of Japan, then building and designing huts in the United States, she attempted to make the "translation" from one culture to another through the use of common American building materials and technology. But her investigation eventually led her to look at many nonarchitectural ideas and sources, for the hut exists both at the beginning of and at the farthest edge of architecture, in the margins between what architecture is and what it is not. In the resulting narrative, she blends autobiography, historical research, and cultural criticism to consider the place that such structures as shacks, teahouses, follies, casitas, and diners—simple, "undesigned" places valued for their timelessness and authenticity—occupy from both a historical and contemporary perspective. This book is an original and imaginative attempt to rethink architecture by studying its boundary conditions and formative structures.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 1998

Reviews

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book about a year ago, but even though I don't remember all the details it has stuck with me. An interesting exploration of small architecture used as a jumping off point to talk about culture and history and design/lack of design...definitely left me with a lot to think about. An enjoyable and kind of calming read.

[Katerina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've no idea why the average rating of this book is slightly above 3;
I'd vote it full 5, as I read some parts twice.
There is a lot in there: literacy, imagination, the slight twist of a dreamer's personal narrative and analyses, which go far beyond architecture.

It's a beautiful book, if you're up to it.

(And no, I don't believe in infinite tolerance when it comes to taste.)

[Nicole M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Hut of One's Own -- a theme that seems so intriguing, especially to me, as someone who often has small space and 'pulling a Thoreau' on the mind. All children in all lands enjoy building forts and huts -- so why can't we as well?

Ann Cline's discussion on the concept of hut is deep and winding; it's fascinating, yet largely theoretical. She speaks of the psychology of the hut, and the psychology of artistic preferences in general; of huts she has built, of the hut in ritual, or her architectural background versus the hut.

It's all very neat, yes, and probably to be expected, considering her scholarly background -- but sometimes, you just want to read about HUTS, you know? I don't really want read about why middle class people might prefer x type of art, or y or z-- rather, I'd just love to know about SOME HUTS and maybe HUT DWELLERS. And though it's not to say that the author isn't a real hut dweller, as she had lived in a hut for a time -- I would like to hear more from some 'real hut dwellers', or at least to hear more OF them. Everything seems too high a register for the topic of huts. It's not completely up the ivory tower, and in fact is pretty readable to the layperson (me). Still it seems a somehow strange juxtaposition.

Although I'm critical of it, I would still recommend the book -- just know that it might not be what you'd imagine a book about huts to be.

[Joshua]

This is the kind of neither-here-nor-there book that one is allowed to get away with writing after one gets tenure.

(I like reclusive Chinese poets as much as the next guy...)

But yet, this book left me with a strange emptiness---the kind that can only be filled in solitude---and maybe that was the point.

[Ginny]

love this book.