House Form and Culture

This study looks at why houses take the forms they do across the world. Rather than treating architecture as a matter of style alone, it considers how climate and the basic need for shelter shape a dwelling, and how social customs, family life and beliefs affect its plan. The author also looks at the materials different peoples have had to work with, and examines a range of traditional building types, from the portable tents of nomadic herders and the conical lodges of North American plains peoples to roofs of packed mud and the timber homes of Japan. Decorative traditions are discussed as part of the same picture, showing how the people who lived in these houses expressed themselves through their homes.