Housing

Concepts and Definitions

Socio-Cultural Perspective

Lecture 2
what is Housing –
Social Perspective

Every society produces its housing needs naturally

and indigenously... it is not habitat that an outsider has
to come in and ‘design’, rather it is the end-product of
a process that is organic to a society

- Charles Korrea, 1985, p. 49

Social Perspective

If something is wrong with the ‘system’, our job is to understand just what is
malfunctioning, and try to set it right….e.g. famine….starving people don’t know
how to cook….architects writing cookbooks…..

The most crucial factor is – Density

High Density
Crowd
Low density
Low rise
Medium rise
High rise

And the scale of the problem determines the solution….

Social Perspective

From social EQUITY perspective the rights for housing should ensure
the following

Principles
Incrementality
Pluralism
Participation
Income generation
Equity
Open-to-sky space
Disaggregation
Social Perspective

Housing contains the metamorphosis of ‘social

system’ and ‘life-style’ within the given
political, social, and human reality
Cultural Perspective
Housing (built environment) is the result of the interaction
of –
Human
•nature, aspirations, social organization, world view, way of life,
social and psychological needs, individual and group needs,
economic resources, attitudes to nature, personality, fashions
•physical needs, i.e., the “functional” program
•the techniques available

and

Nature
- physical aspects, such as climate, site, materials, structural
laws, and so on
- visual, such as the landscape
Amos Rapoport, 1964, p. 13
Cultural Perspective
Interaction of behavior and form…

In Two Senses:
First,
understanding of behavior patterns, including desires,
motivations, and feelings, is essential to the
understanding of built form, since built form is the
physical embodiment of these patterns; and

Second,
forms, once built, affect behavior and the way of life.
Amos Rapoport, 1964, p. 16
Cultural
Perspective
Cultural Perspective
Ecological Determinism

Nature

Site
Nature prepares the site
Human organize it to satisfy their desire and needs
Selection and organization of site is cultural phenomena
Cultural Perspective
Four complementary conceptualizations of

Built Environment
1.Organization of space, time, meaning and communication;

2.System of settings within which systems of activities

(including their latent aspects) take place;

3.Cultural landscape;

4.Composed of fixed, semi-fixed and non-fixed elements.

Cultural Perspective
Cultural Perspective
Cultural Components ------------------ Horizontal Axis

Values
•Values help explain preferences and
choices….private/semi-public/public/indoor/outdoor/semi-outdoor spaces…

•Values help define groups and make housing particularly important,

because dwellings play an important role in acculturation and, hence, the
survival of groups through the transmission of values, linking values to
family (Rapoport, 1990c, Sebba, 1991)….migration

•Values teach to share

Cultural Perspective
Cultural Components ------------------ Horizontal Axis

Ideals, images, schemata, meanings,

etc.
Values are often expressed through such ideals, images etc. linking these
topics and making the use of advertising, novels, TV, film, etc., so useful
and important (Rapoport, 1977, 1985, 1990c, d, 1995c, 1985)
Cultural Perspective
Cultural Components ------------------ Horizontal Axis
Norms, standards, expectations, rules, etc.
Values, images, etc. lead to norms, standards, rules, etc. and their
application results in environments that approach the ideals as closely as
possible, given various constraints.  

Brightly colored wooden shanties (Puerto Rican community vegetable gardens in

New York) that violate rules but to their builders they are attractive, they become
gathering places and centers of community life, music, crafts and acculturation;
children learn traditional dances and music, etc.

Russian immigrant uses neighborhood space carelessly that indicates the variability
of standards.

Dimensions of verandah, windows in contemporary apartments in Dhaka

Cultural Perspective
Cultural Components ------------------ Horizontal Axis

Lifestyle
Lifestyle works as a profile that reflects the quality of environment of a
family, groups, households or community etc….kitchen can tell the story of
a family.
 
Cultural Perspective
Cultural Components ------------------ Horizontal Axis

Activity System
Everyday life….constraints (fear of crime, mobility, income, availability of
public transport…) can influence activity systems
Cultural Perspective
Cultural Components ------------------ Horizontal Axis

Kinship
Kinship is an important form of homogeneity at the neighborhood level

In traditional societies in particular, identifying kinship patterns is

indispensable to understand housing

Kin clustering results in domestic and social activities in streets and

squares. With kinship less central, life now is much more private and
activities are family (nuclear) centered in the interior of houses.
Cultural Perspective
Components of Housing ------------------ Horizontal Axis

Family structure
Family structure is useful in relating culture to housing (e.g. Rapoport,
1999) and it influences the form and spatial organization of housing.

Congruence between housing and households is important particularly

since dwellings can influence family life – positively or negatively (Rosser
and Harris, 1965; Gasparini, 1973; Pruchno et al. 1993).

Changes (or differences) in family structure (single parent, working

couples, extended families, co-housing groups, young and elderly, large
families, polygamous families, etc.) influence dwelling, (e.g. size, kitchens,
living rooms, etc. (Baumgartner, 1988).
Cultural Perspective
Cultural Components ------------------ Horizontal Axis

Roles
Changes in family structure have an impact on roles, but so do other
forces.

Role changes influence the system of settings at various scales:

neighborhoods, dwellings and parts of dwellings e.g. kitchens.

Changes in gender roles influence house types and space use both inside
and outside the dwelling.
Cultural Perspective
Cultural Components ------------------ Horizontal Axis
Social Networks
Virtual:
Internet networks – facebook, tweeter…

Ethnic Grouping:
Religion and caste based clusters….traditionally, caste and religion rigidly fixed
social position and ritual status and, through them religious rituals, social
organization, marriage, personal relations, etc., and hence, social networks.

In contemporary society such social networks are replaced by nuclear family-

centered, dwelling-oriented, private relations due both to social changes and new
dwelling forms….

Important role of social networks is Supportiveness – a two-way relationship it not

only explain various residential patterns, but begin to predict their occurrence and
importance, with implications for policy and design (Rapoport, 1983).
Cultural Perspective
Cultural Components ------------------ Horizontal Axis

Institutions

Jewish religious institutions/flags…Tea-house of Japan…French wine….

Chinese tea serving customs….Baul….Fakir…Mizebhandary
 
Cultural Perspective
Cultural Components ------------------ Horizontal Axis

Status
Accumulation of some quality indicators….communicated through built
environments of housing by series of cues…nice, quiet neighborhood;
decent houses; trees on the footpath; no through traffic and just local
vehicles; grass verges; good gardens; near the tennis club” and so on.
Cultural Perspective
Cultural Components ------------------ Horizontal Axis

Identity
Closely related to housing, built environments and material culture
generally.

These may be landscape, settlements, neighborhoods, buildings and

interiors, materials, space organization and use, and various semi-fixed
elements.
Cultural Perspective

City – 5,00,000 people

Small town/community – 5,000 – 10,000 people

Neighborhood – 500 – 1000 people

House Cluster – 30 – 50 people

Family/work group - 1 – 15 people

Housing is
…a concrete expression of a complex interaction among
cultural skills and norms, climatic conditions, and the
potentialities of natural materials….reflects the physical
conditions of their environments, as well as cultural preferences
and capabilities….
(Rapoport, 1985)