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BUILT ENVIRONMENT & SPATIAL CULTURELecture 05,
21-02-2014
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Meso-space behavior: Home Base
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Meso-space behavior: Home Base
Definition
The home base of any animal contains its nesting area, a secure
position for performing vulnerable behaviors such as sleeping,
raising young, and grooming.
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"Good fences make good neighbors- Robert FrostHome sweet
home;Home is where the heart is;Theres no place like homeMen are
merriest when they are away from home;Home is a girls prison and
the womans workhouse;
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Home
Definition and difference with House
A dwelling is built to contain not only the human body and its
actions but also our minds- our thoughts, dreams, memories etc.
Juhani Pallasama
It is a territorial unit which provides territorial
satisfactions in terms of:SecurityIdentityStimulation
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Security
MoslemHigh WallEnglishLow FenceNorth AmericanOpen PlanPublic
Street | Public DomainThreshold of Anxiety
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Identity
Home is the universal archetypal symbol of the self- C. G.
Jung
For the house he had built for himself, he regarded as- a symbol
of psychic wholeness.
Public Street | Public DomainIntrovertExtrovert
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Household studiesThe social unit that lives in a house is called
household.A household is the most basic social unita co-residential
group consisting of a single person ora nuclear or an extended
family orunrelated persons orany combination of the above
A family is within the household. Those members of the household
who are related to a specified degree through blood, adoption or
marriage, constitute the family.
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Factors to consider for understanding of a particular
household:Patterns of work:paid or domesticType of community of
which the household is a part
ofRuralUrbanSuburbanVillageTownNeighborhood distancesLife outside
homePeoples stage in lifecycle; i.e.; their ageGender
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Household studies
Criteria of co residence in defining household unit
Sharing same residence is argued to be central to social and
economic cooperation amongst members of domestic groups
Activity area : links of pattern of social behavior to spatial
organization
Increasing complexity of society leading to stratification and
mono-functional spaces
Gender relations in society: womens life-cycle (child birth,
menstruation, divorce, separation) are represented and experienced
in the built environment. Domestic space becomes specialized by
sex. Eg.- purdah system
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Ethno-archaeologyIt is the ethnographic study of peoples for
archaeological reasons; done usually through the study of material
remains of a society.It also helps archaeologists reconstruct
ancient lifestyles by studying material & non-material
traditions of modern societies.
Study ofSizes of dwellings, their location within the
settlementDistribution of luxury items, belongings, specific
goodsStudy of burials, their contents & sizes
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Ethno-archaeological studies
Coincidence of physical form to social organizationExplanation
of Cross-cultural variation of built form through social
organizationIntra-cultural variation of built formDwelling form and
size as indicators of social make up: size, shape,; clusters, round
square etc.Relation of household wealth to form
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Definition of Culture
Relation of culture to symbols. Universality of symbols having
similar meanings.
Hence importance of following studies could be established:
Social symbolic accounts which emphasize how built forms express
and produce a political or social structure
Structuralist approaches to the built form
Ritualistic approaches to the built environment
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Dwelling prototypes:Ephemeral or Transient: nomadic, band type
societiesEpisodical: nomadic, band type societiesPeriodic: more
pastoral economy within a nomadic social structureSeasonal:
semi-nomadic existence for marginal cultivation
pursuitsSemi-permanent: sedentary folk societies that practice
subsistence cultivationPermanent: advanced agricultural
economies
Personal space was a mobile bubble. We carry it with ourselves
all the time. Home base is a static place where one comes back at
the end of the day to sleep.***Dont forget where it features in
Maslows Hierarchy of needs*Bachelard (1994),explained that all of
us, remember the feeling of moving to new home, and live there, but
at first the new place, is unpleasant and unknown when time passes,
we get used to live there and using its facilities as a house which
seems we have lived there for an entire life. We can find comfort
and relaxation in there, when we arrive there, we can be ourselves
.So what is the reason. Why is comfort there? He answered that;
home is made of surrounding interior space and free exterior space.
Interior space is the same as the private or secret part of human
that is unpleasant to be observed in society. On the other hand,
exterior space is that self we choose for showing to others.
(Bachelard 1994) *Example of Pondicherry houses- Tamil and
French***Discuss bicellular dwelling
**Igloo: an episodical dwelling type
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