Southern Levantine Pier Houses: Intersite Architectural Patterning during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (original) (raw)
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Paléorient, 2010
Characteristics of the built environment provide a source of evidence for the complex social landscapes of the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant. Rather than an inexorable evolutionary progression, this evidence suggests considerable variability and fl exibility throughout these periods. At various times and places, individual houses isolated themselves from the rest of their settlement within a walled courtyard that also protected their stores and livestock. At others, we fi nd clusters of apparently quasi-independent households sharing a courtyard enclosed by the houses themselves, and most storage space sequestered within the houses, while other activity areas were shared. Throughout, we also usually fi nd some isolated houses not clearly associated with any courtyard or house cluster. Furthermore, we fi nd considerable variation among contemporary houses in their size, elaboration, and storage capacity, suggesting some degree of economic differentiation, perhaps difference of rank, and possibly interhousehold competition. Some of these characteristics suggest that heads of houses made strategic choices with regard to the size of their household, its alliances with other households, the accumulation of herds or grain stores, and competitive display, in order to promote their house's political and economic advantage. Possibly this pattern fi ts C. Lévi-Strauss's concept of "house societies."
2011
This paper focuses on the spatial study of a new type of habitat which appeared in the past decade in an agro pastoral region of Algeria: the Eastern Hodna, a domestic habitat whose stylistic expressions are diverse and at the same time opposed to the local rural references. The goal is to know whether, contrary to the variety of its exogenous facades, this type of habitat is a homogeneous space scheme that could be identified as being architecturally genotype. The approach used is the syntactic analysis of Hillier and Hanson (1984, 1996, and 1998). It offers the possibility to identify the structures of the socio-cultural expression and social logic embodied in the spatial distribution of domestic forms.
Characteristics of the built environment provide a source of evidence for the complex social landscapes of the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant. Rather than an inexorable evolutionary progression, this evidence suggests considerable variability and fl exibility throughout these periods. At various times and places, individual houses isolated themselves from the rest of their settlement within a walled courtyard that also protected their stores and livestock. At others, we fi nd clusters of apparently quasi-independent households sharing a courtyard enclosed by the houses themselves, and most storage space sequestered within the houses, while other activity areas were shared. Throughout, we also usually fi nd some isolated houses not clearly associated with any courtyard or house cluster. Furthermore, we fi nd considerable variation among contemporary houses in their size, elaboration, and storage capacity, suggesting some degree of economic differentiation, perhaps difference of rank, and possibly interhousehold competition. Some of these characteristics suggest that heads of houses made strategic choices with regard to the size of their household, its alliances with other households, the accumulation of herds or grain stores, and competitive display, in order to promote their house's political and economic advantage. Possibly this pattern fi ts C. Lévi-Strauss's concept of "house societies."
Investigations of Middle Preclassic communities in Belize rely heavily on architectural analysis, as the remains of ancient structures represent one of the largest and most durable categories of material culture from this period. Architecture can reflect patterns in social organization and interaction, and comparisons of architectural investment have frequently been used to identify differences in status among social groups. Excavations at Cahal Pech by the Belize Valley Archaeological Project revealed an unexpected level of variability among several Middle Preclassic architectural features and construction sequences beneath Plaza B. Construction activity in Plaza B resembled neither the carefully planned monumental templates of Middle Preclassic Petén communities nor the incremental superposition of domestic platforms found in northern Belize, but was rather a punctuated equilibrium of building “events” that occurred at different tempos in different areas. Differential investment in architecture suggests that social relationships at Middle Preclassic Cahal Pech may have been more fluid and dynamic than would be expected in a community where social rank was hereditary and well established. This paper synthesizes Middle Preclassic architectural data from beneath Plaza B and explores their implications for understanding the development of social complexity in the Maya Lowlands.
The morphology of the house in towns and villages developed from the material expression of uses, customs, beliefs and the culture of a particular people. The populations of peasants and farmers inhabiting the villages of northern Syria retain a certain heritage of nomadic Bedouin culture, which manifests itself through the use of spaces, through local social relations, and also through the warm hospitality that has always been shown to strangers and desert travellers. Syrian dome dwellings are cell constructions marked by the notable presence of domed roofs that stand out characteristically in the desert landscape. This type of vernacular construction incorporating a corbelled dome is common in the Mediterranean area and is usually built in stone. Far less common is to find them gathering to form groups of dwellings or even whole villages. Even considering the existence of other conflicting examples, the most distinguishing feature of these dome dwellings lies in their character and capacity to be grouped together, along with the use of adobe as a construction material. The distribution and use of the spaces of a house corresponds rather to the layout of nomadic camps, and the shape of the dome could be seen as symbolically evoking the tent. The earthen dome house originated and evolved over time, stemming from a willingness to apply and develop the most appropriate solutions to meet human needs in relation to the potential and resources of the environmental context. The geometry of the dome itself is not a product of clear intent, but is rather a product in its form and design of the collective intelligence of communities inhabiting the regions of the Middle East. Architecture in such villages does not exactly result from aesthetic research, but from a deep understanding, though often unconscious, of the resources of a place. The owner-builder thus translates into his house certain social and cultural needs, establishing a balance between his village and the forces of nature from which he is seeking to protect himself, living in and integrating into the ecosystem of a particular area.
Enclosing Open Spaces: The Organisation of External Areas in Syro-Hittite Architecture
Architecture of power (Maran et al. eds), 2006
According to architectural theory , architecture is a three-dimensional space in which, looked at in one way, the building elements are the frame of a volume, and, seen in another way, the installations, décor and objects, which are in the space, combine to form it. In the semiotic studies of Greimas and Hammad , this three-dimensional volume includes not only all installations, objects and furniture, but also the people inside it. According to these scholars and others , architecture is a system of signs. The object of an architectural sign is its function , which is the reason why a specific space was formed. This function is a structure of forces which change from time to time and define a general attitude towards reality . The link between space and function, i.e. between the sign and its object , depends on the concept and ideas of the people, as members of a community, who use this sign; it is consequently dependent on culture.
ARCHTHEO '16 X. INTERNATIONAL THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE CONFERENCE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
X. International Theory of Architecture Conference, 2016
Since a large portion of the world population began to live in cities, intensive migrations from rural areas to populated urban centers have begun. The search for different housing for affluent segments who are troubled with complex, dense and heterogeneous structures of cities has triggered "gated communities" in cities. Gated communities cause socio-spatial segregation, the fragmentation of urban land and particular income groups benefit from this fragmentation whereas others are not allowed to use those areas. Gated communities have been an object of consumption promoted as "ideal home" and "ideal life" which presented a combination of fiction and prestige. Beneath this created environment the main goal is set to finctionalized the case of identity with isolating same groups around a closed area. In that way the sense of belonging is created by goal. Belongings of determined zone of cities within held of common groups and using this zones like divided into plots, causing a perish for common areas and common life based on the city. In that case using isolatedly different places by different (other) groups into city, causing to fade out richness in plenty of spaces. In conclusion of discriminating spaces make this issue harder which gathering the pieces of discriminated community again and again eventually rebuilding the communication socially. This discrimination and differentiation hurt the communications among different stages that build up the society. Eventually this phenomenon affects usage of common space in a negative way and collapse the union of society so finally causes the tension among differed and departed social groups in society. Thus they became tools of marketing, status and consumption has become a way of life as the object that defines excellence. These settlements which are build on the limited relationship with the city are seen worth investigating with their rapidly increasing numbers in the city, the space they occupy and their population. It is important to investigate the evolution of gated communities, the reasons and mechanenisms how and why they are spreading in the world and in Turkey.