Review

To have steered a clear path through so many types of architecture, without flagging and without repetition, is a remarkable achievement, and the many photographs in this book are mostly of the highest quality, and superbly reproduced...an attractive, valuable and provocative book.' (Architectural Review) 'Don't miss Dwellings...beautiful.' (Herald Sun, Australia) 'Fascinating, informative and wonderfully illustrated book...a thought-provoking and humbling look at how other cultures live and survive.' (The Advocate, Australia)

Product Description

Dwellings is an exploration of the types and forms of vernacular houses around the world and how they are constructed, decorated, and inhabited by their occupants. The paperback edition presents a revised and expanded version of this classic text, containing new field research and scholarship. The updated edition includes new academic developments in cultural geography, gender studies, sociology, and anthropology. There are beautiful illustrations throughout the book, largely photographs compiled over the course of the author's field research. This is a useful survey of how different communities cope with issues of climate, migration, mass development and symbolic and cultural meaning in architecture.

More than 90 per cent of the world's buildings, including some 800 million homes, constitute architecture of ordinary people. "Dwellings" is about the vast range of types of vernacular houses around the world. It documents the form of traditional buildings that are self-built by their owner-occupiers or built by members of a community, recording the means of construction and decoration of the house across a spectrum of different cultures. First published by Phaidon in 1987, "Dwellings" - in its new updated, revised and expanded format - assimilates new scholarship in the field, including the author's own research, and traces theoretical developments in the spheres of cultural geography, gender studies, sociology and anthropology. It is not only a fascinating reference work on domestic buildings, but also a useful survey for understanding how diverse communities cope with issues of climate, migration, mass development and, in turn, how this brings to life symbolic and cultural meaning in architecture.