Chapter: # 3 Socio-cultural factors and house form

Chapter: # 3  Socio-cultural factors and house form

Religion, culture, tradition, rituals, economy, society are considered to be as determining factors in design of house  but availability of different materials in different areas according to their weather conditions, also play a important role in techniques and types of houses.

In this chapter the emphasis was on the layout of different houses according to their traditions and religions. Almost in all cultures and religions house play an essential part. In different cultures different types of houses form different forms of villages and towns.

Early Chinese and Japanese houses were planned in such a way so that the entrance, kitchen, or the toilet must never be placed on a north-east or south-west axis. Because of this, superb views would be ignored and faced by a toilet.

In my opinion:

Different climate conditions affect the type of construction and house type.

For e.g.:

In deserts there’s no soil found and the availability of water for construction is also a big issue due to these reasons construction type is different in this area. People prefer those types of construction in which less water and soil required. In deserts people prefer wood construction like “chouras” or conical roof structures, advantages of conical roof are less in weight, protect them from high winds and less is material and availability of material is easy. These roofs are usually covered by shrubs and grass.

In rural areas women also play an important part in construction, from the foundation to plaster women are involved in whole process. I have closely visited the construction techniques in rural areas of Pakistan, what I found is that women are more in construction.