Dwelling Forms Research Articles

Communities Beyond Society: Divergence of Local Prehistories on the Bothnian Arc, Northern Europe

Abstract This article presents a comparison of material records of two nearby regions on the coast of the Bothnian Bay. The timeframe is 5300–2000 BCE. The focus is on regional differences, which indicate a schizmogenesis of communal identities. The study calls for a reorientation of research concerning Fennoscandian prehistory. More attention should be paid to localized prehistories. It is argued that when prehistoric society is used as a fundamental group category, especially in the context of forager communities, the modern concept of state society distorts the underlying framework. Focusing on the regional level by constructing local prehistoric narratives limits the anachronistic effect and allows the proliferation of local communal identities. Such local prehistories, when collated and compared, offer a pathway to understanding prehistoric stateless societies, which are misrepresented by simplistic material cultural zones and the inherent homogeny ingrained within the concept of society. In this paper, the analysis is focused on practices representing local traditions. Two divergent themes that arise from the local prehistoric narratives are the Late Mesolithic use of local stone materials and regional changes in Neolithic dwelling forms.

Sociodemographic, lifestyle and clinical factors associated with good performance in paired associates learning (PAL) test in patients with schizophrenia

IntroductionMemory and learning deficits are central among cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. However, to a varying proportion ca. 20-25% of patients could not be considered deficit.ObjectivesDescription of sociodemographic, lifestyle and clinical factors related to good performance in PAL-test in schizophrenia patients.MethodsParticipants (N=4500) were members of the Finnish SUPER study on the genetic mechanisms of psychotic disorders (SUPER). The database of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC 1966) was utilized as a reference data. Visual memory and new learning were assessed using Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) Paired Associates Learning (PAL) test. The 50th percentile scores (10 error score or less) for outcome measure total errors adjusted (TEA) of NFBC 1966 was used as a cut-off for good performance in PAL test.ResultsThe sociodemographic and lifestyle factors related good performance for both sexes were: younger age (p<.001), higher basic education (p <.001), independent form of dwelling (p<.001), hazardous drinking (p <.001), cannabis use (p <.001) and being married (females p = 0.009, males p = 0.049). The clinical factors related to good performance for both sexes were not using antipsychotic medication regularly (p <.001), not using all psychotropic medication (females p=0.05, males p <.001), less hospitalization times due to psychosis (p <.001), younger age at first hospitalization due to psychosis (p <.001), lower number of hospitalization days (p <.001) and lower percentage of time in hospital after first psychosis episode (p <.001).ConclusionsSeveral factors related to good performance in the PAL–test in the crude analysis without any confounders.

Study on the Evolution of Guangxi Traditional Pile-Dwelling Architecture —— Take Baise, Guangxi as an example

With the development of history and the transformation and renewal of production methods, human construction activities will reflect the content of production activities at that time to a certain extent. Guangxi is located on the southeastern edge of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, the second step in the topography of the country. Guangxi is located in the western part of the hills of Guangdong, Guangxi. The mountain area is vast, and it is a zone of communication between regions, ethnic groups, and countries. It has rich ethnic and regional cultural characteristics, and various architectural phenomena are splendid. Pile-Dwelling architecture is a traditional dwelling form of the Baiyue people, belonging to a “native” type of regional architecture. It has the innate advantages of using topography and striving for space, and is widely used in the mountainous areas of Guangxi. This paper will take Guangxi traditional dry fence architecture as the research object, and will conduct research on Guangxi’s traditional vernacular architectural culture. Through combing and researching the development of dry fence architecture in China, it will summarize the evolution law of Guangxi traditional Pile-Dwelling architecture, in order to protect Guangxi Zhuang’s architectural cultural heritage and providing a basis for regional architectural creation in Guangxi. It will be of great significance for achieving ecological harmony and promoting the construction of new towns.

A systems perspective for residential preferences and dwellings: housing functions and their role in Swiss residential mobility

Worldwide, there is an urgent imperative to provide a housing supply that is environmentally sustainable as well as acceptable and desirable for its users. A holistic and integrative understanding of the relationship between households’ residential preferences and dwellings is needed to achieve this goal. This paper addresses this gap by conceptualizing and operationalizing housing as a system whose human and material behaviours are determined by its function. Following a qualitative literature review to identify what housing functions are and investigate their effects on the housing system, we explore the applicability of such functions in Swiss tenants’ residential mobility. Results show that multiple functions co-exist in the housing realm, each of which determines various human (i.e. residential preferences) and material (i.e. dwelling forms) behaviours that vary according to given societal and environmental structural elements (e.g. geography, culture). We also observe that housing functions potentially provide the missing link between the determinants of tenants’ residential mobility.

Народное деревянное зодчество ольхонского побережья озера Байкал

The purpose of the work is to study the features and typology of monuments of traditional folk wooden architecture in settlements on the shores of Lake Baikal, located in the western part of the lake on Olkhon Island. The study of the folk wooden architectural heritage in the coastal settlements was carried out in preparation for the development of the “Standard for the planning and development of the Baikal settlements”. Based on collected historical descriptions and materials of two historical and architectural surveys by specialists of the Irkutsk State Technical University at the end of the 20th century, an overview of the main characteristics and features of the traditional dwellings of Russian peasants and Buryat families who led a semi-nomadic lifestyle has been made. As a result of the work, the most ancient space-planning types of Russian folk dwellings in settlements on the Olkhon coast of Lake Baikal were identified. The descriptions of the three most common types of traditional Russian dwellings in this area were made –klet houses, link-up houses, and five-walled houses. Information about the rapid change in the traditional Buryat dwelling is presented: the transition from felt yurts to wooden yurts, and then to a winter Buryat dwelling of the Russian type. The importance of summer migrations and, accordingly, summer settlements –letniks– in the organization of pasture cattle breeding, land use, and preservation of the semi-nomadic way of life of the Buryats was revealed. It is concluded that the main types of folk dwellings in the settlements of the Olkhon coast changed during the 18th-19th centuries. The development of the forms of the Buryat folk dwelling proceeded most intensively. The evolution of the forms of traditional dwelling of both Russian peasants and Buryat families in the settlements of the Olkhonsky coast of Lake Baikal was part of the general process of the development of traditional folk dwellings throughout the Upper Angara region, including the Balagan steppe and the traditional settlements of the Upper Lena.

Варианты условной (виртуальной) реконструкции деревянных жилищ эпохи поздней бронзы на территории Западной Сибири

This article analyzes the variants of a single type of reconstructing wooden dwellings from the explored sites of the Late Bronze Age in Western Siberia. The publications on this problem contain many types of reconstructions for residential and utility buildings made of wood, often despite a complete absence of evidence. Many of these variants are based on similar elements of basic house-building traditions, which makes it possible to combine them into specific classification category of conventional (virtual) reconstruction. Currently, in scholarly and referential literature, reconstructions made using 3D methods and their variations have become increasingly important, although such reconstructions are debatable and uninformative for conducting specialized technical and technological research. The article provides brief description of settlements and dwellings left by the carriers of different cultures of the Late Bronze Age in the forest-steppe of Western Siberia, including the Irmen, Barkhatov, and Suzgun cultures. Comparative analysis of ground plans of ditches and post pits remaining from dwellings, as well as house-building traditions of the population living in this time is provided. Brief technical and technological analysis of the available options for virtual reconstruction of wooden buildings is carried out using analysis of archaeological evidence and parallels in ethnographic data. Types of settlement layouts, forms of dwellings, and number of chambers in a particular building have been identified. The most adequate variants of conventional reconstruction of wooden buildings derived from the requirements of actual carpentry in house-building traditions and their available scholarly classifications are presented. The estimated volume of labor costs for constructing dwellings is established; original appearance of the most representative buildings is recreated.

Exploration and Renewal of the Spatial form of Traditional Dwellings in Southwest Hubei Province Under the Ecological Concept

Southwest Hubei; Dwellings; Spatial form; Update

The Compulsion of Bodies

This essay seeks to understand Gorgias’ reflections upon language and perception in the Encomium of Helen through the threefold vocabularies of medicine, enchantment, and oratory that were often taken together in the fifth century. I demonstrate that the two modes of sorcery to which Gorgias refers have to do with language and its effect on opinion, on the one hand, and perception and its effect upon one’s affective bearing, on the other. Both effects, I claim, are grasped through their forceful means of physically impressing and deforming the soul such that its reliance upon memory and habitual forms of dwelling in the world are subject to oblivion. Further, such conceptual and practical unmooring can be understood as forms of disease that rob an individual of her agency, either temporarily or permanently, and therefore reflect the problematic status of language in early democratic Greece.

#Io resto a casa, Nuove forme dell’abitare domestico

Le regolamentazioni igienico-sanitarie hanno influenzato da sempre le teorie urbanistiche, le trasformazioni delle città e le forme dell’abitare. Nell’attesa della soluzione medica, la risposta al Covid19 passa da considerazioni sugli spazi. I cambiamenti più immediati possono avviarsi dalla casa, con un pensiero poietico e in opposizione all’idea che tutto dipenda unicamente dalla tecnologia. Il ragionamento sullo spazio domestico implica la riflessione sui nuovi bisogni (che l’emergenza ha acuito) e sulla ricerca della qualità, con una revisione dei minimi dell’abitare. L’isolamento ha aperto lo sguardo a possibili paesaggi domestici e, se la casa è ancora principio dell’abitare, da essa - con una visione multi-scalare - possono traguardarsi cambiamenti e trasformazioni più ampie. In quest’ottica, il progetto contemporaneo recupera alcune ragioni ed esperienze della modernità a riferimento di ulteriori elaborazioni.

Persepsi Masyarakat Tentang Struktur Makrokosmos dan Simbol Konstruksi Rumah Adat Bugis Berdasarkan Geografi Budaya

This research is included in a qualitative research that aims to determine public perceptions about the structure of macrocosm and symbol of the construction of a Bugis traditional house in Manurungnge village Tanete Riattang sub-district based on cultural geography. Macrocosm is an understanding of Bugis Bone society's trust in the universe that implemented into a form of dwelling. This understanding has been around for decades. After conducting research, it can be concluded that with the times, the understanding of this macrocosm has begun to fade among the people, the structure of the macrocosm is very closely related to the symbol of Bugis traditional house construction, because every time when building a traditional house, the public always includes the symbol of construction on the Bugis traditional house

Typology and Morphology of Traditional House of Sumbersari Village Udanawu Blitar District

Traditional houses in the village of Sumbersari are Javanese joglo houses that have been modified according to local culture. This traditional house is quite commonly found in Sumbersari Village, Udanawu District, Blitar, the distribution is quite evenly distributed in Blitar Regency. This traditional residence has the characteristics of the limasan building roof and has a symmetrical facade building, this residence belongs to a Javanese family with a higher status, so it has a uniqueness that is by the spatial layout and facade. Over time, only changes in spatial layout and facade are related to human needs, new technology, lifestyle, economic factors, inheritance, and cultural rights. With existence, traditional houses that are increasingly changing will eventually lose their identity. The purpose of this study is to analyze typologies by classifying traditional dwellings based on specific types and analyzing their morphology based on the level of change and the application of the changes. The method used is descriptive qualitative with a rationalistic discussion. The results of the studio are the data in the form of tables about the typology and morphology of traditional dwellings as the essence of the instructions for the form of traditional dwellings that can be contributed to the scientific architecture of the archipelago. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26905/lw.v12i2.3839

Climate Adaptive Design Improvement Strategies of Traditional Dwellings in Southern Zhejiang for the Plum Rain Season Considering Comfort Conditions

This study investigated the adaptations of traditional dwellings to the complex regional microclimate in southern Zhejiang, China. Typical traditional dwellings in a village in the foothills and a village on the mid-slopes of Zhejiang’s alpine region were selected to study traditional construction strategies for climate responsiveness and the comfort level of indoor environments during the very humid plum rain season in early summer. Fundamental analysis of the climate and architecture, a response analysis of the dwelling form, an occupants’ comfort satisfaction survey, and field measurements of indoor and outdoor thermal environmental parameters were performed. The traditional dwellings and their design strategies for various regional environmental factors were explored from the perspective of (1) regional climate-adaptive strategies, (2) the thermal, airflow, lighting, and acoustic qualities of the indoor environment, and (3) the occupants’ indoor environment satisfaction. The results indicated that traditional dwellings in southern Zhejiang incorporate strategies of various effectiveness in ensuring indoor comfort.

Beyond the Ruins of Embobut

The Embobut Forest, western Kenya, can be described as an entanglement of ruins. These ruins are the materialisation of a series of contested ecological debates and political decisions pivoting on the questions of conservation and community rights to land that have resulted in the violent dislocation of local Sengwer and Marakwet communities. In the first instance, this paper aims to contextualise these debates by offering an analytic focus on the process of ruination in order to offer a more nuanced narrative of landscape modification and changing human lives over the past century. Subsequently, I look beyond processes of ruination and towards notions of transformation, in an attempt expound how Embobut has not become a static world of passive ruins but rather is constantly changing as novel forms of dwelling and new ecological relationships continue to unfold in a manner not envisaged by conservation policy.

Dual roles of the retinal pigment epithelium and lens in cavefish eye degeneration.

Astyanax mexicanus consists of two forms, a sighted surface dwelling form (surface fish) and a blind cave-dwelling form (cavefish). Embryonic eyes are initially formed in cavefish but they are subsequently arrested in growth and degenerate during larval development. Previous lens transplantation studies have shown that the lens plays a central role in cavefish eye loss. However, several lines of evidence suggest that additional factors, such as the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), which is morphologically altered in cavefish, could also be involved in the eye regression process. To explore the role of the RPE in cavefish eye degeneration, we generated an albino eyed (AE) strain by artificial selection for hybrid individuals with large eyes and a depigmented RPE. The AE strain exhibited an RPE lacking pigment granules and showed reduced expression of the RPE specific enzyme retinol isomerase, allowing eye development to be studied by lens ablation in an RPE background resembling cavefish. We found that lens ablation in the AE strain had stronger negative effects on eye growth than in surface fish, suggesting that an intact RPE is required for normal eye development. We also found that the AE strain develops a cartilaginous sclera lacking boney ossicles, a trait similar to cavefish. Extrapolation of the results to cavefish suggests that the RPE and lens have dual roles in eye degeneration, and that deficiencies in the RPE may be associated with evolutionary changes in scleral ossification.

The Influence of Natural Environment on the Forms of Traditional Dwellings—the Case of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Known as "the third pole of the world", Qinghai-Tibet Plateau occupies an important position among the global plateaus. Due to the complex landform and climate, the types of the traditional dwellings in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are diverse. This paper classifies the traditional dwellings of Qinghai-Tibet plateau based on their architectural plane, structure, material, function, etc. Then remote sensing images combined with field survey are adopted to spatially divide various types of traditional dwellings, and draw their spatial division map. On this basis, the spatial distributions of various dwelling types are fused with the natural environment information of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the patterns and laws of the distribution of various types of dwellings are analyzed. Finally, through the analysis of relevant impact factors, the causes of the temporal and spatial distribution of dwelling forms are revealed. The results show that the natural environment has a decisive influence on the form of the traditional dwellings through geographical features, temperature, precipitation and solar radiation. The overlap of the spatial distribution of various types of dwellings, and the generation of the architectural form such as sloping blockhouse and "Zhuangke" dwelling are the effective responses to the special natural and cultural environment of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Evolution of mid-Cretaceous radiolarians in response to oceanic anoxic events in the eastern Tethys (southern Tibet, China)

Oceanic anoxic events (OAEs) are well-known from their widespread black shale and carbon isotopic excursions in the (western and eastern) Tethys and Atlantic Ocean. However, the weakest link in the studies of the OAEs is biological evolution. Sedimentological, biostratigraphical and geochemical data from Albian to Coniacian strata in southern Tibet recorded turnover events and fluctuations in diversity of the radiolarian fauna within the eastern Tethys during OAE 1d and OAE 2. Abundant radiolarian fossils were obtained from the Gyabula Formation, with 93 species from 43 genera identified and assigned to the mid to Upper Cretaceous Acaeniotyle umbilicata, Archaeospongoprunum tehamaensis, Crucella cachensis, Alievium superbum, and Dictyomitra formosa zones. The association of carbon isotopic excursions, black shale and radiolarian turnover indicates extensive changes in the ocean-climate system. Nutrients are made increasing available to the marine plankton through submarine volcanic activity and rising sea-level, which were a likely cause of radiolarian turnover at/or near the OAEs. Active submarine tectonism-volcanism leads to the expansion of the hypoxic zone and may cause many deeper dwelling forms to become extinct whereas most of the shallower dwelling radiolarians survive. Radiolarian evolution thus provides a useful record with which to seek understand relationships between climate, paleoceanographic processes and plankton evolution.

Cohousing Professionals as 'Middle-Agents': Perspectives from the UK, USA and the Netherlands

This article explores the role of cohousing professionals in three countries (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the United States) where the relevance of this form of collaborative dwelling has grown. Cohousing initiators everywhere have to hire technical consultants such as financial and legal advisers and traditional project managers. These 'experts' or 'professionals' may, however, be insufficiently equipped to deal with the development particularities of cohousing which require the ability to move between, and translate, knowledge of different kinds. In response to this, a new type of cohousing specialist such as group-facilitators, process-management and legal coop-specialists is emerging, but the specificity and implications of their roles has gone largely unstudied. Drawing on interviews and fieldwork across the three countries, we explore the roles and dynamics, as well as the paradoxes faced by this varied professional sector. We argue that professionals are 'middle agents' who must negotiate their way between niche and mainstream housing landscapes, and that cohousing professionalization is taking place in a way that can potentially transform both grassroots and mainstream housing provision. Based on this, the conclusions recommend a shift in higher education and specialist training.

Between appropriation and occupation: the spatial politics of “squatting” in East Berlin

ABSTRACT At the heart of this paper is a detailed reconstruction of the relatively unknown history of illegal occupation in East Berlin otherwise known as Schwarzwohnen. The paper explores the relationship between Schwarzwohnen and the articulation of alternative forms of dwelling and occupation that challenged official state priorities. To do so, it argues that the rise of Schwarzwohnen was part of a growing body of informal practices used by citizens in the GDR in response to housing insecurity and scarcity. These were efforts that highlighted the various ways in which citizens took control of their own housing needs outside the official housing system. They also anticipated the development of the oppositional cultures and infrastructures that erupted in the Eastern half of the city in the winter of 1989. At stake here, is an approach to housing insecurity that challenges our understanding of the socialist city and its (largely) peripheral place within urban theory.

Spatial characteristics analysis of Eaves Gallery along the street in China: take Hubei, Bashu, Jiangzhe areas as examples

ABSTRACTThe Eaves Gallery (EG) along the street as a form of Chinese traditional dwelling was special architecture form for preventing pedestrians from rains and snows while walking through or shopping which has played important roles in the ancient commercial activities. In the past, the studies about EG focused on architectural history, style, evolution in the separated specific local area. It helped the promotion of social attention to EG for protection and renewal. However, the protection and renewal conditions of EG are different in various regions of China. Few studies have done to compare and overview the characteristics of EG in these various regions. In this study, typical EG along the streets in Hubei, Bashu, Jiangzhe along Yangtze River regions from east to west of China were taken as case studies and are explicated based on the comparison and analyzing field distribution mode, space combination, spatial scale, and function. Thus, the spatial functional characteristics of EG in these three regions are divided into unitary type, conversion type and mixed type. The outcome will serve as a comparative basis for the existential form and spatial characteristics of extant traditional EG accompanied by optimum protection and renewal policy discussion in the future.

Precarious mobility and spectacle dwelling on a ferry commute

ABSTRACTPrecarious mobilities caused by insufficient capacity or unplanned stoppages of public transportation services can result in line-ups that are as much a part of commuters’ daily routines as travel itself. This article explores how excessive line-ups can be analyzed as forms of spectacle dwelling in the context of a Canadian aquamobile transportation corridor on Conception Bay, linking Bell Island to the main island of Newfoundland. For several decades, Bell Island ferry commuters have been governed by vivid representations of the bureaucracy literally seizing up in users’ stalled movement for hours or sometimes days. Based on an application of concepts initiated by Debord, this article discusses how such line-ups comprise forms of spectacle dwelling; the role of commentaries about these spectacles; and examples of counter-spectacles in 2017 that created a forum for protesting changes to the service.