“Houses: The Visual Reflection of the Family”

During our previous discussion in class, we understood how much influence and control cultures have over the form and spacing of different structures. In fact, in his book “Socio-cultural Factors and House Form”, Amos Rapoport even stated that, “…house form is not simply the result of physical forces or any single causal factor, but is the consequence of a whole range of socio-cultural factors seen in their broadest terms…”, and he adds, “I will call the socio-cultural forces primary and others (climate) secondary or modifying.” This means that when it comes to convenience versus beliefs or traditions, the latter would almost always be chosen over the former. When it comes to culture, the most primary and influential of these practices are those that are experienced everyday, at our own home. It is the culture practiced within the family, called the family culture. A family’s culture may be almost identical to those of society’s, but a family still make themselves unique from the all the rest by having their own set of values, traditions, practices, and of course means of enjoying life. And because of this, families tend to need their own shelters or homes; somewhere they could keep their culture intact and live life the way they want to.

Houses are the visual reflection of the family. A family’s home is something that is directly being used by all the members of the family in it everyday; this means that the house may very well be built or used for the most ideal or convenient way for the family. Taking into consideration negative assumptions and stereotyping, taking a look inside different homes and seeing one that is well-organized and well kept, compared to one that is full of clutter and mess, is far more likely to house a happy family.

Furthermore, the spaces, and the spacing of the house also show the values and habits of a family. A big dining room, a welcoming living room, a game room, a theater room, a gym area, a pool, a smoking area, a study area, a prayer room – these are all examples of rooms that a family may have for their entertainment or for upholding the values they believe in – and again, the house shows the kind of people, the kind of family inside.

In Amos Rapoport’s book, even the most subtle things matter – “the way we behave and how we wish to behave, the clothes we wear, the books we read, the furniture we use and how we use it, the food we eat and how we prepare and eat it, and consequently the houses and settlements in which we live and how we use them.”

Our family home used to be a very big school-like house built by my late grandfather. We recently moved into our new home, a smaller one, but the efficiency and use of the space makes us ask why we didn’t have our old home arranged this way. Our old home was built with 2 storeys with the family factory on the entire first floor, and so our entire family lived on a single floor. We used to share an entire room together, our parents and we four children, because the house wasn’t ours and we were just staying there through the kindness of my grandparents. It was all good, except that we had to walk back and fourth the entire second floor because our bedroom, the kitchen, the study area, the closets, were all inconveniently spread out and it was difficult to go about our daily routine.

Thankfully, we have recently moved to our new home, a place we could call our own. Our new home is one of four in a townhouse, and is 3 storeys high. I now share a room on the second floor with just one of my other siblings. The rooms were all already built when we bought the house, but we had an interior designer and an architect redo most of the house according to our family culture.
Our family culture has different kinds of traits and characteristics, some of which are carried over from the past generations, and others that we have adapted through daily life. We like to hoard, so consequently we take up a lot of the space in the house for storing our things; our purpose built storage rooms fill up fast. We also don’t like to go out of the house a lot, and so we spend most of our weekends together at home, either watching movies together or catching up on our sleep. We used to watch movies together in our old living room, but since we have this activity so frequently, we decided to build a special room just for that; we call it our family room. This special room is fully equipped with a giant screen TV with surround sound, the room’s own air-conditioner, and of course the big and comfy couch where our family gathers together to enjoy the latest blockbusters and the great classics.

Our family’s values are also well intact; we are very health-conscious. Both of our parents are doctors and consequently there is a house rule that we are all required to go to bed early. And because of this, as early as 10:00 pm at night, all of the lights around the house are all turned off and it becomes really silent. This makes it a lot harder to stay up and do my assignments. But in contrary, our family holds the value of excellence and being studious very close to us; we have a full sized library containing whole ranges of encyclopedias, including those that were bought by my grandparents for my mother and her siblings.

These all are just a few examples of family culture, and yet they have already fundamentally directed the use of space inside the house. This reflection is why Rapoport said that these socio-cultural forces are the primary factors that determine house form; just like how our houses reflect the various aspects of our families.