Shelter forms being influenced by

social cultural aspects in society.

Example of one shulter form
influenced by social cultural aspects
Meaning of Socio-cultural factors and
house form:
• People from different places, races and cultures
respond differently to their varied environment
and thus have a unique habitat and way of living.
• These differences may be because of cultural,
social, ritual, economic and social factors.
• These factors and responses may vary over a
period of time, affecting their living style, their
house form
• The house is basically influenced by the social,
cultural, material and religious aspects of the
society to which it belongs.
• The way of living of the people decides the spatial
organization of their house.
• It may also be dominated by the cultural taboos and
traditional ways of what might not be accepted and
what should be practiced.
• The house, the village, and the town express the fact
that societies share certain generally accepted goals
and life values.
• The climatic conditions also play a part in modifying
the form of a house, so do the methods of
construction, available materials and technology in the
area.
 • The important aspects which affect the built form are :
• the basic needs ,
• how and where eating and cooking are done,
• desired light levels in the house,
• need of fresh air in some cultures and the fear of ‘night air’
in some, etc.,
• type of family structure,
• extended family group should be separate,
• monogamous and polygamous families,
• position of women (houses owned by wives, and husband
visiting them, windows, doors and roofs designed for their
privacy), privacy and social behavior.

http://ku-architecturestudiovi-2012.blogspot.com/2012/07/socio-cultural-factors-and-house-form.html http://ku-architecturestudiovi-2012.blogspot.com/2012/07/chapter-3-socio-cultural-factors-and_26.html
 Examples in world context
• In the Dogon
civilization the
villages are
built in pairs to
represent
heaven and the
earth, and their
fields are
cleared in
spirals because
they believe the
world has been
created spirally.
 Example 2
• 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 toilets.
 Example of socio cultural aspect impact on house forms, in
Indian context

• http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/downloa
d;jsessionid=9C100CC4DDE0C38E27EC427398
7646AB?doi=10.1.1.677.3636&rep=rep1&type
=pdf