Folk Architecture• The most visible aspect of the folk landscape• Provide the unique character of each district or

province

• Built on mental images that change little from one generation to the next

• Dwellings range from: massive houses of stone for permanency, to temporary brush thatch huts

• Structures tend to blend nicely with the natural landscape

Santa Fe

Sedona

Folk architecture is traditional and functional using local materials: wood, brick, stone, skins

Climate and vegetation influence choice of construction materials

Longitude and distance from ocean is very important to climate:

• Low latitudes are near the equator (0-30 degrees)

• High latitudes are near the poles (60-90)

• Middle latitudes are in between and where most people live. (30-60)

Tropics

Simple explanation of climate

There are 5 basic climates • Polar: ice with little people so not significant to this

class• Cold mid latitude: Very cold winters but pretty nice the

rest of the year• Mild mid latitude: Temperatures are mild and it rarely

freezes• Humid low latitude: it rains a lot and never freezes

• Dry: Also called arid. Very little precipitation but it might have very cold winters. Not all deserts are hot but it rarely rains.

Could use different names

Simple explanation of biomes (large zones of a type of vegetation)• Near the equator there is tropical forest • Between north pole and the northern forest there is tundra (the

soil is frozen most of the year but not always covered in snow)• in the colder mid latitudes there is forest (Russia, Canada, U.S.

etc)• There are deserts with brush (rarely sand dunes, usually

bushes with walking distance between them).• In between these two extremes grasslands are found (called

savanna in the tropics where there is a dry season)

Folk housing building materials.

Stone Construction• Most live in rocky,

deforested lands• Mediterranean farmers • rural residents of

northern India and southwestern China (Tibet)

• Andean highlands

Earthen construction including Sun-dried (adobe) bricks

• People in arid areas (deserts)

Sod construction

• In pioneer times, the American Great Plains

• in prairie (mid latitude grasslands)

• Russian steppes

• The first Europeans in Northern Canada

• tundra areas

Canadian Barns were first made of sod TQ

Tent housing

• Nomadic herders often live in portable tents made of skins or wool

This is a yurt

Logs and sawn lumber (wood) • where timber is abundant• Middle and higher latitudes• The United States and Canada,

log cabins and later frame houses

• Folk houses of northern Europe • Eastern Australia• Central India

Half-timbering

• wood frame with building material in between: such as clay or plaster.

• middle and higher latitudes

• Often deforested regions where wood is scarce

• Central Europe

• Central China

Poles, bamboo, leaves and bark• Traditional people living in tropical rain forests

Brush –thatched

• People in the tropical grasslands (tropics with a dry season)

• especially in Africa

• Australia

• Brazil

You’ll need to study this from the powerpoint at home

Folk housing in North America

• Few folk houses are being built today

• Popular culture with its mass-produced, commercially built houses has overwhelmed folk traditions

• Many folk houses survive in refuge regions

Important factor in distinguishing different folk housing types in the U.S.: TQ

• choice of building materials• form in which the structure is

arranged• climate in which the structure is

built

Regions and diffusion

Today, house types in the US are distinguished by the following: TQ

• they display few regional distinctions• they are usually mass-produced• alternative styles have diffused throughout the

country• no longer three distinct regions