traditional activities, Space Syntax

• Main Author: Peter C. Dawson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Inuit; housing; Arctic; inuit
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.199.5011; http://www.spacesyntax.net/symposia/SSS4/fullpapers/21Dawsonpaper1.pdf

Recent ethnographic fieldwork in the Canadian Arctic has revealed differences in the patterns of housekeeping practiced by Inuit and Euro-Canadian families. These differences are reflected in the types of activities Inuit families carry out, and how these activities are distributed within houses. The majority of Inuit family activities occur in integrated spaces such as living rooms and kitchens, because daily activities provide an important context for social interaction among family members. The use of space syntax analysis to examine houses built over the past 50 years in the Canadian north indicates a trend towards floor plans with narrow view fields and a greater number of smaller rooms. This trend reflects the increasing importance of individualism and privacy in Euro-Canadian society, and is not compatible with the more collective forms of social interaction that characterize Inuit families. These results should be of importance to architects and planners interested in designing and building houses that better reflect the cultural values and lifestyles of Inuit families.