The House as Cultural Representation

Abstract

To dwell does not only occur in housing, but in all relations with the world. The house is an answer to a need, but also gives a sense to the inhabitants world. Housing is an exponent of –cultural– essential values, and the inhabitant is not an individual apart from the community. Thus, in housing a symbolic function can be perceived with a close-linked role to the collective identity and to the social processes which define it as a product of human labor.