Primera parte. Individual houses ; Segunda parte. house types

The individual family residence is a complex phenomenon just as it is a faithful reflection to the degree that the inhabitants had a part in shaping it of the needs, tastes, and aspirations of the client. [fone is not the original owner of a newly-acquired abode, among the first things one does is to adapt the interior spaces to one's own requirements. Whereas if the future inhabitants of a domestic environment participated as clients in the initial conception and design (along with an architect or builder), the result invariably involves the satisfaction of multiple personal desires —expressed privately or publicly, internally or externally.
To enter a domestic interior is to advance into the intimate life of individuals and families. Degrees of privacy are provided for in any residential space, East or West, but in dwellings of the Orient spaces tend to be organised in a more rigidly hierarchical fashion. Often clear distinctions are made between reception areas for strangers or family acquaintances and those areas for family group activities where males and females mingle freely. This is frequently less characteristic of Western homes,where life-styles can be more informal. Notions of privacy are of course based upon social structure and social mores, upon functional uses, but also upon codes or conventions of what is presentable, that is to say, objects,images or even sounds that reflect the inner personal sentiments, memories, devotions ofthe individuals who inhabit. The houses published in this volume, be they contemporary or historical, illustrate the tremendous latitude that exists in degrees and nature of privacy, from that of an Arabian sheik to that of the Central Asian nomads' tent.