Cob:

[Michael Fitzgerald]

I got my books! Yaaaaaaaay!!!!!

Thankyou Charmaine and Dirt Cheap books. You have a wonderful selection of
information that is impossible to get anywhere else. And the shipping was
way faster than what I have become accustomed to with other book companies.
Especially those from South America. I am finding "Architecture for the
Poor" by Hasan Fathy, to be quite facinating. Much of what he discusses
about indigenous cultures and their conflicts with colonial values, I have
seen first hand throughout West Africa.

 It is interesting how this conflict is manifest in cultural expression and
is keenly seen in indigenous architecture. For instance, precolonial
WestAfrican homes where more likely to be round in floor plan rather than
square. Now you see only square buildings until you get very far away from
urban centers and you begin to see round houses. Interesting too... round
houses have round courtyards and rounded irregular gardens. Square houses
have square courtyards and square gardens. However whenever you build a
shrine to a voudou it will be built round (like we always have) unless it is
a house god and the house is square then the shrine will be square. All this
to say that square or round is a very concious decision and makes a
statement about, and is a statement by, the builder and those who live
within it. This book reminds me that the greater part of our work with
poverty and affordable housing is still ahead of us. Much of it will be
changing the predjudices of the cultures in which we are building. Sometimes
this is harder than building a house.

Ahem, now where did that soapbox come from?

Thanx again for the books. The circa 1930s farm building manuals are great.

Michael Fitzgerald
Anthropologist/Woodcarver/Puppetmaker