Buildings and society: Essays on the Social Development of the Built Environment

These two questions are at the core of this book. The assumption behind it is that buildings, indeed, the entire built environment, are essentially social and cultural products. Buildings result from social needs and accommodate a variety of functions—economic, social, political, religious and cultural. Their size, appearance, location and form are governed not simply by physical factors (climate, materials or topography) but by a society’s ideas, its forms of economic and social organisation, its distribution of resources and authority, its activities, and the beliefs and values which prevail at any one period of time. As changes in society occur, so too does change in its built environment. New building types emerge and existing ones become obsolete. Some buildings are modified, extended and take on different functions; others may simply disappear. Society produces its buildings, and the buildings, although not producing society, help to maintain many of its social forms. If these are sweeping generalisations, then the aim of the essays in this volume is to question, qualify or refute them. The mstatements formed the opening paragraphs of the initial working brief prepared by the editorand circulatedamong potential contributors and others in 1977. In different ways, the nine essays explore the relationship between social forms and built forms, between society and the built environment it produces. Of the questions suggested above, the second is considered first.