Now that we have solidly placed humans in the environment let's look back at how humans view the landscape and how they respond to it. Unlike our furry or feathered distant cousins humans are unique in their need to establish housing--not just nests or lairs that are used during reproductive seasons, but a shelter from the elements and safety from predators. Our Australopithecine ancestors may have gone into the trees to sleep at night for safety, otherwise impervious to the weather. The earliest signs of cultural transformation of the land were more like base camps. They may have simple areas where stone was brought to shape human tools or butcher an animal. Picture 1 shows a base camp debitage.

Early homo sapiens relied on caves as living space and left imprints in art on the cave walls. The exact meaning of their pictographs is unknown, but imagine that their drawings must have related to their food and success at hunting (Lascaux [link to http://www.daap.uc.edu/CERHAS/lascaux.htm] ).

The earliest Australians, the aborigines, relied on rock shelters and caves as well. Because they were nomadic hunters and gatherers they frequently slept in the open but had regular rock outcroppings where they stopped for short periods, sometimes even creating designs on the walls that relate to their dreamtime--how people and things came to be. picture 3 shows Hazel Douglas, an aborigine from the Bama tribe standing in her ancestors rock shelter. The shelter is now part of a national park, but a grinder and stone axe have been found indicating ancient tool use there, verifying Bama claims to the site.

Some of the first manufactured houses were created of stone, bone, and skin to protect homo sapiens as he and she moved out of Africa into the colder north. Fire manufacture, clothing, and housing expanded man's ability to spread into new environments. Man was first able to overcome limitations of the environment and extend his range.

He was later able to weave woody shelters from branches and leaves and make wattle and daub [link to http://mahan.wonkwang.ac.kr/link/med/england/society/manor/peasant.htm] houses. In wattle and daub construction wooden poles were placed in the ground and saplings were woven around them. [insert picture daub.gif] Clay like mud, sometimes with straw or dung, were packed into the weavings and grass roofs were applied. The clay gave better protection from rain and snow. By this time people were more settled because of they did not have to move in search of game. These houses provided protection from predators and weather. They either had an abundance of natural resources to feed their increasing numbers or they had begun to cultivate crops or domesticate animals thus assuring a more regular food supply. They only moved when the resources or soil was depleted or vermin took over the village. Housing was easy to duplicate and easily disappeared into the soil when abandoned.

Because many of these early constructions were made from perishable material, they have not survived in the archaeological record.

From using the environment unchanged from rock shelters and caves, man began a cultural adaptation by making his residences from environmental material. These were biodegradable. Few resources were needed because the hunter and gather communities were small in size.

Housing has to solve several human problems and utilize available material. More permanent housing coupled with the rise of agriculture as a more reliable food source coincided with population increases. With one household able to feed the family and produce a surplus, other specialties developed besides farming. People were now able to cluster together in towns and cities. As people began to compete for land and resources people began to fortify their villages against their human enemies--castles, moats, and walled cities sprung up to protect whole communities.

Mechanization of agriculture made it possible to feed even more people and increasingly exchange of goods and services made even more cities possible. When land was scarce or protection was necessary from invaders, housing was squeezed together. Compounds were built to house more than one family in multiple apartments, just as happens today as our cities grow larger and larger.

Settlers to new lands take their knowledge of their original countries houses, but are limited by the available new material in the New World. They must also respond to climatic conditions for greater comfort. One such example is the Queenslander house found in northeastern Australia.

The Queenslander.

The Queenslander house is well adapted to the tropical northeast coast of Australia. Its wide overhangs keep drenching rains from coming in open windows needed for ventilation. The houses sit upon blocks of stone, safe from snakes--allowing the house to breathe in the 115-degree summer heat. The house is perched on a knoll or facing the prevailing breezes. Many have porches all around for sleeping out side. This particular one had porches on the east to catch the ocean breezes. All doors open onto the porches, which are sometimes screened for insect protection. The house roof is made of tin, an imported item, but low in cost and more durable than thatching material available locally. What are some of the factors in his choice? Permanence, economy of time and money, and availability.

The Homestead in New South Wales, Australia.

People in the South of Australia in what is known as the food basket of Australia are likely to live in Homestead type housing. They are generally sheep or grain farmers who build their houses to meet environmental needs. The homestead has a wide veranda all around the house. Verandas are open to the cool night air and many sleep out. Some are framed and covered with gauze (what we call screen) for insect protection. The interior rooms have high ceilings for the warm air to rise in the summer, keeping the rooms cooler. Some are raised as much as 10 feet off the ground to provide protection from floods, which occur occasionally along the fertile river valleys during the rainy season.

The kitchens that used wood stoves or fireplaces for cooking were originally separated from the living quarters in the event of kitchen fire. Even small houses had a galley separate from the house with an open fire and cauldron.

The earliest homesteads had dirt floors. Slabs of timber made up the walls, which were plastered with mud, like adobe. The early settlers used the bark from the iron bark tree for roof shingles. Along the coast these bark shingles were covered with strips of bark from the ti tree to seal the roof. The ti tree is what we know as the melalucca, a pest in Florida because of its voracious thirst, which has succeeded in drying up the Everglades and has invaded the land surrounding our FGCU campus. Melalucca was imported from Australia where the dry weather prevents its insatiable thirst from becoming a nuisance. Melalucca was available building material and factored in the choice for building material for early European immigrants to New South Wales.

What are some of the choices involved in your selection of a house? Are environmental concerns of relative importance? What if energy saving features are more costly? What about the use of expensive decorative woods, which might be rare? What are some of the environmentally friendly features that can be created in a home? How does aesthetics play a part in selection of style?

All human responses to different environments evolved to solve problems of living. Here are some suggestions to find out more about other human responses to the environment through housing for research.

The Igloo

The Seminole Chickee

The Teepee of the Plains

Rondavals in Africa

Yurts in China

Cracker houses in Florida

Frank Lloyd Wright architecture

The Green Building project on FGCU campus

 

Housing has become a main way to adapt to our environment. In the last centuries, human creativity has demonstrated man's ingenuity to survive comfortably in any climate with controlled heating and air conditioning.