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Design and Order
Design and Order

Perceptual Experience of Built Form - Principles in the Planning

and Making of Place

Nigel C. Lewis
Designer
London, UK
This edition first published 2020
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Lewis, Nigel C., author.

Title: Design and order : perceptual experience of built form - principles in
the planning and making of place / Nigel C Lewis.
Description: First edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, 2020. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020008266 (print) | LCCN 2020008267 (ebook) | ISBN
9781119539513 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119539537 (adobe pdf) | ISBN
9781119539551 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Architecture–Composition, proportion, etc. |
Architecture–Human factors.
Classification: LCC NA2760 .L47 2020 (print) | LCC NA2760 (ebook) | DDC
720.1/03–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020008266
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020008267

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Image: Besançon Theatre © Theatre Besançon, Seoul Airport © Ossip van Duivenbode

Set in 9.5/12.5pt STIXTwoText by SPi Global, Chennai, India

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 To my family.
For Layla & Ettie, Amelia & Loe.
 vii

Contents

Outline xix
Preface xxiii

Section I The Environment 1

Part I The Environment – Natural, Ecological and

Historical (Topography) 3

1 Natural Sites and Places 5

1.1 Nature and Landscape 5
1.2 Natural Places and Characteristics 5
1.3 Creation of Man-Made Places 6
1.4 Existential Space and Place 7
1.5 Natural Landscape and Sensing 9
Further Reading 10

2 Ecological and Climatic Context and Basic Protection

Needs 11
2.1 Primitive Needs 11
2.2 Climatic Zones and Natural Materials for Shelter 11
2.3 Shelter Types, Uses and Purposes 13
2.4 Socio-Cultural Factors and Human Needs 14
2.5 Theory of Human Needs 15
Exhibit 2.1 Basic Human Needs 18
Further Reading 19

3 Historical and Regional Development 21

3.1 Historic Eras and Development 21
3.2 Regional Variations, Early Cultures and Settlements 22
3.3 Topography, Climate and Materials – Form Determinants 23
Exhibit 3.1 Individual Dwelling Types 24
Further Reading 27
viii Contents

Section II Human Behaviour and Design 29

Part II Human Behaviour (Neuro-Physiology) 31

4 The Brain, the Mind and Sensing 33

4.1 The Brain and Neurological Systems – Seeing, Touching and Hearing 33
4.2 Seeing – Visual Processing and Memory 33
4.3 Touching and Hearing 35
4.4 The Mind – Mental Learning and Thinking – Cognition 36
4.5 The Mind – Visceral Feelings – Emotion and Motivation 38
4.6 Consciousness and Self 39
4.7 Human Body and the Sensing of Form 40
4.8 Meaning, Intentionality and Imagination 41
4.9 Metaphor and Consciousness 42
Exhibit 4.1 The Human Brain – Neurological Sensing 45
Further Reading 52

5 The Eyes and the Visual System 55

5.1 Visual Perception 55
5.2 Visual World and Visual Field 57
5.3 Visual Perception and Affordances 61
5.4 Perceptual Experience – Visual System 62
5.5 Visual System and Optic Arrays 63
5.6 Recognition, Eye Movements and Analogue Theory 65
Exhibit 5.1 The Human Eye 66
Exhibit 5.2 Affordances 72
Exhibit 5.3 Perspective – Sensory Shifts 73
Further Reading 74

6 The Senses 75
6.1 The System of Senses 75
6.2 The Senses 76
6.3 Further Senses 78
6.4 The Senses and Multi-Sensory Experience 81
6.5 Multi-Sensory Emotions, Feelings and Aspirations 83
6.6 Pleasure 85
Exhibit 6.1 The Human Ear 86
Exhibit 6.2 The Human Senses 88
Further Reading 89

Part III Perceptual Experience of Form (Psychology and

Phenomenology) 91

7 Aesthetic Theories and Perception of Built Form 93

7.1 Perception 93
 Contents ix

7.2 Theories of Perception 93

7.3 Schematisation and Phenomena 94
7.4 Equilibrium, Wholes and Re-centring 96
7.5 Parts and the ‘Whole’ 96
7.6 Perceptual Properties 98
7.7 Perception of Form 98
7.8 Psychology of Form 99
7.9 Dynamics of Space 100
7.10 Perception and Cognition 102
7.11 Meaning and Symbols 104
7.12 Synopsis – Perceptual Experience 106
Exhibit 7.1 Principles of Configuration 108
Exhibit 7.2 Perspective 111
Further Reading 113

Part IV Grammar and Syntax of Form, and

Composition 115

8 Architectural Ordering, Composition, Form and Beauty 117

8.1 Order 117
8.2 Grammar of Design and Syntax 118
8.3 Composition and Characteristics 122
8.4 Rhythm and Harmony 124
8.5 Purposiveness 125
8.6 Objects and Arrangements 125
8.7 Composition and Type 126
8.8 Ways of Ordering 127
8.9 Objective Properties 129
Exhibit 8.1 Principles of Composition 130
Exhibit 8.2 Basic Rules of Composition for Order and Unity 132
Further Reading 140

Part V Planning and Design Process, and Programme

Requirements (Methodology) 141

9 Design Framework, Methods and Approaches 143

9.1 Problem Formulation 143
9.2 Setting 143
9.3 Fitness and Fit 144
9.4 Self-Conscious Design Approach 145
9.5 Affordances and Behaviour Settings 146
9.6 Programme Requirements 146
9.7 Designing and Design Approaches 147
x Contents

9.8 Design Process, Reflection and Appraisal 149

9.9 Intended Results and Evaluation 155
9.10 Design of ‘Good’ Form 157
Exhibit 9.1 Nature of Design Requirements, Invention and Making 158
Exhibit 9.2 Modern Design Approach – Programme, Brief and Process 161
Further Reading 164

10 ‘Pattern Language’ Approach 167

10.1 Form Language 167
10.2 Order and Life – ‘Wholeness’ 169
10.3 Life-Creating Transformations of Centres 171
10.4 Language of Form 173
10.5 Fundamental Maxim – ‘Unity’ of the ‘Whole’ 175
Exhibit 10.1 Pattern Language – Properties 176
Exhibit 10.2 Rules of Scale in Order 180
Exhibit 10.3 Ambience 184
Exhibit 10.4 ‘Well’ Building 186
Further Reading 188

Section III Form, Function and Fit 189

Part VI Form and Fit 191

11 Physical Built Form in Space 193

11.1 Form – Mass and Spatial Volume 193
11.2 Transformation of Form 193
11.3 Additive Form 194
11.4 Integration of Forms 196
11.5 Form and Space 196
11.6 Horizontal Planes 197
11.7 Vertical Planes 197
11.8 Architectural Space, Enclosures and Vistas 200
11.9 Spatial Qualities and Layout 201
11.10 Light, Sound and Atmospheric Qualities in Built Form 202
Exhibit 11.1 Principles of Articulation and Conjugation 204
Further Reading 205

12 Geometrical Layout and Organisation – Axes, Shapes and

Repeating Patterns 207
12.1 Datum and Axes 207
12.2 Ordering Principles 207
12.3 Hierarchy and Scale 208
12.4 Rhythm and Repetition 208
 Contents xi

12.5 Symmetry 208

12.6 Transformations 209
12.7 Generative Design Processes 211
12.8 Fractals 212
12.9 Other Forms of Geometry – Non-Euclidean 212
12.10 Patterns of Repeating Elements for Decoration 213
Exhibit 12.1 Principles in the Design of Decorative, Geometric and Motif Patterns 214
Further Reading 216

13 Proportion, Symmetry and Harmony 217

13.1 Proportion – History 217
13.2 Proportion and Physical Relationships 220
13.3 Symmetry 220
13.4 Human Proportions 222
13.5 Room Proportions 222
13.6 Regulating Lines 224
13.7 Latent Geometric Relationships 226
13.8 Good Proportioning 226
13.9 Anthropometrics and Human Factors 227
13.10 Scale 227
13.11 Harmony 228
13.12 Expressions of Form 229
Exhibit 13.1 Principles of Proportion and Symmetry 230
Exhibit 13.2 Types of Series, Proportion, Symmetry and Natural Growth 233
Exhibit 13.3 Principles of Rhythm and Harmony 249
Exhibit 13.4 Essay on Harmony as It Relates to Building – Robert Morris 251
Exhibit 13.5 Musical Harmony 252
Exhibit 13.6 Rhythm and Syncopation in Built Form by Era 257
Further Reading 258
Photos 259

14 Organisational Forms and Layout 261

14.1 Linear Organisation 261
14.2 Centralised Organisation 261
14.3 Radial Organisation 261
14.4 Grid 262
14.5 Clustered Organisation 263
14.6 Interior Enclosed Space 264
Exhibit 14.1 Principles of Organisation and Arrangement 265
Exhibit 14.2 The Modulor 267
Exhibit 14.3 Japanese Design Arrangements for Dwelling 271
Further Reading 272

15 Functional Purpose and Use of Space 275

15.1 Function 275
xii Contents

15.2 Utility, Significance and Purposefulness 275

15.3 Use, Activities and Spatial Requirements 275
15.4 Structural System and Components 276
15.5 Materials 277
15.6 Personal Space 278
15.7 Territoriality 279
15.8 Defensible Space 280
Exhibit 15.1 Principles of Function and Purpose 283
Exhibit 15.2 Purposiveness 285
Exhibit 15.3 Principles of Universal Design 286
Further Reading 286

16 Circulation, Plan and Elevation 287

16.1 Approach 287
16.2 Entrance 287
16.3 Dynamic Spatial Experience 288
16.4 Configuration for Communication 289
16.5 Access Paths 289
16.6 Internal Circulation 289
16.7 Stairs and Staircases 290
16.8 Built Section 290
Exhibit 16.1 Principles of Communication and Circulation 292
Further Reading 293

17 Colour and Contrast 295

17.1 Light and Spectrum 295
17.2 Colour Pigments 295
17.3 Pigments for Printing 297
17.4 Complementary Colours 299
17.5 Features of Colour 300
17.6 Colour Circle, Sphere and Star 303
17.7 Perceptual Basis of Colour 304
17.8 Colour Interaction 307
17.9 Colour Serialisation 308
Exhibit 17.1 Principles of Colour and Contrast 309
Exhibit 17.2 Colour Parameters and Principles 311
Exhibit 17.3 Contrast in Colour 317
Further Reading 319

Part VII Building Structure and Types 321

18 Structure 323
18.1 Beginnings 323
18.2 Laws of Nature 323
 Contents xiii

18.3 Lateral Stability 324

18.4 Materials 324
18.5 Design Methods 325
18.6 Connections and Jointing 325
18.7 Structural Types 326
18.8 Maintainability and Sustainability 328
18.9 Generative Parametrics 328
18.10 Resiliency 328
Exhibit 18.1 Principles of Structure 329
Further Reading 331
Photos 331

Section IV Built and Urban Form 335

Part VIII ‘Good’ Practice – Built Form 337

19 Buildings and Dwellings 339

19.1 Space and Human Interaction 339
19.2 Creation of ‘Place’ 340
19.3 ‘Good’ Building 341
19.4 Built Form Determinants 342
19.5 Re-Use 345
19.6 Use Types of Buildings 346
19.7 Goals of ‘Good’ Built Form 347
Exhibit 19.1 Principles of Assembly – Built Form 349
Exhibit 19.2 Selective Modern ‘Good’ Building Practice by Use Type 352
Exhibit 19.3 Examples of Built Type Forms 354
Exhibit 19.4 Modern Movements and Practitioners 358
Exhibit 19.5 Iconic Modern Buildings 360
Exhibit 19.6 Modern Iconic US Buildings 365
Further Reading 368
Photos 368

Part IX ‘Good’ Practice – Urban Form 375

20 Urban Form 377

20.1 Form Determinants in Urban Settlements – Natural and Man-Made
Features 377
20.2 Historical Developments 379
20.3 Different Regional and Cultural Typologies 381
20.4 Multi-Nucleus and Mixed Development 383
20.5 Modern Developments 385
xiv Contents

20.6 Elements of Urban Form 386

20.7 Legibility 388
20.8 Organisation 389
20.9 Life Space and Topology 391
20.10 Urban Form and Life 391
20.11 Layout of Urban Neighbourhoods 393
20.12 Development 395
20.13 ‘Good’ City Form 396
20.14 Urban ‘Open’ Forms 398
20.15 Goals of ‘Good’ Urban Form 398
Exhibit 20.1 Principles of Emplacement – Urban Form 400
Exhibit 20.2 Urban Space Requirements 403
Exhibit 20.3 Selective Modern ‘Good’ Urbanistic Practice 406
Exhibit 20.4 Urban Type Forms by Use Purpose 410
Further Reading 411
Photos 412
Summary 419
Bibliography 423
Appendices – Part I 433

Appendix I.3.1 Ancient Settings – Europe, Near East, Asia and Americas 435
I.3.1.1 Neolithic Age 10 000–3000 BC – Mid East and Europe 435
I.3.1.2 Bronze Age 3000–1000 BC – Europe and Mid East 436
I.3.1.3 Ancient Iron Age 1000 BC to 0 AD – Mid East 437
I.3.1.4 Early Age 0–1000 AD – Europe and Mid East 439
I.3.1.5 Mesoamerica to 1500 AD 440
I.3.1.6 North America to 1500 AD 440
I.3.1.7 Asia and the Orient to 1500 AD 441
I.3.1.8 Africa to 1500 AD 443
I.3.1.9 Europe – Mediaeval Cities After 1000 AD 443
Further Reading 444
Photos 444

Appendix I.3.2 Ancient City Places 449

Further Reading 451
Appendices – Part II 453

Appendix II.6.1 Feelings of Space and Form in the Environment 455

II.6.1.1 Natural Light 455
II.6.1.2 Movement 455
II.6.1.3 Complementarity of Form 456
II.6.1.4 Balance 457
II.6.1.5 Individuality 457
 Contents xv

II.6.1.6 Opaque Geometry and Occlusion 457

II.6.1.7 Sense of Spatial Perception 458
II.6.1.8 Form Sensing 459
Further Reading 459

Appendix II.6.2 Artificial Perception 461

Further Reading 462
Appendices – Part IV 463

Appendix IV.8.1 ‘The Classical Orders’ 465

IV.8.1.1 The Orders 465
IV.8.1.2 Tuscan 467
IV.8.1.3 Doric 467
IV.8.1.4 Ionic 467
IV.8.1.5 Corinthian 467
IV.8.1.6 Composite 468
IV.8.1.7 Entasis 469
IV.8.1.8 Composition 469
IV.8.1.9 Language – Elements of Architecture 470
Further Reading 471
Photos 471

Appendix IV.8.2 Aesthetic Judgement and Beauty 473

IV.8.2.1 Utility and Delight 473
IV.8.2.2 Qualities 473
IV.8.2.3 Beauty 474
IV.8.2.4 Assessment of Beauty 475
IV.8.2.5 Interest and State of ‘Disinterestedness’ 476
IV.8.2.6 Form and Elegance 476
IV.8.2.7 Aesthetic Theories and Self-Conscious Design 478
IV.8.2.8 Sense of Beauty as Described in Different Eras 478
Further Reading 481
Appendices – Part V 483

Appendix V.9.1 Design Methods – Comparative Historical Design Approaches

and Pedagogy 485
V.9.1.1 Classical Design 486
V.9.1.2 Renaissance Design 486
V.9.1.3 European Design Methods 487
V.9.1.4 Modern International Design Methods 491
V.9.1.5 Purist Design 493
V.9.1.6 Rational Geometric Design 496
V.9.1.7 Organicist Design 497
V.9.1.8 Modern Design Methods and Systems Approach 500
xvi Contents

V.9.1.9 Generative Computerised Design 502

Further Reading 504

Appendix V.10.1 Pattern Language – Design and Human Needs (Illustration) 505
Further Reading 508
Appendices – Part VI 509

Appendix VI.13.1 Decoration – Patterns, Features, Motifs and Geometrics of

Repeating Elements 511
VI.13.1.1 Decoration – Materials, Methods and Techniques 511
VI.13.1.2 Features 512
VI.13.1.3 Pattern Groups – Floral, Figurative, Geometric and Representational 512
VI.13.1.4 Pattern Arrangements – Lattices, Powdering, Borders and Features 514
VI.13.1.5 Emergent Forms 517
VI.13.1.6 Special Motifs and Symbols 521
Further Reading 524

Appendix VI.13.2 Ornament in Earlier Times and Historic Era 525

VI.13.2.1 Antiquity 525
VI.13.2.2 Mediaeval 526
VI.13.2.3 The Renaissance 527
VI.13.2.4 Recent 527
VI.13.2.5 ‘General principles in the arrangement of form and colour in architecture
and the decorative arts’, – The Grammar of Ornament – Owen Jones 529
VI.13.2.6 Moresque Principles of Ornament – Owen Jones 531
Further Reading 534
Appendices – Part VIII 535

Appendix VIII.19.1 Building Materials and House Types in Vernacular Britain 537
VIII.19.1.1 Walling 537
VIII.19.1.2 Roofing 540
VIII.19.1.3 Types – Plan and Section 542
Further Reading 546
Photos 547

Appendix VIII.19.2 Building Elements and Features 553

VIII.19.2.1 Floors, Walls and Ceilings 553
VIII.19.2.2 Windows and Doors 554
VIII.19.2.3 Mouldings 554
VIII.19.2.4 Assembly 555
Further Reading 555
Photos 556
 Contents xvii

Appendix VIII.19.3 Architectural Styles, Periods and Practitioners 565

VIII.19.3.1 Western Architecture 565
VIII.19.3.2 Religious Periods 566
VIII.19.3.3 Composition Methods – Theorists and Key Practitioners by Era 567

Appendix VIII.19.4 Historic Ecclesiastic and Civic Buildings; Geometric Modern and
Iconic Modern US Buildings 569
VIII.19.4.1 Historic Ecclesiastical Buildings 569
VIII.19.4.2 Historic Civic Buildings 571
Photos 574
VIII.19.4.3 Modern Geometric Buildings 581
VIII.19.4.4 Modern Iconic Tower Buildings 588
Appendices – Part IX 593

Appendix IX.20.1 Urban Places 595

IX.20.1.1 Urban City Form – Historic Places 595
IX.20.1.2 Modern 20th Century Places 598

Appendix IX.20.2 Sustaining Principles 601

IX.20.2.1 ‘Ten Theses on Architecture’ – Rob Krier 601
IX.20.2.2 ‘Ten Principles on Which We Can Build’ – HRH The Prince of Wales 602
IX.20.2.3 ‘The Hannover Principles’ – Expo 2000 World Fair, William
McDonough 603
IX.20.2.4 ‘One Planet – Living Communities Programme’ 604
IX.20.2.5 Biophilic Design Principles 605
Further Reading 610

Appendix IX.20.3 Urban Settlement Models and Patterns 611

IX.20.3.1 Urban Form and Use Types 611
IX.20.3.2 Urban Layout Principles 613
IX.20.3.3 Organising Features 614
IX.20.3.4 Building Form Types 616

Index 617
 xix

Outline

Context – Man and the Environment

Through evolution, humans have become bi-peds. Their brains have been enlarged, and
they have acquired extensive practical and communication skills. Man, as a social animal,
also likes to live in local communities. On this small planet, much of the habitable land has
been settled, and population has expanded enormously on every continent. So much so that
now over half of the world’s population lives in urbanised areas, which have been created,
developed and built by man. This has been driven by basic human needs – developing from
the fundamental needs of shelter, sustenance and dwelling, to more personal requirements
and higher needs of self-actualisation, self-esteem and fulfilment.
Human settlements have developed from the earliest encampments to more permanent
communal sites, having initial protection from the weather using available materials, to
quite stylised buildings and dwellings. For each of these, man-made built form has been
responsive to particular needs. Over time, these have developed more self-consciously, and
more sophisticated building techniques have been used in order to respond to more recent
challenging and complex requirements.
Hence, we are where we are today – we exist in an increasingly over-populated and
urbanised world, with highly integrated modern communication and transportation
systems, networked globally around the world. And yet, with industrialisation and mod-
ernisation, our communities are still subject to natural events, resources are not wholly
sustainable, and the environment is becoming increasingly fragile. The environment,
human behaviour and built form interface remains critical.

Form and Fit

Given these challenges, the goal is to find the best way to accommodate these increasingly
demanding requirements for habitat, but at a human scale and at a local level. Urbanised
areas are an aggregation of individual built units, assembled and orientated around local
communities, having particular facilities and networks. The target is to produce houses
and dwellings not only economically, with a real sense of ‘place’, satisfying their functional
requirements, but which can also provide occupiers and users the opportunity to fulfil both
themselves and their families socially, physically and psychologically.
xx Outline

This is the path that we are seeking, given the natural context and surroundings, through
informed human understanding to determine better ways in which built form may be cre-
ated, in order to respond to the actual human and behavioural requirements as demanded
in their particular environment and natural setting(s).
In one simple word, it is this good ‘fit’ and fittingness that designers should aspire to, in
order to achieve attainment of defined goals and objectives of users of the built form in a
particular setting that also has a ‘spirit of place’.

Perception and Multi-sensory Processes

Hence, the challenges of the process are how to recognise essential human needs, to achieve
given spatial requirements, to satisfy the defined ‘programme’ and to fulfil all of these users’
needs.
In order to do this, we need a better behavioural understanding, which should be developed
at a human level – we are centred in this world and we perceive everything from our own
individual perspective.
Thence, the initial task is to better explore our own understanding of the world – through all
of our ‘senses’, with perception of the immediate environment through our brain and eyes,
and via our visual, tactile and audible sensations. Thus, through our individual sensing of
the world and personal feelings, and through deeper understanding and use of memory, we
can assemble clearer pictures and meanings of our individual space.
For this, it is important to extend our understanding of the perceptual experience of built
form by exploring different theories of perception of space and time. The mind is a complex
organism and is pivotal with all our senses in the understanding and aesthetic appreciation
and interpretation of form and place.

Language of Form, Design Approaches, Set of Rules

and Ordering Principles

In order to do this, we need to explore the ‘language of form’ and to find the best ways not
only to assess but also to express our feelings in the appreciation of ‘good’ form. The world
constitutes boundless three-dimensional natural space, yet the creation of ‘place’ through
the careful design, shaping and placing of man-made objects and forms is one of the key
challenges in the present world.
Not just the creation of any place, but rather the creation of places and centres that have
life, delight and sense of order, and which are uplifting to the human spirit. Here we have to
delve deeper, for example, into Gestalt psychology to assess lines, shapes, colours, patterns
and forms, which, when developed systematically and created tectonically, can lead to real
‘genius loci’.
On this basis, the process of design and composition is explored further, whereby, through
appropriate language and the application of a grammar of design and fitting syntax, the
physical size and shapes of built form can be better created, appreciated and experienced.
 Outline xxi

Here discussion of order, proportion, symmetry, rhythm, harmony and ‘wholes’ is impor-
tant, which can be applied in a rigorous design process from a human perspective.
Design strategies, approaches and methodologies are explored, and a hierarchical set of
rules, canons or ordering principles have been developed, which address composition and
configuration, massing and volumes, organisation and geometry, function and circulation,
all of which are instrumental in the creation of attractive form with harmony and balance
and having ‘good fit’ and ‘human spirit’.

Built and Urban Form

Through such holistic and multi-sensory approach, from a human perspective, it is

suggested that this can be interpreted through systematic appraisal of requirements and
through the application of appropriate rules and principles that lead to the generation
of built form that provides real opportunities and pleasurable experience to owners and
users.
Examples of such ‘good’ built form and urban form are analysed and illustrated extensively.
Both past and present, this includes elements of urban form and their aggregation and com-
bination, from public to private spaces. This includes vernacular buildings and different
building types and typologies, individual dwellings and their adjacent spaces and assess-
ment of ‘places’ of human interaction.
Whilst not intended as a formal design manual, it does seek to bring together a set of canons
or ordering principles from a human and multi-sensory perspective, of the necessary con-
stituent factors in a coherent manner that provide guidance in addressing an approach to
the purposeful creation of built form, so as to secure attractive and liveable places. In par-
ticular, it aims to highlight certain targeted design principles that need to be addressed so
as to create positive experiences of resultant built form having a real sense of ‘place’.
I have been guided by many different groups of authors, but principally in the following
areas by:

● Historical: Mumford, Pevsner, Scully and Mallgrave.

● Aesthetic and psychological: Arnheim, Gibson, Lewin, Koehler and Koffka.
● Spatial: Alexander, Appleyard, Lynch and Moore.
● Social: Jacobs, Rapoport and Whyte.
● Contextual: Norberg-Schulz, Rasmussen and Pallasmaa.

I was inspired and mentored by my former tutor Prof. Jon Lang.

Accordingly, the text is divided into four (4) sections with nine (9) main parts and twenty
(20) chapters along with accompanying exhibits that outline different canons or ordering
principles for design and composition of ‘good’ built form:

Section I – The Environment

● Part I addresses the natural environment, its topographical settings and places. It cites

the importance of the historical context, regional context, ecological and climatic envi-
ronment and the interface with man’s behaviour and basic human needs (Human
Needs).
xxii Outline

Section II – Human Behaviour and Design

● Part II addresses the human body, the brain and eyes, the mind and the senses. It

assesses all of the perceptual senses and feelings in ‘being’ of the world. It addresses
human behaviour and outlines the mechanics of vision and the importance of other
senses and feelings (Neurological Senses).
● Part III addresses the perceptual experience of man-made form and different theories

of perception of form and aesthetics. It addresses configuration and the need for order
and balance, and Gestalt principles (Principles of Configuration).
● Part IV provides an overview of design language and grammar, in addressing design

and order and different elements in the creation of form. This includes the grammar
of design and syntax, composition of form, aesthetic judgement and beauty (Principles
of Composition).
● Part V addresses design processes, strategy and methodological approaches to design.

It addresses the ‘programme’ and user needs and spatial requirements. It addresses
different design approaches and design requirements and the importance of order and
self-conscious design, ‘wholes’ and centres having life and spirit (Pattern Language).
Section III – Form, Function and Fit
● Part VI addresses a set of design rules for form that relates to use, function and fit,

organisation, patterns, decoration, symbols and colour in the development of built

form (Principles of: Articulation & Conjugation, Rhythm & Harmony, Proportion & Sym-
metry, Organisation & Arrangement, Function & Purpose, Communication & Circula-
tion, Colour & Contrast).
● Part VII addresses different building types and structures, their form, materials and

texture, structure, skin and layout, sustainability, etc. (Principles of Structure).

Section IV – Good Practice – Built and Urban Form
● Part VIII summarises and illustrates examples of ‘good’ built form and their realisation

both individually and grouped. From a wide cultural perspective, this includes build-
ings of different use and form types and in particular dwellings, which constitute the
vital essence of home life and community (Principles of Assembly).
● Part IX summarises and extensively illustrates examples of ‘good’ urban form. This

addresses, from an international perspective, the practice of building and creation of

both towns and places having ‘genius loci’ in different environments and locations in
urban and man-made built-up areas (Principles of Emplacement).
 xxiii

Preface

Natural Environment
In an increasingly overpopulated and congested globe, within a planet having finite sources,
humankind is centred in this world. Whilst adapting to the natural habitat and using found
materials, in organising and developing their own techniques, humans have created their
own shelter and forms of dwelling in different regions and have been able to advance to the
level of civilisation that we find ourselves in today.

Human Senses
This has been possible through the use of our brain and mind to learn and understand and
to organise ourselves, using our individual senses to create a man-made habitat that fits
within the natural environment, and affords us the numerous activities that we are now
able and wish to pursue.
From the earliest survival needs to physiological and security needs, with sophistication
we now are more focused on well-being, belongingness, esteem and self-actualisation moti-
vations. In this way, we have developed our own cognitive abilities and are starting to better
understand our neuro-biological system and individual senses.
Whilst most emphasis has been on vision and the visual system, we continue to seek to
better understand our perceptual experiences incorporating all of our other aural, tactile
and olfactory sensing in the modern world.

Man-Made Settings
In terms of buildings around us, we react and adapt differently under varying spatial and
temporal conditions, as our mood and feelings are invariably shaped by our surroundings.
Whilst being dependent on climate in our regional context, we are able to adapt our set-
tings to best suit our intended activities and purposes. However, in order to exert control
over dull or monotonous development, we require not only consensus as to general uses but
also affirmation as to the size, shape, order and balance of built form, and also its structure,
materials and sustainability.
xxiv Preface

Design Process and Language

This leads us to the search for better design, organisation, and implementation of built facil-
ities that not only enhance our life experiences but also are themselves fit for purpose. Such
self-conscious design needs to be able to create uplifting spaces as ‘wholes’, having a sense
of place, which all users and observers, not just a particular sub-group, can recognise and
enjoy with delight.
To this end, the goal is, through better understanding of the human body, the brain and
eyes and visual and related senses, to develop a design language, with associated grammar
and syntax, which can be used such as to enable an enhanced design process to be pursued.

Design Approach

Building upon earlier knowledge and detailed historical experience, a set of ordering prin-
ciples relating to design have been derived, which may be considered as useful pillars upon
which an integrated and more objective process of design and order may be developed.
Whilst not fully comprehensive, they are considered as fundamental building blocks for
an integrated process of design, which often appears to have been neglected. Design is a
mysterious, multi-faceted and recursive process that requires detailed embedded knowl-
edge and research. However, built and urban forms have different roles and purposes, and
differing requirements for groups of users, in order to afford desired features in varied set-
tings.
Such ‘affordances’ not only need to serve their purposes and users well but also need to
be able to create harmonious and cerebral personal experiences that result in the creation
of recognised places having ‘genius loci’.

Principles

It is to be hoped therefore that by focusing attention on such details and ordering, the con-
cerning twelve (12) principles or canons are:
● Configuration
● Composition
● Articulation and conjugation
● Proportion and symmetry
● Rhythm and harmony
● Organisation and arrangement
● Function and purpose
● Communication and circulation
● Colour and contrast
● Structure
● Assembly
● Emplacement
 Preface xxv

PRINCIPLES OF BUILT FORM

Configuration Composition

Articulation

Structure

Emplacement
Assembly
Proportion
Rhythm Organisation Function

Colour & Contrast Communication

All of these are detailed in separate exhibits to each chapter; such that these can be used
to assist to promote, challenge and extend designers’ thinking in the realisation of better
developed and more stimulating resultant built and urban form.

Illustrations of ‘Good’ Practice in Built Form and Urban Form

This is the essential objective. In places and settings where this notably and evidently has
been achieved successfully, suitable examples of such international ‘good’ practice of plan-
ning and making of both built form and urban form and creation of places are explored and
illustrated in detail.
 1

Section I

The Environment
 3

Part I

The Environment – Natural, Ecological and Historical

(Topography)
 5

Natural Sites and Places

1.1 Nature and Landscape

Now in the Anthropocene, it has taken many generations to determine that we, with our
animal cousins, inhabit a spherical earth, which is in regular orbit in the solar system. As
a result of this, we benefit not only from the sun’s radiation and hydrological rains but also
enjoy the different seasons in rotation in different regions around the world.
Small as we are in relative scale to the globe, in our immediate presence, we perceive the
earth to be flat that lies in front of us – horizontally the earth, the sky and the horizon – our
eyes transmit a photographic two-dimensional image to our brain, which frames the natural
scene ahead of us.
It is this very interaction between the sky and the earth, or the sea, in nature that creates
the landscape and pattern of images in front of us. At this junction, the marriage of natural
features creates the magical world around us.
Typically, the earth is an undulating ground, which is varied and discontinuous, having
different reliefs and different soils with varied patterns and texture.
The sky, although really hemi-spherical, is perceived linearly and is constantly changing
in colour – although predominantly blue, grey or white with shapes and patterns according
to the cloud formation.
The rising and setting of the sun and the temporal rhythm create the varying degrees of
light and shadows and illuminations of the landscape. The air quality, haze and humidity
constantly change according to the angle of the sun and wind, and geographical location.
In all, from our individual perception, the whole landscape and environment is constantly
changing in the greens, browns and yellows under varying natural forces on a daily basis.
The view of such natural places although fixed for each of us is therefore mutable and con-
tinuously changing every day. The landscape is characterised by an indefinite multitude of
different scenes, constantly changing in both hue and colour.

1.2 Natural Places and Characteristics

Natural places are wholly dependent on their setting – their location, geography and geol-
ogy, rock, stone, or earth, flat, undulating or mountainous – and in their vegetation – grass,

Design and Order: Perceptual Experience of Built Form - Principles in the planning and making of place,
First Edition. Nigel C. Lewis.
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
6 1 Natural Sites and Places

forest, desert, scrub or savannah. The presence of water in the form of rivers, lakes or sea
creates a significant feature, shape and colour in the landscape.
The whole setting is dependent on the topography of a place, the surface relief and its
extension into adjoining space. As examples, there may be the mountain range, rolling hills,
undulating plains, the forests, seas and lakes, each unique in their own context varying in
texture, colour and vegetation.
Often the presence of water creates edges with adjoining land, which forms distinctive
shapes or figures in the landscape. This may define the sense of place and, depending on
the configuration, also acts as a centre of the scene.
Again, orientation is significant, relative to the cardinal points and axis of the sun, which
determine the illumination of a setting. Hence, the special properties or characteristics
of the landscape start to be determined from its particular setting and prevailing natural
features.

1.3 Creation of Man-Made Places

So, we can see how the landscape exudes the natural form and being of the world. Although
widely different in different regions around the globe, man in a sedentary way sought the
best way of settling in such given environments; firstly, to protect himself and family from
the elements and any predators, and secondly, to aim to satisfy basic human and family
needs of succour, nurture, and survival.
From the natural environment, man sought through building to concretise some of the
elements – rocks or stones found in situ and rock caves as natural protection. From the
Stone Age to the Bronze Age and Iron Age, and with the creation of tools to shape these
elements, techniques led to post and timber usage, stone chiselling and the construction of
roughly orthogonal enclosed spaces.
This was the beginning of order to these spaces, whereby both functional and symbolic
issues come into consideration with the creation of boundaries, domain and enclosure
of animal and personal spaces, and zones of transition. This then defined the particular
character of a man-made place in its given setting. From this, the process of articulation
emanates, where choices begin to be made of the content, shape and form of a dwelling.
With the forces of gravity, solutions were sought as to how best should materials and
elements be arranged to afford the best permanent protection against the elements,
whilst enabling light and ventilation into the building. Hence, the forms of the vertical
elements – walls, the horizontal or sloping roof and openings in different planes – were to
be determined.
These divisions then begin to give identity to the built form, which is particular, geometric
and topological. In this sense, man-made places can be related to natural places through:
– visualising the understanding and relationships with nature,
– complementing the existing natural setting, and
– symbolising and translating this understanding into physical form.
 1.4 Existential Space and Place 7

This will tend to result in a form that ‘wants to be’ and belong in its natural setting, and
through its orientation, articulation, function and identification fits comfortably into the
context given by nature. ‘We dwell in the landscape and the landscape dwells in us’.
So humans, taking essential human needs into consideration, rooted in the local environ-
ment, in response created early structures so as to provide shelter and protection. Over time,
inhabitants reconfigured man-made forms according to their own lives and the particular
ways in which they dwelt. Hence, the built form reflected their human presence and they
continued to best shape buildings according to the setting, climate and materials available
locally.
From their primary purpose of affording shelter, gradually buildings came to act as vehi-
cles for dwelling in and on the ground and for nurturing family units and acting as their
centre of human existence. And as they were added to and expanded, this in time created
small groupings and community.
This act of ‘dwelling’ leads to the creation of ‘place’ appreciated through human exis-
tence – in other words, places came to be identified and exist through use and experience,
due to different individual perceptions of place. Such places are made particular by individ-
uals in many different ways, which reflect their different ways of life and activities. And in
due course, such places derive a sense of meaning that is attached in reflecting their purpose
or sense of association.

1.3.1 ‘Four Elements’

The first signs of human settlement, as outlined by Semper, were defined as the mound,
the hearth, the enclosure and the roof. These ‘four elements’ constitute, in his opinion, the
fundamentals of earliest ‘architecture’ insofar, as they act as a defence against the hostile
elements of nature (rain, wind and heat/cold).
As man developed technical skills, these revolved as earthworks and masonry around the
mound, ceramics around the hearth, wickerwork weaving around the walls, and carpentry
around the roof. Despite the use of nomadic tents, or animal skin coverings, wickerwork
was prevalent for matting, which was used as the essence of walling, which led to more
intensive weaving of materials for mats and carpets also.
Over time, walls were transformed by the use of reed, clay, brick or stone and subse-
quently dressed with stucco covering, and learned carpentry skills and tools extended
the use of timber. From simple huts and fenced enclosures, communities centred around
grouped units and forecourts and courtyards were introduced, leading to the gradual
development of enclosures and dwellings.

1.4 Existential Space and Place

As man is centred in the world, the sense of ‘space’ is determined by his own location
and orientation. The immediate environment is sensed and experienced from one’s own
8 1 Natural Sites and Places

perspective, at that particular point in time and space. Norberg-Schulz has described con-
ceptual space as follows:
– ‘Pragmatic’ space as the environment and surrounding objects that facilitate physical
action.
– ‘Perceptual’ space that reflects the immediate environment and man’s orientation.
– ‘Abstract’ space that is physical space as described mathematically.
– ‘Cognitive’ space as thoughtful experience of the abstract relations between man’s affec-
tive behaviour and environment.
– ‘Existential’ space in his own image of the environment within which he interacts.
Contrastingly, tangible architectural space is described as an expressive space that is cre-
ated by oneself and adapted to one’s own particular needs.
Space exists and can be described in differing ways, such as open space, surrounding
space, hollowed-out space, concrete space, enclosed space, etc., according to the environ-
ment and objects or built form located within it.
As a result, one has subjective architectural experiences in interacting in different physi-
cal environments. This is the beginning of different sensations of space and resulting ‘place’
that comes about in being or entering different environments. These resulting images then
start to create a particular sense of ‘place’ and meaning for different users.

1.4.1 Existential Space and Characteristics

As we grow during life, we start to recognise different objects, things, spaces, panoramic
elements and a system of similarities and of particular places in the universe. These then
become linked through topological relations of proximity, continuity, succession, separation
and closure. This leads in our mind to the organisation of space as creation of: centres and
places, directions and paths, areas and domains and interactions.
With man being subjectively centred, and the home as a centre of attention, all centres
are places of action. Places have meaning and symbolism, and have their own sense of ter-
ritoriality. Places have private or public characteristics and their own boundaries and sense
of enclosure.

1.4.2 Sense of Direction and Domains

Any place is particularly situated and is linked to other places by paths and a sense of direc-
tion. Generally, this is focused in the horizontal plane but is also sensed vertically due to
the influence of gravity. Paths tend to develop according to the topography best suited for
human movements, eventually forming networks in terms of hodological space or preferred
or direct paths. In earlier times, paths and routes followed natural landmarks and distinc-
tive features and ‘ley’ lines across the countryside, which provided recognised bearings or
routes for travellers.
Paths divide the land into different areas or domains, having differing characteristics.
Domains tend to comprise wider more extensive natural areas of space (e.g. forest, desert,
ocean or lake) having particular ecological or geological characteristics. They may be
bounded by particular edges (e.g. river or beach) and have particular terrain features.
 1.5 Natural Landscape and Sensing 9

1.4.3 Place Creation

As a result, man’s behavioural interaction with the surrounding environment, criss-crossing
the ground by paths to particular places, creates a playground for activities, survival and
nurture. As he settles in places, he finds appropriate dwelling places, which enable him to
sustain on his own nurturing his family and livelihood. As units group together, communi-
ties form and settle in denser patterns.
So, man-made built form results from interaction with the found natural environment,
where the landscape supports human needs, resulting in development. Otherwise he will
move to areas that are more suitable or fertile. Settlements are based on topological relations
from enclosure to dwellings, rooms and focal centres, leading to adaptation and resulting
in accommodation. It is this interaction that leads to the essence of established place and
eventual dwelling, permanence and identity with the particular place.

1.5 Natural Landscape and Sensing

The earth’s surface comprises many landscapes that have evolved over time, due to geo-
logical, climatic or natural forces. Such landscapes have surfaces whose patterns change
throughout the diurnal seasons and daily weathers. As a result, scenes and scenery vary,
resulting in different compositions of shapes, forms, colours and textures. We perceive these
through our own eyes, visually and emotionally, through special associations that generate
their own individual responses.
Our eyes are comforted by restful views, where the field of visual forces is balanced and
the setting is in harmony and creates repose. However, visual compositions may be enriched
by:
– addition of complementary forms,
– framing of views,
– focal points,
– unified groupings,
– rhythmic repetitions,
– colours and textures,
– ‘lines of beauty’,
– mosaic structures,
– tapestry of textures,
– juxtaposition of land and water,
– mix of plants and soils,
– patterns of landscape, etc.
This listing can be extended endlessly if we try to encapsulate all of the different
environments, habitats and natural landscapes around the world. However, suffice it to
say that the mood of each scene is evoked not just by the visual sight of the actual scene,
but complemented by the ecological senses encompassing sound, scent and other feelings.
This is how the most evocative human sensations of places emerge, with the added
emotional response of association and recollections that afford meaning and memory of
the experienced wider world.
10 1 Natural Sites and Places

Further Reading

Cole, E. (ed.) (2002). Grammar of Architecture. Ivy Press.

Glancey, J. (2006). Architecture. Dorling Kindersley.
Irving, M. (ed.) (2007). 1001 Buildings You Must See. Cassell.
Jones, D. (ed.) (2014). Architecture, the Whole Story. Thames & Hudson.
Rasmussen, S. (1959). Experiencing Architecture. MIT Press.
Norberg-Schulz, C. (1971). Existence, Space and Architecture. Praeger.
Semper, G. (1989). Four Elements. Cambridge University Press.
 11

Ecological and Climatic Context and Basic Protection Needs

2.1 Primitive Needs

From the earliest beginnings, man had to survive and this was predicated by having his
basic ‘human needs’ satisfied. Food and shelter were the driving forces, in a nomadic
and sedentary context.
In a primeval environment, man had to find a way to both protect and feed himself – eat,
drink and fight. Protection was needed both from the natural elements and his foes, whether
animal or human, in the form of burrow or shelter.
In a nomadic context, means of fencing were developed to afford defence and then some
forms of woven matting to act as tenting or protection. Whilst quite rude and rustic, grad-
ually methods were found to better secure spaces in horizontal and vertical directions.
In a more sedentary context, the geographic nature and shape of the ground could offer
protection through caves, overhangs or windbreaks. Although primitive and troglodytic,
the ground could be sculpted to act as a defensive site. With fire, and hunting and gathering,
some basic form of existence was quite feasible, enabling further human needs and procre-
ation to be satisfied.
And so, depending on the given indigenous environment, the beginnings of some forms
of shelter were able to be realised, dependent on the locally available materials found, based
upon basic human skills and practicalities from cave to tent and hut.

2.2 Climatic Zones and Natural Materials for Shelter

From very distinct climatic differences in different zones, basic forms of traditional shelter
developed in quite different manners.
From the igloo of the Inuit tribes in Northern Canada, the reed and grass coverings for
the Pacific Islanders, to the stick and canvas tents for nomadic African tribes and aboriginal
peoples, necessarily the form and the look of these quite different solutions varied consid-
erably. In accordance with the climatic region and the available natural local materials,
different indigenous types of built forms started to evolve.

Design and Order: Perceptual Experience of Built Form - Principles in the planning and making of place,
First Edition. Nigel C. Lewis.
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
12 2 Ecological and Climatic Context and Basic Protection Needs

2.2.1 Rock
Earliest evidence of human settlement is found in the caves in Lascaux, France. Both across
Cappadocia and Anatolia in Turkey and Andalusia in Spain, networks of caves were adapted
to serve as ‘homes’, and in Honan, China, areas of loess silt were carved and excavated to
create dwellings.

2.2.2 Stone
In the Mediterranean, in Greek Islands and Italian hill towns, the presence of stone was
incorporated around the natural rock to create homes and dwellings, with vaulting.

2.2.3 Clay
In Mali, the presence of clay was used to create earth buildings, which could be regularly
maintained with mud renewal. Similarly, for the Pueblo, Mexico and in Yemen, vertical
towers were built to benefit from capturing the wind to cool buildings from the intense heat.

2.2.4 Brick
Earliest bricks were made from mud and adobe, but as techniques with materials developed,
clays were filtered to create rich and differently coloured styles of bricks. In different forms,
of fortress or dwelling, bricks were used to construct different protected enclosures.

2.2.5 Timber
In North America, the forests of British Columbia were sourced for strong timbers,
and longhouses and American log cabins were built. In a similar way, Maori houses in
New Zealand, dwelling houses in Bali in the Pacific, minka houses in Japan, round houses
in Samoa and tree houses in New Guinea all profited from the rich growth of hardwoods
in these regions.

2.2.6 Reed, Papyrus and Thatch

In other areas, different materials were plentiful. For example, with reed grass in the
Mesopotamian basin, Bushmen used thatching for roof coverings across Africa. Bamboo in
both China and India could be flexed into different shapes. These were further enhanced
with woven matting and interwoven materials for flooring and walling.

2.2.7 Canvas and Netting

As flax and other materials were developed, string, rope, canvas, cotton, leather and
reed began to become incorporated into elements of shelter. The Indian tepee, the main
Mongolian yurt and the Mauritanian tent all provided protection in the continental
winds.
 2.3 Shelter Types, Uses and Purposes 13

2.3 Shelter Types, Uses and Purposes

Dependent on the climatic regions and the found local natural materials, different types
of shelters came to be created in response to basic human physiological and family needs.
These can be characterised as follows according to the particular needs and uses in the three
different planes:
Roofing: rain and sun protection – Reed and thatch turf
– Woven or canvas tents
– Posts and timber
Walling: wind and animal protection – Reeds and hemp
– Bamboo and palm
– Stone and brick
Flooring: insect, animal and water protection – Sand and gravel
– Stone and rock
– Earth, clay, adobe
With these materials and for these purposes, different types of built forms began to
emerge. Dependent on the context and setting, this led to different dwellings in timber, for
example:
– round or square ground hut,
– post and lintel cabin,
– raised or floating structure on pilotis,
– cruck frame or arch frame building,
– elevated tree house, etc.
Alternatively, buildings in rock, stone or brick include:
– rectangular box,
– vaulted barrel in conical forms,
– pyramidal shape,
– prismatic towers,
– rectilinear units,
– arcaded blocks, loggia, etc.

2.3.1 Uses and Purposes

By virtue of a material’s availability and the essential performance requirements, forms
were constructed in response to particular uses or purposes, for example:
● Defence – fortification
● Enclosure – animals
● Shelter (dwelling) – sleeping
– working
– cooking (chimney)
● Storage (food) – granary barns
– water collection
● Ceremonial – meeting house (spiritual)
– burial
● Power – windmill/watermill
– ventilation
14 2 Ecological and Climatic Context and Basic Protection Needs

Hence, different types of traditional vernacular buildings started to evolve requiring dif-
fering craft and artisanal skills in response to the local culture, traditions, rituals and use
requirements of different people using locally found materials1 .

2.4 Socio-Cultural Factors and Human Needs

Given the context and the natural environment in which humans find themselves, and the
needs and desires of people and their requirements on the cultural, emotional and physical
milieu, any building is dependent on their typical needs, for example:
– General natural aspirations, social organisation and way of life.
– Social and psychological needs and individual and group needs.
– Physiological needs and self-actualisation needs.
– Self-esteem and cognitive and affiliation needs.
– Cultural, ritual, symbolic and personal needs and behaviour.
In terms of the physical context, this is determined by the climate, region, technology and
materials that are available. The greater the degrees of freedom, the greater the choice in
terms of scale and form. Dependent on the levels of criticality, more importance may be
given to cultural, social and psychological factors. There are ways in which humans may
wish to shape their environment, accordingly may be as much due to their inner, social and
religious environment as the environment in which they find themselves.
Hence, a hierarchy can be developed from the more basic physical human needs, leading
to other issues. For example:
– family and affiliation needs,
– social and intellectual needs, and
– physical and fulfilment needs.
These can be converted into particular physical spaces and behaviour settings, for
example:
– sleeping and resting,
– washing and bathing,
– eating and drinking,
– recreation and playing, and
– working and making.
This may be dependent on the type of family organisation, whether patriarchal or matriar-
chal, on requirements for privacy and communality and on the particular needs for women
and children.
Hence, the determinants of the house or dwelling in its settlement begin to be determined
as part of the overall social system in which man inhabits and interacts with fellow humans.
A particular built form is shaped by its setting and context, and how best it fits its purposes
and provides ‘affordances’ for the lives of the people for which it is intended. The better the
built form relates to the natural land form, the better the making of places that afford both
functional and symbolic uses of the space.

1 As nations have passed through different stages of development, we are now encountering re-use of
basic materials from card and wood, and manufactured items such as bottles, cans, steel and tyres.
 2.5 Theory of Human Needs 15

Thus, the built form is to be considered to reflect the patterns of behaviour and the
emotional needs of the community. In terms of perception, besides the physiological and
psychological requirements, the needs of sensory stimulation and social interaction and
communication are to be satisfied. Hence, there is a need for identity and formation of
‘place’ to create a domain for human habitation, in affording shelter and comfort, and
satisfaction of the majority of essential human needs.

2.5 Theory of Human Needs

In seeking to establish a series of basic human needs dependent on a chosen discipline, the
framework is geared to the mode of enquiry. Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ is the dominant
theory and was written under the heading ‘Theory of human motivation’. His five principal
basic needs emanate from a desire to understand behavioural patterns from a psychological
perspective, as he presented a fundamental basis of motivation, along with a sixth sense
concerning intellectual desire (see Exhibit 2.1).

Maslow Leighton Cantril Gross Steele Design

Human Essential Patterns of Needs Org. Physical
motivations striving human development implications
sentiments concerns

Essential needs
Physiological Physical Survival Physical Shelter and Shelter
security, security
sexual
satisfaction
Safety and Security, Safety Social Privacy,
security, order, safety contract territoriality
orientation in
society
Belonging Securing of Identity Belonging, Symbolic Community,
love participation identification access to
services
Esteem Recognition — Affection, Growth, Personalisation
status, respect pleasure
Self- — Capacity for Self-fulfilment — Freedom of
actualisation freedom of choice
choice

Cognitive and aesthetic needs

Cognitive Expressions of — Creativity Growth Developmental
love, hostility, opportunities
spontaneity
Aesthetic — — Beauty Pleasure Aesthetics

Figure 2.1 Essential basic needs. Source: Reproduced with permission of Jon Lang, Urban Design’.
16 2 Ecological and Climatic Context and Basic Protection Needs

Figure 2.2 Hierarchy of human

needs.
Self-actualisation
Needs

Aesthetic Needs

Cognitive Needs

Esteem Needs

Safety Needs

Love and Belonging Needs

Physiological Needs

Leighton used terminology of ‘essential striving sentiments’, each of which has differing
probabilities and importance. It is quite difficult to adopt this theory of sentiments into
a universal statement of needs. Erikson’s ‘eight stages of man’ analyse the psychological
individual identities at each stage of the life cycle. Cantril’s ‘pattern of human concerns’
reflects changes according to the stage of the life cycle and highlights certain commonalities
of human concern. All of these do essentially support Maslow’s basic theory of human needs
and motivation (see Figure 2.1).
Accordingly, Maslow explains that having established his categories of needs, they are
interrelated to a ‘hierarchy of pre-potency’. ‘The most pre-potent goal will monopolise con-
sciousness … (such that) when a need is fairly well satisfied, the next pre-potency (higher)
need emerges’. Thus, the chosen needs are ordered in such a fashion that this evolution of
needs will occur in accordance as they are satisfied (see Figure 2.2).
These hierarchies may differ between individuals and cultures according to certain
behavioural conditions, and in consequence evidence themselves to differing degrees.
Despite these relative variations, any thwarting of these basic human goals is con-
sidered to be a psychological threat and accordingly the hierarchy reflects general
aspirations and human behaviour. This helps to define a framework of human needs
to which our man-made environment aims to contribute in order to assist in fulfilment
(Figure 2.3).
 2.5 Theory of Human Needs 17

Freedom

1 2 3 4

Physiology Safety
Moral
Order

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Body

Belonging - Esteem
Affiliation
Mind Head

13 14 15 16 17 18

Aesthetic Cognitive

19 20 21 22 23 24

Self-actualisation

1 Equality 25 26 27
2 Justice
3 Liberty
4 Humanitarianism 16 Possession of self-esteem
17 To be held in esteem by others
5 Survival, food & water, homeostatis 18 To secure recognition
6 Health & physical development
7 Sleep, relaxation & exercise 19 To sense natural & man-made environments
8 Sense of fulfilment 20 To sense beauty & delight
21 To recognise formal aesthetics
9 Protection from natural elements
10 Protection from the artificial 22 To exhibit perception
11 Protection from human elements 23 To fulfil the intellect
12 Sustained feeling of security 24 To learn and seek meaning

13 To love 25 Self development, to fulfil achievements

14 Sense of belonging and to be loved 26 To fulfil social relationships
15 To maintain membership of human & kinship groups 27 To exhibit individual traits

Figure 2.3 Human needs – behavioural interaction.

18 2 Ecological and Climatic Context and Basic Protection Needs

Exhibit 2.1 Basic Human Needs

If the contextual setting is supposed as a contemporary setting say in the developed
Western world, the needs are expressly stated as for an adult in this context. An overall
umbrella category, denoting desired aspects of ‘freedom’, is used as a necessary prereq-
uisite for enabling essential human needs to be satisfied. These then can be expressed
using Maslow’s hierarchy of pre-potency as follows:

Physiological
This contains essential categories necessary for enabling the sustenance of human life,
that is, eating and drinking, and the input of oxygen, food and water to fulfil the body’s
biological functions. Also necessary are further individual behavioural activities of loco-
motion, walking, resting and sleeping.
The behavioural pattern linking the hierarchy is safety, which becomes the next level
of pre-potency.
(For each category, the basic need as stated is shown in the diagram, Figure 2.2, fol-
lowed by a behavioural pattern in verbal form.)

Safety/Security
More intuitive elements of need are used to describe the behavioural patterns of safety.
The linking pattern in the hierarchy is Leighton’s sentiment of ‘having a sense of belong-
ing to a moral order’, which qualifies each individual need.

Love/Belonging
As another need, love and belonging is divided into categories of giving and receiving.

Self-Esteem/Esteem of Others
This category of need is divided between the individual’s possession of one’s own
self-esteem and need also to be held in self-esteem by others.

Self-Actualisation
This in part is related to the self-esteem category mentioned earlier. In addition, indi-
vidual behaviour patterns and those related to social relationships are identified. This
category leads to subsequent cognitive intellectual needs.
 Further Reading 19

Cognitive/Aesthetic Needs
These needs are separated according to perceptual, intellectual and learning categories.
All of the above-mentioned ‘needs’ are considered to constitute a useful framework for
the definition of basic human needs. In general, each need must be satisfied before the
next need can fully motivate us, as in the daily life of activities we ascend and descend
the ladder searching for fulfilment.

Further Reading

Brunskill, R.W. (1971). Vernacular Architecture. Faber & Faber.

Cantril, H. (1965). Pattern of Human Concerns. Princeton.
Erikson, E. (1959). Identity and the Life Cycle. International Universities Press.
Maslow, A. (1943). A theory of motivation. Psychological Review 50 p 370–396.
Norberg-Schulz, C. (1975). Meaning in Western Architecture. Praeger.
Rapoport, A. (1969). House, Form and Culture. Prentice Hall.
Rudofsky, B. (1964). Architecture Without Architects. University of New Mexico.
Tuan, Y.-F. (1974). Topophilia. Columbia University Press.
 21

Historical and Regional Development

3.1 Historic Eras and Development

The general tendency over time for man was to move, settle and rest in preferred loca-
tions having particular features, in order to benefit from a more secure and productive
environment. Such settlements in better ground, affording a sense of territoriality, enabled
the division of labour, animal husbandry, crop development and building to occur.
In Palaeolithic times, despite the emphasis on survival, with low life expectancy, there
was emphasis on ceremonial concern for the dead. This led to caverns, barrows and burial
mounds, which became familiar landmarks. The practices of gathering of people are evi-
denced in cave paintings of the time.
This also led to more monumental features and creation of large stones in formations
and symbols to celebrate the dead. With settlement, groups of dwellings and hamlets devel-
oped, with family groups pursuing activities of animal hunting and grazing, food gathering
and storing.
In Mesolithic times (>10 000 BC), animal and fish culture and food plants were devel-
oped, affording better diet along with the sowing of seeds and plants. As animal utilisation
also increased, mobility improved and hunting and grazing ranges extended. With more
permanence, domestication occurred and maternal and reproductive functions evolved
around the settlement.
In Neolithic times (8000 BC), new tools were fabricated and developed around the village
for men from hunting bows and spears to stone hammers, axes and chisels. For women,
containers, water jars and pottery vases were used for storage in granaries. These containers
and earthenware pottery became particularly significant for storing any surplus food. And
so, permanent settlements grew and expanded to comprise shelter, storage and protection,
and to provide succour to growing families.

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First Edition. Nigel C. Lewis.
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reply and calmly strode off to his cottage to collect his belongings.
The Bride, also, listened with apparent composure to the dismissal.
On breaking with Tikhon Ilitch she had resumed her habit of
maintaining silence and never looking him in the eye. But half an
hour later, when he had got everything together, Rodka came,
accompanied by her, to ask forgiveness. The Bride remained standing
on the threshold, pale, her eyes swollen with weeping, and held her
peace; Rodka bowed his head, fumbled with his cap, and also made
an effort to weep,—it resulted in a repulsive grimace,—but Tikhon
Ilitch sat at the table with lowering brows and rattled the balls on his
abacus, shaking his head the while. Not one of the three could raise
his eyes—especially the Bride, who felt herself the most guilty of
them all—and their entreaties were unavailing. Tikhon Ilitch showed
mercy on one point only: he did not deduct the price of the straps
from their wages.
Now he was on a firm foundation. Having got rid of Rodka and
transferred his affairs to his brother’s charge, he felt alert, at his
ease. “My brother is unreliable, a trifling fellow, apparently, but he’ll
do for the present!” And returning to Vorgol he bustled about
unweariedly through the whole month of October. Nastasya Petrovna
was ailing all the time—her feet, hands, and face were swollen and
yellow—and Tikhon Ilitch now began to meditate at times on the
possibility of her dying, and bore himself with increasing lenience to
her weakness, to her uselessness in all affairs connected with the
house and the shop. And, as though in harmony with his mood,
magnificent weather prevailed during the whole of October. But
suddenly it broke up and was followed by storms and torrents of
rain; and in Durnovka something utterly unexpected came to pass.
During October Rodka had been working on the railway line, and the
Bride had been sitting, without work, at home, enduring the
reproaches of her mother and only occasionally earning fifteen or
twenty kopeks in the garden of the manor. But her behaviour was
peculiar: at home she said never a word, but only wept, and in the
garden she was shrilly merry, shouted with laughter, sang songs with
Donka the Goat, an extremely stupid and pretty little girl who
resembled an Egyptian. The Goat was living with a petty burgher
who had leased the garden, while the Bride, who for some reason or
other had struck up a friendship with her, made bold eyes at her
brother, an impudent youth, and as she ogled him hinted in song that
she was wasting away with love for some one. Whether anything
occurred between them was not known, but the whole affair ended
in a great catastrophe. When the petty burghers were departing for
the town just before the Feast of Our Lady of Kazan they arranged
an “evening party” in their watchman’s hut, invited the Goat and the
Bride, played all night on two peasant pipes, fed their guests with
crude delicacies, and gave them tea and vodka for beverages. And at
dawn, when their cart was already harnessed, they suddenly, with
roars of laughter, flung the intoxicated Bride on the ground, bound
her arms, lifted her petticoats, tied them in a knot over her head,
and began to fasten them securely there with a cord. The Goat
started to run away, and made a headlong dive in her fright into the
tall, wet steppe-grass. When she peeped out from that shelter, after
the cart with the petty burghers had rolled briskly away out of the
garden, she espied the Bride, naked to the waist, hanging from a
tree. The dawn was dreary and overcast; a fine rain was whispering
through the garden. The Goat wept in streams, and her teeth
chattered as she untied the Bride from the tree, vowing by the
memory of her father and mother that lightning might kill her, the
Goat, but never should they discover in the village what had taken
place in the garden. Nevertheless, not a week had elapsed before
rumours concerning the Bride’s disgrace became current in
Durnovka.
It was impossible, of course, to verify these rumours: “As for seeing
it—why, nobody saw it. Well, and the Goat’s tongue was hung in the
middle when it came to telling absurd tales.” The Bride herself, who
had aged five years in that one week, replied to them with such
insolent vituperation that even her own mother was terrified by her
face at such moments. But the discussions provoked by the rumours
did not cease, and every one awaited with immense impatience the
arrival of Rodka and his chastisement of his wife. Much agitated—
once more jarred out of his rut—Tikhon Ilitch also awaited that
impending chastisement, having heard from his own labourers of
what had occurred in the garden. Why, that scandal might end in
murder! But it ended in such a manner that it is still a matter of
doubt which would have startled the Durnovka folks more powerfully
—murder, or such a termination. On the night before the Feast of St.
Michael, Rodka, who had returned home “to change his shirt,” and
who had not laid a finger on the Bride, died suddenly of “stomach
trouble”! This became known in Vorgol late in the evening; but
Tikhon Ilitch instantly gave orders to harness his horse, and drove at
top speed, through the darkness and the rain, to his brother. And
after having gulped down, on top of his tea, a whole bottle of fruit
brandy, he made confession to him, in his burning excitement, with
passionate expressions, and eyes wildly rolling: “’Tis my fault,
brother; the sin is mine!”
Having heard him out, Kuzma held his peace for a long time, and for
a long time paced up and down the room plucking at his fingers,
twisting them, cracking their joints. At last he said: “Just think it
over: is there any nation more ferocious than ours? In town, if a
petty thief snatches from a hawker’s tray a pancake worth a farthing,
the whole population of the eating-house section pursues him, and
when they catch him they force him to eat soap. The whole town
turns out for a fire, or a fight, and how sorry they are that the fire or
the fight is so soon ended! Don’t shake your head, don’t do it: they
are sorry! And how they revel in it when some one beats his wife to
death, or thrashes a small boy within an inch of his life, or jeers at
him! That’s the most amusing thing in the world.”
Tikhon Ilitch inquired: “What’s your object in saying that?”
“Just for the sake of talking!” replied Kuzma, angrily, and went on:
“Take that half-witted girl, Fesha, who wanders about Durnovka, for
example. The young fellows squander their last coppers on her—put
her down on the village common and set to work whacking her over
her cropped head, at the rate of ten whacks for a farthing! And is
that done out of ill-nature? Yes, out of ill-nature, certainly; and also
from a sort of stupidity, curse it! Well, and that’s the case with the
Bride.”
“Bear in mind,” interrupted Tikhon Ilitch hotly, “that there are always
plenty of blackguards and blockheads everywhere.”
“Exactly so. And didn’t you yourself bring that—well, what’s his
name?”
“Duck-headed Motya, you mean?” asked Tikhon Ilitch.
“Yes, that’s it. Didn’t you bring him here for your own amusement?”
And Tikhon Ilitch burst out laughing: he had done that very thing.
Once, even, Motya had been sent to him by the railway in a sugar-
cask. The town was only about an arm’s length distant, and he knew
the officials—so they sent the man to him. And the inscription on the
cask ran: “With care. A complete Fool.”
“And these same fools are taught vices, for amusement!” Kuzma
went on bitterly.—“The yard-gates of poor brides are smeared with
tar! Beggars are hunted with dogs! For amusement, pigeons are
knocked off roofs with stones! Yet, as you know, ’tis a great sin to
eat those same pigeons. The Holy Spirit Himself assumes the form of
a dove, you see!”

XIII

T HE samovar had long since grown cold, the candle had guttered
down, smoke hung over the room in a dull blue cloud, the slop-
basin was filled to the very brim with soggy, reeking cigarette butts.
The ventilator—a tin pipe in the upper corner of the window—was
open, and once in a while a squeaking and a whirling and a terribly
tiresome wailing proceeded from it—just like the one in the District
offices, Tikhon Ilitch said to himself. But the smoke was so dense
that ten ventilators would have been of no avail. The rain rattled on
the roof and Kuzma strode from corner to corner and talked:
“Ye-es! a nice state of things, there’s no denying it! Indescribable
kindliness! If you read history, your hair rises upright in horror:
brother pitted against brother, kinsman against kinsman, son against
father—treachery and murder, murder and treachery. The Epic
legends, too, are a sheer delight: ‘he slit his white breast,’ ‘he let his
bowels out on the ground,’ ‘Ilya did not spare his own daughter; he
stepped on her left foot, and pulled her right foot.’ And the songs?
The same thing, always the same: the stepmother is ‘wicked and
greedy’; the father-in-law, ‘harsh and quarrelsome,’ sits on the
sleeping-shelf above the stove, ‘just like a dog on a rope’; the
mother-in-law, equally wicked, sits on the stove ‘just like a bitch on a
chain’; the sisters-in-law are invariably ‘young dogs and tricksters’;
the brothers-in-law are ‘malicious scoffers’; the husband is ‘either a
fool or a drunkard’; the ‘old father-in-law bids him beat his wife
soundly, until her hide drops off to her heels’; while the wife, having
‘scrubbed the floor’ for this same old man, ‘ladled out the sour
cabbage-soup, scraped the threshold clean, and baked turnover-
patties,’ addresses this sort of a speech to her husband: ‘Get up, you
disgusting fellow, wake up: here’s dish-water, wash yourself; here are
your leg-wrappers, wipe yourself; here’s a bit of rope, hang yourself.’
And our adages, Tikhon Ilitch! Could anything more lewd and filthy
be invented? And our proverbs! ‘One man who has been soundly
thrashed is worth two who have not been.’ ‘Simplicity is worse than
thieving.’”
“So, according to you, the best way for a man to live is like an arrant
fool?” inquired Tikhon Ilitch with a sneer.
And Kuzma joyfully snapped up his words: “Well, that’s right, that’s
the idea! There’s nothing in the whole world so beggar-bare as we
are, and on the other hand there’s nobody more insolent on the
ground of that same nakedness. What’s the vicious way to insult a
person? Accuse ’em of poverty! Say: ‘You devil! You haven’t a morsel
to eat.’ Here’s an illustration: Deniska—well, I mean the son of Syery,
he’s a cobbler—said to me the other day—”
“Wait a minute,” interrupted Tikhon Ilitch. “How’s Syery himself
getting on?”
“Deniska says he’s ‘perishing with hunger.’”
“A good-for-nothing peasant!” said Tikhon Ilitch with conviction.
“Don’t sing any of your songs about him to me.”
“I’m not singing!” retorted Kuzma angrily. “But I ought to do it. For
his name is Krasoff. However, that’s another story. You’d better listen
to what I have to say about Deniska. Well, he told me this:
‘Sometimes, in a famine year, we foremen would go to the
neighbourhood of the cemetery in the Black Suburb; and there those
public women were—regular troops of them. And they were hungry,
the lean hags, extremely hungry! If you gave one of them half a
pound of bread for her work she’d devour it to the last crumb, there
under you. It was downright ridiculous!’ Take note,” cried Kuzma
sternly, pausing: “‘It was downright ridiculous’!”
“Oh, stop it, for Christ’s sake!” Tikhon Ilitch interrupted again. “Give
me a chance to say a word about business!”
Kuzma stopped short. “Well, talk away,” said he. “Only, what are you
going to say? Tell him ‘You ought to do thus and so’? Not a bit of it!
If you give him money—that’s the end of it. Just think it over: they
have no fuel, they have nothing to eat, nothing to pay for a funeral.
That means,’tis your most sacred duty to give them some money—
well, and something more to boot: a few potatoes, a wagon-load or
two of straw. And hire the Bride. Send her here as my cook.”
And immediately Tikhon Ilitch felt as though a stone had been rolled
off his breast. He hastily drew out his purse, plucked out a ten-ruble
banknote, joyfully assented also to all the other suggestions. And
suddenly he asked once more, in a rapid distressed voice: “But didn’t
she poison him?”
Kuzma merely shrugged his shoulders by way of reply.
Whether she had poisoned him or not, it was a terrible matter to
think about. And Tikhon Ilitch went home as soon as it was light,
through the chill, misty morning, when the odour of damp threshing-
floors and smoke still hung in the air, while the cocks were crowing
sleepily in the haze-wrapped village, and the dogs lay sleeping on the
porches, and the old faded-yellow turkey still snoozed roosting on
the bough of an apple tree half stripped of its discoloured dead
autumn leaves, by the side of a house. In the fields nothing could be
seen at a distance of two paces, thanks to the dense white fog
driven before the wind. Tikhon Ilitch felt no desire to sleep, but he
did feel exhausted, and as usual whipped up his horse, a large brown
mare with her tail tied up; she was soaked with the moisture and
appeared leaner, more dandified, and blacker because of it. He
turned his head away from the wind and raised the cold wet collar of
his overcoat on the right side, all glistening like silver under tiny
pearls of rain which covered it with a thick veil. He observed, through
the cold little drops which hung on his eyelashes, how the sticky
black loam was churned up in ever-increasing density by his swiftly-
revolving wheels, and how clods of mud, spurting high in a regular
fountain, hung in the air and did not disperse; how they already
began to adhere to his boots and knees. And he darted a glance at
the heaving haunches of his horse; at her ears laid flat back against
her head and darkened by the rain. And when, at last, his face
streaked with mud, he dashed up to his own house, the first thing
that met his eyes was Yakoff’s horse at the hitching-bar. Hastily
knotting the reins on the fore-carriage, he sprang from the runabout,
ran to the open door of the shop—and halted abruptly in terror.
“Blo-ockhead!” Nastasya Petrovna was saying from her place behind
the counter, in evident imitation of himself, Tikhon Ilitch, but in an
ailing, caressing voice, as she bent lower and lower over the money-
drawer and fumbled along the jingling coppers, unable, in the
darkness, to find coins for change. “Blockhead! Where could you get
it any cheaper, at the present time?” And, not finding the change,
she straightened up and looked at Yakoff, who stood before her in
cap and overcoat, but barefoot. She stared at his slightly elevated
face and scraggy beard of indeterminate hue, and added: “But didn’t
she poison him?”
And Yakoff mumbled in haste: “That’s no affair of ours, Petrovna.
The devil only knows. It’s none of our business. Our business, for
example—”
And Tikhon Ilitch’s hands shook all day long as that mumbling
answer recurred to his mind. Everybody, everybody, thought she had
poisoned him!
Fortunately, the secret remained a secret. The Sacrament was
administered to Rodka before he died. And the Bride wailed so
sincerely as she followed the coffin that it was positively indecent—
for, of course, that wailing should not be an expression of the
feelings, but the fulfilment of a rite. And little by little Tikhon Ilitch’s
perturbation subsided. But for a long time still he continued to go
about more gloomy than a thunder-cloud.

XIV

H E was immersed to the throat in business—as usual—and he had

no one to help him. Nastasya Petrovna was of very little
assistance. Tikhon Ilitch never hired any labourers except “summer-
workers” who were taken on merely until the cattle were driven
home from pasturage, and they were already dispersed. Only the
servants by the year remained—the cook, the old watchman
nicknamed “Chaff,” and Oska, a lad of seventeen who was both lazy
and ugly of disposition, “the Tsar of Heaven’s dolt”—a most
egregious fool. And how much attention the cattle alone demanded!
After the necessary sheep were slaughtered and salted down, twenty
remained to be cared for over the winter. There were six black boar-
pigs in the sty, eternally sullen and discontented over something or
other. In the barns stood three cows, a young bull, and a red calf. In
the yard were eleven horses, and in a box-stall stood a grey stallion,
a vicious, heavy, full-maned, broad-chested brute—a half-breed, but
worth four hundred rubles: his sire had a certificate, and was worth
fifteen hundred. And all these required constant and careful
oversight. But in his leisure moments Tikhon Ilitch was devoured by
melancholy and boredom.
The very sight of Nastasya Petrovna irritated him, and he was
constantly urging her to go away for a visit with acquaintances in the
town. And at last she made her preparations and went. But after she
was gone, somehow, he found things more boresome than ever.
After seeing her off, Tikhon Ilitch wandered aimlessly over the fields.
Along the highway, gun over shoulder, came the chief of the post-
office at Ulianovka, Sakharoff, famed because of his passion for
ordering by letter free price-lists—catalogues of guns, seeds, musical
instruments—and because of his manner of treating the peasants,
which was so savage that they were wont to say: “When you pass in
a letter, your hands and feet fairly shake!” Tikhon Ilitch went to the
edge of the highway to meet him. Elevating his brows, he gazed at
the postmaster and said to himself: “A fool of an old man. He slumps
along through the mud like an elephant.” But he called out, in
friendly tones:
“Been hunting, Anton Markitch?”
The postmaster halted. Tikhon Ilitch approached and gave him a
formal greeting. “Had any luck, or not, I say?” he inquired,
mockingly.
“Hunting, indeed! Nothing to hunt!” gloomily replied the postmaster,
a huge, round-shouldered man with thick grey hairs protruding from
his ears and his nostrils, huge eye-sockets, and deeply sunken eyes
—a regular gorilla. “I merely strolled out on account of my
hæmorrhoids,” he said, pronouncing the last word with special care.
“But bear in mind,” retorted Tikhon Ilitch with unexpected heat,
stretching forth his hand with the fingers outspread, “bear in mind
that our countryside has been completely devastated! Not so much
as the name of bird or beast is left, sir!”
“The forests have all been cut down,” remarked the postmaster.
“I should think they had been cut down, forsooth! Shaved off close
to the earth!” Tikhon Ilitch corroborated him. And all of a sudden he
added: “’Tis moulting, sir! Everything is moulting, sir!”
Why that word broke loose from his tongue, Tikhon Ilitch himself did
not know, but he felt that, nevertheless, it had not been uttered
without reason. “Everything’s moulting,” he said to himself, “exactly
like the cattle after a long, hard winter.” And after he had parted
from the postmaster he stood long on the highway, involuntarily
gazing about him. The rain had again begun to patter down; a
disagreeable, damp wind was blowing. Darkness was descending
over the rolling fields—the fields sown with winter-grain, the
ploughed fields, the stubble-fields, and the light brown groves of
young trees.
The gloomy sky descended lower and lower over the earth. The
roads, flooded by the rain, gleamed with a leaden sheen. The post-
train from Moscow, which was an hour and a half late every day, was
due at the station. Only from the signal-bells, the humming sounds,
the rumbling, and the odour of coal and samovars in the yards, did
Tikhon Ilitch know that it had arrived and departed, for buildings
screened the station from view. The odour of samovars now
remained, and that aroused a dim longing for comfort, a warm clean
room, a family—or the desire to go away somewhere or other.
But this feeling was suddenly replaced by amazement. From the bare
Ulianovka forest a man emerged and directed his steps towards the
highway—a man in a round-topped hat and only a short roundabout
coat. On looking more closely, Tikhon Ilitch recognized Zhikhareff,
the son of a wealthy land-owner, who had long since become a
thoroughgoing drunkard. His heart contracted with pain. “Well, it
makes no difference,” thought Tikhon Ilitch sadly. “’Twill be best to
chat a bit with him and, in case of need, give him half a ruble. ’Tis
not worth while to anger the vagabond: he’s a spiteful fellow.”
But on this occasion Zhikhareff approached in a decidedly arrogant
frame of mind, bristling, but with his head, in its beggar’s hat,
thrown back, and chewing between his clenched jaws the mouth end
of a cigarette, long since smoked out and extinct. His face was blue
with the cold, puffy with drunkenness; his eyes were red, and his
mustache disheveled. He had turned up the collar of his short coat,
which was buttoned to the chin, and, with the tips of his fingers
thrust into the pockets, he was splashing along in a spirited manner
through the mud. His rusty, dilapidated high boots projected below
his short trousers, which were tightly strained over his knees.
“A—ah!” he drawled through his teeth, as he chewed his cigarette-
butt. “Whom do I see? Tikhon Fomitch[10] is looking over his
domains!” And he emitted a hoarse laugh.
“Good-day, Lyeff Lvovitch,” replied Tikhon Ilitch. “Are you waiting for
the train?”
“Yes, I am—and I never seem to hit it,” returned Zhikhareff,
shrugging his shoulders. “I’ve been waiting and waiting, and I got so
bored that I’ve been making the forester a little visit. We’ve been
chattering and smoking. But I’ve still a whole eternity to wait! Shall
we not meet at the station? I believe you are fond of putting
something behind your collar yourself?”
“God has been gracious,” replied Tikhon Ilitch, in the same tone he
had used before. “As for drinking—why shouldn’t a man drink a bit?
Only, he must pick the proper time.”
“Fudge and nonsense!” said Zhikhareff hoarsely, skipping across a
puddle with considerable agility, and he directed his course towards
the railway station at a leisurely pace.
His aspect was pitiful, and Tikhon Ilitch gazed long and with disgust
at his inadequate trousers, which hung down like bags from beneath
his short coat.

XV

D URING the night the rain poured down again, and it was so dark
you could not see your hand before your face. Tikhon Ilitch slept
badly and gritted his teeth in torture. He had a chill—evidently he
had taken cold by standing on the highway in the evening—and the
overcoat which he had thrown over himself slid off upon the floor,
and immediately he dreamed the same thing he had always dreamed
ever since childhood, whenever his back was cold: twilight, narrow
alleys, a hurrying throng, firemen galloping along in heavy carts
drawn by vicious black truck-horses. Once he woke up, struck a
match, looked at the ticking clock—it showed the hour of three—and
picked up the overcoat; and, as he fell asleep, the thought of
Zhikhareff once more recurred distressingly to his mind. And athwart
his slumbers a persistent thought obsessed him: that the shop was
being looted and the horses driven away.
Sometimes it seemed to him that he was at the Dankova posting-
station, that the nocturnal rain was pattering on the pent-house over
the gate, and that the little bell above it was being pulled and was
ringing incessantly—thieves had come and had led thither, through
the impenetrable darkness, his splendid stallion, and if they were to
discover his presence there, they would murder him. And again
consciousness of the reality would return to him. But even the reality
was alarming. The old watchman was walking about under the
windows with his mallet, but it seemed as if he were far, far away; as
if the sheep-dog, with choking growls, were rending some one—had
rushed off into the fields with tempestuous barking, and suddenly
had presented himself again under the windows and was trying to
rouse him by standing on one spot and barking violently. Then
Tikhon Ilitch started to go out and see what was the matter, whether
everything were as it should be. But as soon as he reached the point
of making up his mind to rise, the heavy slanting rain began to rattle
more thickly and densely than ever against the small dark windows,
driven by the wind from the dark and boundless fields, and sleep
seemed to him the most precious thing in the world. At last a door
banged, a stream of damp, cold air entered, and the watchman,
Chaff, dragged a bundle of rustling straw into the vestibule. Tikhon
Ilitch opened his eyes: it was six o’clock, the daylight was dull and
wet, the tiny windows were misted over with moisture.
“Make a little fire, my good man, make a little fire,” said Tikhon Ilitch,
his voice still hoarse with sleep. “Then we’ll go and feed the cattle,
and you can go to your place and sleep.”
The old man, who had grown thin over night and all blue with cold,
the dampness, and fatigue, gazed at him with sunken dead eyes. In
his wet cap, his short rain-drenched outer coat, and his ragged bast-
slippers soaked with mud and water, he growled out something in a
dull tone as he got down with difficulty on his knees in front of the
stove, stuffing it with the cold, fragrant bundle of straw and blowing
on the lighted mass.
“Well, has the cow bitten your tongue off?” shouted Tikhon Ilitch
hoarsely, as he climbed out of bed and picked up his coat from the
floor. “What’s that you’re muttering there to yourself?”
“I’ve been walking all night long, and now it’s ‘give the cattle their
fodder,’” mumbled the old man without raising his head, as if talking
to himself.
Tikhon Ilitch looked askance at him: “I saw the way you walked
about!”
He felt worn out; nevertheless he put on his coat and, conquering a
petty fit of shivering in his bowels, went out on the porch, which was
covered with the footprints of the dogs, into the icy chill of the pale
stormy morning. Everywhere the ground was flooded with lead-
coloured puddles; all the walls had turned dark with the rain.
“A nice lot; these workmen!” he said to himself angrily.
It was barely drizzling. “But surely it will be pouring again by noon,”
he said to himself. And he glanced with surprise at shaggy Buyan,
who dashed toward him from under the granary. His paws were
muddy, but he himself was boiling with excitement, his eyes were
sparkling, his tongue was fresh and red as fire, his healthy hot breath
fairly exuding the odour of dog. And that after racing about and
barking all night long!
He took Buyan by the collar and, slopping through the mud, made
the rounds, inspecting all the locks. Then he chained the dog under
the granary, returned to his ante-room, and glanced into the roomy
kitchen, the cottage proper. The cottage had a hot, repulsive odour;
the cook lay fast asleep on a bare box-bench, beneath the holy
pictures, her face covered with her apron, her loins displayed, and
her legs clad in huge old felt boots, the soles thickly plastered with
the dirt from the earthen floors. Oska lay on the sleeping-board face
downward, fully dressed, in his short sheepskin coat and his bast-
slippers, his head buried in a heavy, soiled pillow.
“That devil has been at the lad!” thought Tikhon Ilitch with disgust.
“Just look at her—at her nasty debauch all night long—and towards
morning, off she goes to the bench!”
And after a survey of the black walls, the tiny windows, the tub filled
with dirty dish-water, the huge broad-shouldered stove, he shouted
loudly and harshly: “Hey, there! My noble lords! You ought to know
when you’ve had enough!”
While the cook, scratching herself and yawning, heated the stove,
boiled some potatoes for the pigs, and got the samovar alight, Oska,
minus his cap and stumbling with sleep, dragged bran for the horses
and cows. Tikhon Ilitch himself unlocked the creaking doors of the
stable and was the first to enter its warm, dirty comfort, surrounded
by sheds, enclosures, and styes. The stable was ankle-deep in
manure. Dung, urine, and rain had all run together and formed a
thick, light-brown fluid. The horses, already darkening with their
velvety winter coats, were roaming about under the pent-houses.
The sheep, of a dirty-grey hue, were huddled in an agitated mass in
one corner. An old brown gelding dozed in isolation alongside his
empty manger, smeared with dough. The drizzling rain fell and fell
interminably upon the square farmyard from the unfriendly, stormy
sky, but the gelding paid no heed to anything. The pigs moaned and
grunted in an ailing, persistent way in their pen.
“’Tis deadly boresome!” thought Tikhon Ilitch, and immediately
emitted a fierce yell at the old man, who was dragging along a
bundle of grain-straw: “Why are you dragging that through the mud,
you vile profligate?”
The old man flung the bundle of straw on the ground, looked him
over, and all at once remarked quietly: “I’m listening to a vile
profligate.”
Tikhon Ilitch cast a swift glance around, to see whether the lad had
gone out, and, on convincing himself that he had, stepped up to the
old man and with apparent calmness gave him such a thwack in the
teeth that his head shook to and fro, seized him by the collar, and
hustled him to the gate with all his might. “Begone!” he bawled,
panting for breath and turning as white as chalk. “Don’t let me ever
catch so much as the smell of you here in the future, you cursed
tatterdemalion!”
The old man flew through the gate, and five minutes later, his bag on
his shoulders and a stick in his hand, he was striding along the
highway to his home in Ulianovka. Meanwhile Tikhon Ilitch, with
shaking hands, had watered the stallion, had himself given the
animal his portion of fresh oats—he had merely turned yesterday’s
oats over with his muzzle and slobbered on them—and with long
strides, through the liquid mess and the manure, had betaken
himself to his cottage.
“Are things ready?” he inquired, opening the door a crack.
“There’s no hurry!” snarled the cook.
The cottage was beclouded with a warm, sweetish steam emanating
from the pot where the potatoes were boiling. The cook, assisted by
the lad, was energetically mashing them with a pestle, sprinkling in
flour the while, and Tikhon Ilitch did not hear the reply because of
the noise. Slamming the door, he went to drink his tea.

XVI

I N the tiny ante-room he pushed aside with his foot a heavy, dirty
horsecloth which lay across the threshold and went to one corner,
where, over a stool surmounted by a pewter basin, a brass
washstand was fastened, while on a small shelf lay a small, clammy
piece of cocoanut-oil soap. As he rattled the water-tank, squinted,
frowned, and puffed out his nostrils, he was not able to refrain from
a malicious fugitive glance, and he remarked with peculiar
distinctness: “H’m! No, who ever saw the like of the labourers?
There’s no getting on with them at all nowadays! Say one word to
such a fellow, and he’ll come back at you with ten words! Say a
dozen to him, and he’ll fling you back a hundred! They’re gone dead
crazy! Though it isn’t summer time, there’s plenty of you to be had,
you devils! You’ll want something to eat for the winter, brother—
you’ll come, you son of a dog, you’ll co-ome, and bow lo-o-ow in
entreaty!”
The towel, which served for the master as well as for the lodger-
travellers, had been hanging beside the water-tank since St.
Michael’s Day. It was so filthy that Tikhon Ilitch gritted his teeth
when he looked at it. “Okh!” he ejaculated, closing his eyes and
shaking his head. “Ugh! Holy Mother, Queen of Heaven!” And hurling
the towel on the floor, he wiped himself on the embroidered skirt of
his shirt, which flapped outside his waistcoat.
Two doors opened from the ante-room. One, on the left, led to the
room assigned to travellers, which was long, half-dark, and with tiny
windows that looked out on the barn; in it stood two large divans,
hard as stone, covered with black oilcloth, filled more than full with
living and with crushed and dried bugs, while on the partition-wall
hung the portrait of some general with fierce beaver-like side
whiskers. This portrait was bordered with small portraits of heroes of
the Russo-Turkish war, and underneath was an inscription: “Long will
our children and our dear Slavic brethren remember the glorious
deeds; how our father, the courageous Suleiman Pasha, crushed and
conquered the treacherous foemen and marched with his lads along
such crags as only clouds and the feathered Kings of the air were
wont to scale.” The second door led into the master’s room. There,
on the right alongside the door, glittered the glass of a cupboard, on
the left a stove-bench gleamed white; the stove had cracked at some
past day, and over the white it had been smeared with clay, which
had imparted to it the outline of something resembling a thin,
dislocated man, which seriously displeased Tikhon Ilitch. Beyond the
stove rose aloft a double bed: above the bed was nailed up a rug of
dull-green and brick-coloured wool, bearing the image of a tiger with
whiskers and ears which stood erect like those of a cat. Opposite the
door, against the wall, stood a chest of drawers covered with a
knitted tablecloth, and on the tablecloth Nastasya Petrovna’s
wedding-casket. In the casket lay contracts with the labourers, phials
containing medicines long since spoiled with age, matches.
“Wanted in the shop!” screamed the cook, opening the door a crack.
“There’s no hurry—the goats in the bazaar can wait!” replied Tikhon
Ilitch wrathfully—but he hurried out.
The distance was veiled by a watery mist; the effect resembled that
of twilight. The rain still drizzled on, but the wind had veered round;
it was now blowing from the North, and the air had grown colder.
The freight train, which was just pulling out of the station, rattled
more cheerfully and resoundingly than it had for many days past.
“’Morning, Ilitch,” said the hare-lipped peasant, who was holding a
wet piebald horse at the porch, as he nodded his soaking fur cap,
which was of the tall Mandzhurian shape.
“’Morning,” nodded Tikhon Ilitch, casting a sidelong glance at the
strong white tooth which gleamed through the peasant’s cleft lip.
“What do you need?” And, hastily providing the salt and kerosene
required, he hurried back to his chamber. “The dogs, they don’t give
a man time to make the sign of the cross on his brow!” he grumbled
as he went.
The samovar, which stood on a table against the partition-wall, was
bubbling and boiling hard; the small mirror which hung above the
table was enveloped in a thin layer of white steam. The windows and
the chromo-lithograph which was nailed to the wall under the mirror
—it depicted a giant in a yellow kaftan and red morocco boots, with
a Russian banner in his hand, from beneath which peeped the towers
and domes of the Moscow Kremlin—were also veiled in steam.
Photographic portraits framed in shell-work surrounded this picture.
In the place of honour hung the portrait of a priest in a moiré
cassock, with a small, sparse beard, plump cheeks, and extremely
small penetrating eyes. And, with a glance at him, Tikhon Ilitch
crossed himself violently towards the holy pictures in the corner.
Then he removed from the samovar a smoke-begrimed teapot and
poured out a cup of tea, which smelled very much like a steamed
bathroom.
“They don’t give a man a chance to cross himself,” he said, wrinkling
his face with the expression of a person suffering martyrdom. “They
fairly cut my throat, curse them!”
It seemed as if there were something which he ought to call to mind,
to take under consideration, or as if he ought simply to go to bed
and get a good sleep. He longed for warmth, repose, clearness,
firmness of thought. He rose, went to the glass cupboard with its
rattling panes and cups and saucers, and took from one of the
shelves a bottle of liqueur flavoured with mountain-ash berries and a
cask-shaped glass on which was inscribed: “Even monks take this.”
“But perhaps I oughtn’t,” he said aloud. However, he lacked firmness.
Through his mind, against his will, flashed the old saw: “Drink and
you’ll die, and don’t drink and you’ll die just the same.” So he poured
out a glassful and tossed it off, poured out another and gulped that
down, also. And, munching at a thick cracknel, he sat down at the
table.
He became conscious of an agreeable burning sensation inside, and
eagerly sipped the boiling tea from his saucer, sucking at a lump of
sugar which he held in his teeth. He felt better, so far as his body
was concerned. But his soul went on living its own life, which was
both gloomy and melancholy. Thoughts followed thoughts, but there
was no sense in them. As he sipped his tea, he cast an abstracted
and suspicious glance sidelong at the partition-wall, at the man in
the yellow kaftan, at the photographs in the shell-work frames, and
even at the priest in his watered-silk cassock. “Lerigion means
nothing to us pigs!” he said to himself; and, as though by way of
justifying himself to some one, he added roughly: “Just you try living
in the village, and drinking sparkling kvas, like us!”
As he gazed askance at the priest he felt that everything was
dubious; even his habitual reverence for that priest seemed doubtful,
not founded on reason. When one really came to think about it....
But at this point he made haste to transfer his glance to the Moscow
Kremlin. “Shame on me!” he muttered. “I’ve never been in Moscow
since I was born!” No, he had not. And why? His pigs wouldn’t let
him! Now it was his petty trading which hindered, now the posting-
station, then the pot-house, then Durnovka. And now he could not
get away because of the stallion and the boar-pigs. But why speak of
Moscow? For the last ten years he had been intending, without
success, to get as far as the little birch grove that lay the other side
of the highway. He had kept on hoping that somehow or other he
would manage to tear himself free for an evening, carry a rug and
samovar with him, sit on the grass in the cool air, in the greenery—
and he simply had not been able to get away. The days flowed past
like water between the fingers, and before one had time to gather
one’s wits together, one’s fiftieth year had knocked at the door, and
that meant the end of everything, and it didn’t seem so very long
ago that one was running about without any breeches, did it? Just as
if it had been yesterday!

XVII

T HE faces gazed out in complete immobility from their shell-work

frames. Here was a scene which had never taken place and could
not take place: In the field, amid the thick-growing rye, lay two
persons—Tikhon Ilitch himself and a young merchant named
Rostovtzeff, holding in their hands glasses exactly half filled with dark
beer. What a close friendship had sprung up between Rostovtzeff and
Tikhon Ilitch! How well he remembered that grey day in Carnival
Week when the picture was taken! But in what year had that
happened? What had become of Rostovtzeff? Perhaps he had died in
Voronezh—and now no one knew for a certainty whether he were
still alive in this world or not. And yonder stood three petty burghers,
drawn up in military style and perfectly wooden, with their hair
parted in the middle and very smooth, dressed in embroidered
Russian shirts opening at the side and long coats, with their boots
well polished—Butchneff, Vystavkin, and Bogomoloff. Vystavkin, the
one in the middle, was holding in front of his breast the bread and
salt of hospitality on a wooden platter, covered with a towel
embroidered with cocks, while Butchneff and Bogomoloff each held a
holy picture. They had been photographed on a dusty, windy day,
when the grain-elevator had been blessed—when the Bishop and the
Governor had come for the ceremony, when Tikhon Ilitch had felt so
proud that he had been one of the crowd appointed to greet the
officials. But what had his memory retained about that day? Merely
this—that they had waited beside the elevator for five hours, on the
new brown rails of the track, that the white dust had been blown in
clouds by the wind, that the railway carriages and the trees were all
covered with dust, that the Governor, a long, lean man, exactly like a
corpse in white trousers with gold stripes, a uniform embroidered in
gold, and a three-cornered hat, walked towards the deputation in a
remarkably deliberate manner—that it was very alarming when he
began to speak as he accepted the bread and salt, that every one
had been surprised at the thinness and whiteness of his hands, and
the skin on them, as delicate and gleaming as the hide stripped from
a snake, the brilliant, polished gold rings and rings with gems on his
dry, slender fingers with their long transparent nails. Now that
Governor was no longer among the living, and Vystavkin was dead,
also. And in another five or ten years people would be saying, in
speaking of Tikhon Ilitch, too: “The late Tikhon Ilitch.”
The room had grown warmer and more cosy, now that the stove had
got to going well; the little mirror had cleared off; but nothing was to
be seen through the windows, which were white with a dull steam,
indicating that the weather had grown colder outside. The insistent
grunting of the hungry pigs made itself more and more audible. And
suddenly the grunt was transmuted into a mighty unanimous roar:
obviously the pigs had heard the voices of the cook and Oska, who
were lugging to them the heavy tub with their mess. And, without
finishing his reflections on death, Tikhon Ilitch flung his cigarette into
the slop-basin, drew on his overcoat, and hurried out to the barn.
With long strides, sinking deep in the sloppy manure, he opened the
door of the sty with his own hands, and for a long time kept his
greedy, melancholy eyes riveted on the pigs, which hurled
themselves on the trough into which the steaming mess had been
poured.
The thought of death had been interrupted by another: “the late,” as
applied to himself, was all right, but possibly this particular dead man
might serve as an example. Who had he been? An orphan, a beggar,
who had often had no bread to eat for a couple of days at a stretch.
But now? “Your biography ought to be written,” Kuzma had said one
day, in jest. But there was no occasion for jesting, if you please. He
must have had a noddle on his shoulders, if the wretched little urchin
who barely knew how to read had turned out not Tishka, but Tikhon
Ilitch: that was what it meant.
But all of a sudden the cook, who had also been staring intently at
the pigs as they jostled one another and got their forefeet into the
trough, hiccoughed and remarked: “Okh, O Lord! I only hope some
calamity won’t happen to us today! Last night I had a dream—I
thought cattle were being driven into our farmyard: sheep, cows, all
sorts of pigs were being driven to us. And they were all black, every
last one of them was black!”
And once more his heart sank within him. Yes, there were those
cattle! The cattle alone were enough to drive a man to hang himself.
Not three hours had elapsed—and again you had to seize your keys,
again drag fodder for the whole farmyard. In the common stall were
three milch cows; in special stalls were the red calf and the bull
Bismarck: now they must be supplied with hay. The horse and sheep
got bran for their dinner, but the stallion—the devil himself couldn’t
tell what that beast wanted! He was completely spoiled. He thrust his
muzzle against the grated top of his door, sniffed at something, and
made grimaces: he curled back his upper lip, bared his rose-coloured
gums and white teeth, distorted his nostrils. And Tikhon Ilitch, in a
rage which surprised even himself, suddenly yelled at him: “You
spoiled pet, curse you, may the lightning strike you!”
Again he had got his feet wet; he had a chill; it began to sleet—and
again he had recourse to the mountain-ash-berry brandy. He ate
some potatoes with sunflower-seed oil, and salted cucumbers, sour
cabbage soup with mushrooms added to it, and wheat groats. His
face got red, his head grew heavy.

XVIII

H E began to feel drowsy, thanks to the vodka, what he had eaten,

and his incoherent thoughts. Without undressing, merely pulling
his muddy boots off by the simple expedient of rubbing one foot
against the other, he threw himself on his bed. But he was disturbed
by the necessity of rising again almost immediately: before night oat-
straw must be given to the horses, the cows, and the sheep, and
also to the stallion—or, no, it would be better to mix it with hay and
moisten and salt it well. Only, if he let himself go he would certainly
fall asleep. Tikhon Ilitch reached out to the chest of drawers, grasped
the alarm-clock, and began to wind it up. And the alarm-clock came
to life and began to tick—and the atmosphere in the chamber
seemed to become more tranquil, more cheerful, under the influence
of its rapid, even ticking. His thoughts began to get confused.
But no sooner had they become drowsily obscure than a rough, loud
sound of ecclesiastical chanting suddenly made itself audible.
Opening his eyes with a start, Tikhon Ilitch at first could make out
only one thing: two peasants were roaring through their noses, and a
gust of cold air mingled with the odour of wet great-coats penetrated
from the ante-room. Then he sprang up, sat on the side of his bed,
and scrutinized the peasants to see what sort of men they were, and
suddenly became conscious that his heart had started beating. One
was blind—a big pock-marked fellow with a small nose, a long upper
lip, and a large round skull—and the second was none other than
Makar Ivanovitch!
Makar Ivanovitch had been known, once on a time, as Makarka—
everybody called him “Makar-the-Pilgrim”—and one day he entered
Tikhon Ilitch’s dram-shop. He was roaming somewhither along the
highway, arrayed in bast-slippers, a pointed skull-cap of ecclesiastical