A house can be characterized as a structure used as a residence. Early humans, being nomadic, sought refuge in caves and made tents out of animal skins when they needed shelter. Only with the development of agriculture did people stay in one place long enough to want to build permanent dwellings. Houses have assumed a great variety of forms and styles over the ages, reflecting their changing functions as well as differences in culture, climate, available building materials, and technology. DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE Early Forms and Materials The earliest houses were circular in form, perhaps a legacy of cave shelters. The first known example of a permanent settlement is the village of Zawi Chenui (c.9000 BC) on the Turkish-Iranian border. It consisted of houses made from mud and reeds, with conical roofs and circular stone bases (see \TMesopotamian art and architecture\t). The first known use of a rectangular house plan occurred around 7000 BC near Jericho in the Jordan valley. Rectangular structures have remained dominant in Western domestic architecture to the present. A major innovation in the history of house form was the development of the interior courtyard by the Sumerians in the 4th millennium BC. The outer walls of courtyard houses, constructed of mud brick, were left bare; the interior of the enclosure contained a square courtyard. The use of a courtyard indicates that the house was now thought of as a place of privacy as well as of shelter. With the emergence of cities, new forms of dwellings were developed to house populations of greater density. At UR in Mesopotamia, during the Isin-Larsa period (2025-1763 BC), domestic architecture became increasingly sophisticated, and two-story town houses with wooden balconies, a paved central court, and staircases were built of mud brick. These houses were well suited to urban demands; the same type of house is still found in Baghdad and other Middle Eastern cities. Bricks of baked mud were used for the first time around 8000 BC at Jericho to build houses; they had domed roofs of wattle and daub, stone foundations, and door openings--features that suggest a desire to build permanent settlements. Baked bricks were widely used in Mesopotamia and were curved on one long side and straight on all the others. They facilitated the development of new forms of domestic architecture because they allowed builders greater flexibility in choosing the shape and dimensions of their structures. Tall, strong reeds, gathered from river marshes, were also used to build houses in Mesopotamia. The strength and flexibility of the reed led to several important structural discoveries: the \Tcolumn\t, the building frame, the arch, and the vault (see \Tarch and vault\t). The reeds were tied together to form vertical bundles, which were inserted into the ground. The tops of the reeds were then bent inward to form an arch. The outside reed walls were reinforced with mud and plaster. Greek and Roman Domestic Architecture Basic to the development of domestic architecture was the megaron house, which first appeared in northern Mesopotamia around 1800 BC. This type consisted of a rectangular main room--the megaron--with a hearth and four columns to support the roof, and an entrance porch with two wooden posts. Greek homes in the Homeric era were influenced by the megaron type, and the Mycenaean Greeks (see \TAegean civilization\t) used it as the basic unit of their architecture. The megaron house included several fundamentals of construction: posts, lintel beams (see \Tpost and lintel\t), and the frame. The primitive porch of the megaron house was the prototype of the open-column portico of the classical Greek \Ttemple\t; in fact, the Greeks developed their temples from this form of domestic architecture (see \TGreek architecture\t). During the classical period (5th and 4th centuries BC) the Greeks replaced the megaron type with the courtyard plan, although the megaron house continued to be used in Greek Anatolia. The rooms of Greek houses in the classical period were asymmetrically grouped around three sides of a court, with a long central porch--the pastas--across the width of the building on the north of the court. In houses on Delos, for example, the principal room facing the court was the dining room; its mosaic floor was not only decorative but easy to clean. Many Delian houses had two stories, and separate kitchens replaced the hearth, as in the so-called Maison de la Colline (2d century BC). The interiors of these classical houses were very simple, as were Greek furnishings (see \Tfurniture\t) and utensils. The Greeks added private gardens and gateways to their houses, indicating a desire to articulate the relationship between the interior of the house and the world outside. In contrast to the irregularity of Greek domestic architecture, Roman houses were symmetrical and organized along a single central axis. From the front door of a Roman town house, or domus, the porch, the \Tatrium\t (central court), the tablinum (the main living room), and the garden peristyle (or colonnade) in back were visible. The rectangular opening in the atrium roof, known as the compluvium, let in rain as well as light; its corresponding basin in the floor was called the impluvium, and both had evolved from the cooking hearth. The houses of wealthy Romans had separate kitchens and baths. The best-known ancient houses are those at \TPompeii\t, first excavated in 1748, and \THerculaneum\t, rediscovered in 1709. Surrounded by bare outer walls, these houses were built with atriums and a peristyle surrounding the interior gardens, reflecting the influence of earlier Greek and Roman styles. Although in Pompeii most businesses were conducted in the house, a few wealthy men sought a residential refuge from the pressures of urban life (see \TMysteries, Villa of the\t). They built separate houses away from their places of business, thereby establishing a pattern that has continued to the present time. The Romans also built country villas, often extremely elaborate and of enormous size, such as Emperor Maximian's villa (early 4th century) at \TPiazza Armerina\t, Sicily. Maximian's villa, however, is in fact a PALACE, a monumental version of a house, but serving other functions as well. In the large cities of the empire, by contrast, the Romans built multistory apartment buildings, or insulae. In Rome the tallest insulae were first limited to five stories (20.73 m/68 ft) by Emperor Augustus and later to 17.68 m (58 ft) by Emperor Trajan. These tenements anticipated modern versions in practically every respect. The design was bare, repetitive, and uniform throughout. Unlike today's apartment building, however, the Roman apartments were simply a means of accommodating the maximum number of people in a minimum amount of space; they had no kitchens, bathrooms, lavatories, or chimneys. The occupants used the numerous public baths and latrines, carried water from wells and fountains, and cooked on braziers. English Domestic Architecture Many forms of houses developed in Great Britain, which will serve herein as exemplars for the evolution of European domestic architecture. The \Tcastle\t, an elaborate form of fortified residence, is discussed elsewhere in the encyclopedia, as is the \Tchateau\t, the French version of a castle. In the Bronze Age, people at Skara Brae on the Orkney Islands lived in one-room stone houses with a central hearth; the houses were connected by passageways and used a variety of furnishings made of stone. The long house, which was common in the Iron Age throughout Europe, consisted of a living room with a central hearth and a stable or byre for domestic animals. During the Dark Ages round huts made of wood or stacked stones without mortar were also common. The only surviving Anglo-Saxon structures are ecclesiastical stone buildings (see \TEnglish art and architecture\t). After 1066 the Normans brought to England a type of stone house known as a keep (see \TNorman architecture\t). The high walls and small, narrow windows of the stone keep made it easier to keep out enemies and enabled its inhabitants to devote more time to domestic life. The keep, which had bedrooms, fireplaces, primitive lavatories, and a stable for animals, was organized on several floors around a large central hall. The White Tower (c.1086-97) within the \TTower of London\t is an example of an elaborate hall-keep. In the early Middle Ages the hall house, consisting of a single large room divided into naves and aisles by timber columns and with an interior hearth, was the common dwelling of landowners. At the end of the Middle Ages the medieval hall house, along with the cruck-built house--employing large curved timbers instead of posts and rafters--and the Norman two-story stone house, was to serve as one of the major contributors to the development of the English rectangular house. The Tudor or Elizabethan house developed from the medieval hall house and the two-story Norman house during the 16th century. Built with a timber frame, which was filled in with wattling and clay daub that were in turn coated with plaster, the Tudor house reflected the innovations in timber construction that took place during the 15th century. The basic plan of the Tudor house was H-shaped, with a kitchen, pantry, and servants' quarters on one side and family bedrooms and parlor on the other. In the middle was a large hall that served as a common room. The peace that followed the Wars of the Roses (1455-85) enabled builders to make more extensive use of glass windows. Hardwick Hall (1590-97), Derbyshire, England, is an outstanding example of a building in which almost all of the walls have been filled with huge windows. The Tudor house and its 17th-century successor, the Stuart house, were both essentially rural types and were displaced in the 18th century by the Georgian house, a type more suited to urban conditions (see \TGeorgian style\t). A cubic plan supplanted the medieval H-plan, and less emphasis was placed on the central hall. The Georgian house had its origins in the work of the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea \TPalladio\t. Palladio's houses are usually symmetrical in design, as in the cubic-cross plan of his VILLA ROTUNDA (Villa Capra; begun 1552), Vincenza, Italy. It has entrances and porticos on all four sides that clearly integrate the interior of the house with the exterior. Most important is the human scale of the house, which, although grand, does not overwhelm the observer. The Italian Renaissance style of house design reached England largely through the research and designs of the English architect Inigo \TJones\t, whose work led to the creation of the English Palladian style. Jones designed several major houses--for example, the Queen's House (1616-40), Greenwich; the Banqueting House (see \TWhitehall Palace\t) at Whitehall (1619-22), London; and Wilton House (1640), Wiltshire--whose forms, based on the cube, create a harmony between the building and its setting. The unified, orderly design of Jones's large houses lent itself to the design of later, small urban houses. As the population increased and building costs rose in the 18th century, more economical styles of housing were sought. New laws applied structural standards to houses and caused modifications of their exterior designs. This created such unified urban settings as Bedford Square (begun 1774) in London, where the frames of the windows and doors were reduced, simplified, and standardized. Houses were no longer necessarily designed as individual units; instead, whole city blocks were designed as a unit, such as the Circus (1754) at Bath, Somerset, by John Wood, Sr. (see \TWood\t family). Eighteenth-century Georgian town houses had narrow frontages, high ceilings, and simple facades. The individual character of each house was established by the wrought-iron railings, the terrace, the door, the windows, and the cornice. The gardens were completely hidden from the street by the uninterrupted row of almost identical houses. This established an urban pattern that soon spread throughout Europe and the Americas. American Domestic Architecture The European colonists brought to the New World the artistic traditions of their native lands. Thus, in North America, the Dutch, English, and French colonists of the 17th and 18th centuries built houses in European and English styles, adapted to the available materials and the climate of their areas (see \Tcolonial styles in North America\t). In Virginia, for example, brick was favored, and such surviving buildings as the Adam Thoroughgood House (1636-40), Princess Anne County, Va., with steep-pitched roofs and massive chimneys, have an unmistakable English Jacobean look. In New England, where stone and wood were abundant, the English colonists built half-timber frame houses, usually with stone foundations and chimneys, and sheathed with clapboard, such as the "stone-ender" Elezear Arnold House (1687), Lincoln, R.I., with its wide stone chimney forming one end of the house. Similarly, the Dutch settlers in New Jersey and New York built variants of stone and frame houses, with peak roofs and curved, overhanging eaves, such as the wooden Pieter Wyckoff House (c.1639-41), Brooklyn, N.Y., and the stone and wood Abraham Ackerman House (1704), Hackensack, N.J. In the 18th century the Georgian style predominated as the English assumed dominance in the colonies. A Book of Architecture (1728) by the English architect James \TGibbs\t and other similar volumes were strongly influential in the colonies and led to a neo-Palladian revival in the decade preceding the American Revolution. Typical of this period is the Miles Brewton House (c.1765-69), Charleston, S.C., one of the numerous prerevolutionary houses preserved in that wealthy port city. \Tneoclassicism\t became the dominant artistic influence in the new United States, in particular through the efforts of Thomas Jefferson, Charles \TBulfinch\t, and the British expatriate Benjamin \TLatrobe\t. They saw Roman architecture as the paradigm for both public and domestic buildings of the new republic. The resultant \Tfederal style\t, dominant from 1785 to 1810, is exemplified by Jefferson's \TMonticello\t (1770-1809) near Charlottesville, Va., Bulfinch's third Harrison Gray Otis House (1806) in Boston, and Latrobe's Stephen Decatur House (1818) in Washington, D.C. The \TGreek Revival\t was the first of numerous historical revivals to succeed the federal style. It was enormously popular for buildings of every type and in domestic architecture found its most opulent expression in the huge pillared mansions of the antebellum South, such as Berry Hill (1835-40), Halifax County, Va., designed by its owner, James Coles Bruce. Latrobe's pupils Robert \TMills\t and William \TStrickland\t produced numerous Greek Revival houses in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. In New England, Ithiel \TTown\t created many splendid Greek Revival mansions, including his own house (c.1832) in New Haven, Conn. Overlapping the Greek Revival style was the \TGothic Revival\t, engendered by the romantic movement (see \Tromanticism\t, art) in Europe and the United States. Executed for the most part in wood and stucco, houses in the Gothic style became extremely popular through the publication of Andrew Jackson \TDowning\t's Cottage Residences (1842) and The Architecture of Country Houses (1850), two of many house pattern-books extolling domestic buildings in Gothic, Italian Villa, and Romanesque styles. Downing's most significant contribution was the creation of the American cottage, a freestanding frame house that could be palatial or modest, depending on the client's means. They could be freely adapted from Downing's simple and well-organized plans and elevations by any competent carpenter; indeed, the style of these cottages is sometimes known as "carpenter Gothic." The enormous growth of the United States between the Civil War and World War I led to increasing demands for inexpensive and simple houses in a bewildering array of eclectic styles. The balloon frame, an American invention employing relatively small and light wood members nailed together, allowed houses to be constructed rapidly and in any style. The open plans and practical features of houses in the so-called Stick and Shingle styles, more or less inspired by the English \TQueen Anne style\t, made them extremely popular. The greatest exponents of the Shingle style were Henry Hobson \TRichardson\t--whose William Watts Sherman House (1874-76) in Newport, R.I., is a grandiose example--and the firm of \TMcKim, Mead, and White\t, creators of the stunningly simple William Low House (1887) in Bristol, R.I. The direct descendants of the Shingle style were the prairie houses (see \Tprairie school\t) created by Frank Lloyd \TWright\t at the turn of the century in Chicago. Breaking open the domestic "box," Wright combined cruciform plans with free-flowing space between areas and strong horizontal emphasis in sweeping terraces and low, overhanging roofs, as in his early masterpiece, \TRobie House\t (1909), Chicago. In California, Bernard \TMaybeck\t and the firm of \TGreene and Greene\t created residences of superlative quality that were luxurious variants of the California bungalow, such as Greene and Greene's handcrafted David B. Gamble House (1909) in Pasadena. The revolutionary designs of these architects, largely ignored by the American public, were hailed by European architects, in particular by the avant-garde architects of Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands who were the precursors of the \TInternational Style\t in architecture. Between 1920 and 1940 domestic architecture in the United States slowly but inexorably changed, due in most part to gradual modernization and standardization of technical systems (plumbing, heating, electricity) and the development of new materials (glass, metals, plastics, and wood products). Public preference for eclectic style in house design clothed these innovations in conventional shells. European catastrophes drove many great architects to America, where their presence was soon felt. The expatriates Ludwig MIES VAN DE ROHE and Walter \TGropius\t, both former members of the \TBauhaus\t group in Germany, exerted enormous influence on American architects. The ubiquitous glass box, whether for apartment house, factory, motel, or office, dominated American building after World War II. The population explosion once again forced changes in building methods, resulting in the slab house, the split-level house, and the ranch house. They proliferated in gigantic housing tracts that spread for miles around every American city, engulfing any small towns in their path. The resultant houses, for the most part undistinguished and often indistinguishable from one another, did offer comfort and convenience of a standardized type (see \Thousing\t). The decimated cities, at first decaying alarmingly, have in many instances begun to offer viable alternatives to the faceless suburban tract. \Turban planning\t at its best offers both new housing and recycled older buildings, such as the \Tbrownstone\t. Still in the future is economically viable prefabricated housing, although its possibilities were brilliantly demonstrated in Moshe \TSafdie\t's innovative Habitat (1967) for Montreal's EXPO '67. The architects who represent \Tpostmodern architecture\t, many of whom have created startling private houses, may also develop houses within the traditions of their great predecessors. \TValentin\t TATRANSKY CONTEMPORARY HOUSE CONSTRUCTION In terms of its basic construction, a contemporary house is composed of a \Tfoundation\t; the framing, or superstructure; an exterior skin; interior finishes; \Telectrical wiring\t; \Theating systems\t; and \Tplumbing\t. The Foundation The base of the foundation, the footing, must be sunk below the frost line--the depth to which the ground freezes--to insure that it will not be moved by prolonged frost. The foundation walls are usually made of poured concrete or concrete block, and waterproofed below ground level. If the surrounding soil is poorly drained, drainage tile is used to divert underground water away from the foundation. Anchor bolts are set into the top of the foundation wall and are used to anchor the wooden house frame to the foundation. Framing In a conventional frame house, the frame--the skeleton that supports all the major elements of the house--is almost always of wood, usually of relatively small dimensions: 2 by 4 in., 2 by 8 in., or 2 by 12 in. in various lengths. The frame is fastened to the foundation walls by the anchor bolts; door and window frames, siding, roof covering, and flooring are fastened to the frame. Although framing nomenclature varies widely in different areas, it includes several universal terms for those framing members which are present in almost every house. The sill plate is the wood plank that is anchored directly to the foundation wall and supports the exterior house wall. The roof plate anchors the roof rafters to the house frame. Posts or corner studs are the main vertical supports of the frame. Studs are smaller vertical members and provide support for exterior siding and interior paneling or wallboard. Braces are diagonal members used to brace the studs. Girders, or beams--often of steel--are horizontal members that carry the weight of the house. Joists support the weight of the floor and ceiling. Girts and plates are horizontal ties holding the frame together at the second floor level and on top of the studs at roof level. Headers are members placed over a door or window opening. They are used to support the ends of studs that have been cut off to make the opening. Rafters provide support for the roofing material. Framing practices differ according to the type of house being built. Conventional eastern, or braced, framing is the oldest framing type and is characterized by the use of solid corner posts and studs that run the full height of the house from foundation to roof. In western, or platform, framing, each floor level acts as a platform for the posts and studs above it. Balloon-frame construction uses continuous foundation-to-roof studs; unlike eastern framing, however, it may not use diagonal stud braces but will rely for its lateral strength solely on its exterior sheathing. All three systems introduce short bracings, called fire-stops, that block the fluelike spaces between studs. Floor framing consists of joists strengthened by short stiffening members, or bridging. Rough flooring, or subflooring, may be plywood or rough boards laid diagonally over the joists; the actual, or finish, floor--wood, vinyl, or tile--is then laid over this substructure. Roof framing differs according to the shape of the roof (see \Troof and roofing\t). The most common shape is the gable, or pitch, roof, which is a simple triangular section: the two sloping sides meet at the center, or ridge. Most roof shapes are variations of the gable. Roof frames consist of rafters that form the support for the roof covering. They are attached to the roof plate and slant upward to meet the ridge board. They may be reinforced by interior braces. (Preassembled wood \Ltruss\les, which are complete rafter units, are now widely used in roof framing.) Plywood sheathing is nailed over the rafters, followed by air-resistant and moisture-resistant roofing paper and the exterior roofing material--usually asphalt shingle or slate. Finishing Interior walls, or partitions, are made up of studs covered with panels of sheet rock, or dry wall. (The older wet wall construction--plaster laid over thin strips of wood called lath--was slow and expensive and for the most part is no longer used.) The hollow space left within the wall will contain some of the plumbing, electrical wiring, and ductwork for certain types of heating and \Tair-conditioning\t systems. Other parts of these systems will be run through the exterior walls, the floors, and the ceilings. Finish flooring and ceilings are now put in place. Interior trim such as doors, stairs, baseboards, and moldings is installed, along with finish plumbing and electric units: fixtures, switches, radiators, sinks, tubs, and so on. Prior to exterior finishing, \Tinsulating materials\t are placed over or between the studs. Exterior plywood sheathing is then nailed over the studs, followed by building paper and the exterior finish material--wood shingle or siding, plaster or stucco, or masonry veneer. Don Ballou Bibliography: Ball, V. K., Architecture and Interior Design: Europe and America from the Colonial Era to Today, 2 vols. (1980); Barley, M. W., The House and Home (1971); Benson, T., and Gruber, J., Building the Timber Frame House (1980); Cantacuzino, Sherban, European Domestic Architecture (1969); Clark, C. E., The American Family Home, 1800-1960 (1986); Gardiner, Stephen, Evolution of the House (1974; repr. 1980); Harrison, Henry S., Houses (1973); Hoag, Edwin, American Houses (1964); Kennedy, Robert W., The House and the Art of Its Design (1953; repr. 1975); Kimball, Fiske, Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the Early Republic (1922); Lathrop, Elise, Historic Houses of Early America (1927); Lewis, A., American Country Houses of the Gilded Age (1983); McAlester, V. and L., A Field Guide to American Houses (1984); Oliver, P., Dwellings: The House across the World (1987); Penoyre, J. and J., Houses in the Landscape (1984); Quiney, A., House and Home: A History of the Small English House (1986); Rapoport, Amos, House Form and Culture (1969); Rybcznski, W., Home (1986); Taylor, L., ed., Housing (1990); Waterman, T. T., The Dwellings of Colonial America (1950).