Wednesday, November 10, 2010
The Harappan Style of Living
This week I am studying life in the Indus Valley. The civilization is that of the Harappans. They lived in small houses with blank windowless walls that faced the streets. I personally feel safe with having a fence around my house and a lock on the doors, but no windows seems a bit extreme. I would never want to live in a house no windows. Without windows, I would feel imprisoned. Granted, having windows with bars on them wouldn't be much better. The Harappans seemed to live well with these conditions. They kept themselves safe this way. They may have liked it, but I, nor anyone in my family I think, would ever want to live in a house like theirs'.
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I read an article a few years back that was written by an architect about the use of windows in houses. Old homes traditionally had few windows, and those that did exist were often very small, whereas today houses are usually planned with lots of windows, and lots of big windows. The article claimed this was because not so long ago people spent most of their time outside - laboring in fields to grow, hunt, forage for food. When they went home, they wanted to shut out the big world. Today, we spend most of our time inside, so houses are built with lots of window space to bring in the light and make our homes feel larger and a part of the outdoors. I also imagine that hundreds of years ago people felt a lot more secure in their huts if there were no openings through which predators could come.
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