The Oval House

The place of the oval house in the evolutionary development of folk architecture is of particular interest. Although sporadic in occurrence it has been responsible for one of the principal present-day dwelling types, the hipped-roof. Innocent contends that the round house was the earliest and that the rectangular plan evolved through the intermediate oval stage which was produced by the joining of two circular frameworks. He further postulates that the ridge-pole was devised to connect two such frameworks.I have already indicated elsewhere that simple rectangular plans have been employed at least from the Iron Age and it is apparent that the rectangular gable-ended structure is certainly as primitive as the circular. Some oval houses undoubtedly resulted from the union of two circular frameworks but the motive force behind this development was a desire on the part of peoples accustomed to building circular huts to emulate the rectangular type. Having seen the increased living space afforded by the rectangular plan, these peoples tried to copy it by joining two of their circular frameworks. This was not the only way in which oval houses originated

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• Vernacular Architecture and The Peasant House

  Gwyn I Meirion-Jones•Themes in the historical…•1977

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