A place to call home
Architects attract a great deal of attention for the structure dominating our cities but the buildings that affect people the most are the homes they live in.
Around the world, more often than not, such structures are built by those who live in them - whether owner-occupiers or community dwellings. This architecture of ordinary people represents more than 90 per cent of the world's buildings, including some 800million homes.
If we take a snapshot of a picturesque village in the Atlas Mountains, a farmhouse in Japan, or a tent on the Mongolian steppes, we are capturing an image built up by ordinary people in response to their culture and environment - often with centuries of history behind them.
Paul Oliver's new book looks at these dwellings throughout the world - a study both of houses and the communities who built them.
Dwellings by Paul Oliver, £35 Phaidon 2002 www.phaidon.com Readers of Metro can buy Dwellings at a special discount price of £29.95 (free P&P in the UK) by ringing 020 7843 1234 and quoting MDW001. Offer open until April 30.
