Meaningful spatial and temporal sequences of activities in dwelling

Abstract

Human activities based on human needs are affected by affordances and meanings that occur in the dwelling. Activities over time and space have meaningful sequences. The meaningfulness of activities in the cultural framework is conditioned by its special temporality and spatiality. Also, temporal or spatial sequences are the ways of separation or aggregation of activities in different culture’s dwelling. These separations, aggregations, temporality, spatiality and subsequently sequences of activities are affected by environmental affordances and individual and collective meanings, which is the origin of the formation of the behavioural settings. On the other hand, the sequencing of the human activities is under effect of cultural habitus, so it takes a degree of flexibility and adaptability according to the habitus generating characteristics for necessary adaptation of setting with fixed elements of space. Thus, the sequences of activities in dwelling take certain but flexible and meaningful aspects in the range of space elements. This research provides a conceptual framework for a cultural and cross-cultural study of the nature of activities and settings. For this purpose, the structure of the built environment (including spatial elements, distance and dimensions), the structure of lifestyle (including activities and their temporal and spatial sequence), and finally the structure of meanings (including the meaning of various activities and settings and their sequences, spatial and temporal distances, partitions and territories) had been analyzed. The findings, in addition of provision a theoretical structure for man-environment relation studies and presentation of activities sequences properties, emphasize on the meaningfulness of spatial and temporal sequences of activities in dwelling.