Home, Botswana Style
September 10, 2013The female Weaver bird in Botswana requires her mate to build the perfect home for her or she will reject it… sometimes dozens of times until she is happy!
The homes of the indigenous San People of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana have similar qualities to those of the Weaver Bird but unlike the birds, the female Sans are the main gatherers of their people and take on most of the task of home-building so are not likely to reject the end result. Simple, beautiful and functional, both human and bird have crafted homes from materials gathered from their environments; vernacular architecture at its best.
The gallery below contains images of a hut that is partially constructed, showing the intricate details, texture and rhythm of the materials used to build the home. Insulating walls are made with horizontal branches sandwiched between a vertical assembly of branches. The structural members of the roof are assembled in a cylindrical pattern to soon hold the thatch still being collected and dried.
— Jill Bosshart